After contacting Bobak Abdolmohammadi, research assistant at the Boston University CTE Center, of the brain samples donated to the center, around eighty percent are of former football players. His opinion echoes, based upon the findings at BU, that it is the cumulative exposure to repetitive head impacts that is most likely the main explanation behind CTE. He believes it is clear that something must be done to help solve this issue at the basic foundational level. In conclusion,the injury rate in the sport of football in relation to a child/adolescent’s vulnerability to physical injury creates a very precarious situation for a child participating in tackle football. With a high risk of physical injury for a child and the injury rate of football, those constant injuries can develop into overuse injuries like concussions.…
According to Ken Belson of The New York Times (2014) one in three NFL players is affected by brain trauma. The New York Times has also stated that NFL players are eight times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s or dementia than the general population. The NFL has come across a rise in concussions over the past decade. Over the past three seasons there have been over 690 recorded concussions throughout the league. Not only are current players being affected, but so are retired players. 87 of 91 deceased NFL players were found to have Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, after years of concussions and hits to the head during their NFL careers. CTE is a brain disease with symptoms of memory loss, aggression, confusion,…
September 28, 2002. No this isn’t the day that Title IX came into play, or the day that Roger Bannister ran a four-minute mile, or the day that LeBron James decided he would leave the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat. This is the day that we would see an NFL legend, Mike Webster, laying on an autopsy table at the Allegheny County coroner’s office in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The significance of this day? After this day, the world of football would be turned upside down. Webster died of heart failure, but there was more to it than what met the eye. Webster was the first confirmed case of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is defined by the Brain Injury Research Institute as, “a degenerative brain disease most commonly found in those who have suffered multiple concussions or mild traumatic brain injuries (Omalu What is CTE?).” In this essay, I will explore CTE and what the NFL has-or rather has not-done to help its players in order to determine if football does cause CTE. Under the microscope, you can see CTE as a “buildup of tau, a…
You might think football is really fun, but there can be consequences that may never go away. It might surprise you how bad these injuries can affect you but it will help you have more knowledge about them. Younger kids shouldn’t play football because they can get concussions which can cause brain damage and memory loss.…
The movie concussion was the first time of the correlation between concussions and football. As I read Nationwide Children’s article, “Concussion in sports”, allowed me to increase my knowledge. Throughout the article, the author categorized what is a concussion and how it affects players. During reading, I found that concussions are a serious issue in sports, because it can cause severe brain damage to an athlete. This is concerning because the brains is one of the most important parts of a person’s body and if effected it could change a person life forever. Furthermore, I found it upsetting that the NFL does not make the risk of playing football known. Although, I understand the NFL provides minorities with opportunities to become successful.…
Last year, the NFL revealed that it expects nearly a third of retired players to develop permanent brain impairments.” While other games may be dangerous in some aspects football is known for specifically the concussions it causes.We need to take this seriously because many kids are eager to get back and play again even after having gotten a concussion, so they can help their team. However they don’t realize that the injuries sustained when playing football can later lead to long term issues. Also ⅓ of the retired NFL players having to develop permanent brain impairments is a lot of people.Just think of all the football players in the NFL you knew, almost 33% of them needed to get impairments simply so tehri brain can actually work fine and they can live. Imagine having to live a life where you everyday you wake up to possibly find your head throbbing or suddenly getting disoriented. All because of football. Is it really worth it?In the video "Concussion Hazards in Youth Football" (Dr. Drew interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta,HLN/CNN) two men discuss the effects concussions have on the brain and explain, “Their brains are developing…
On March 15, 2016 the National Football League became aware of a link between playing football and the brain disease known as CTE. Jeff Miller, the National Football League’s senior vice president for health and safety, told the House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce that head trauma caused by football can trigger brain disease. The scientists know that CTE is the result from head trauma, but there is so much about it they do not know yet. (Breslow)…
Did you know that “More than 50% of Americans don’t want their sons to play football” (2)? Well it’s true because hard hits can result in concussions which can cause life-time negative health effects. Concussions occur when the brain receives a hard hit and it the brain shakes in the skull. While the government and school districts have already required safer techniques, companies should create safer equipment and coaches should enforce safer tackling techniques because otherwise, hard tackles can culminate in committing suicide, can cause CTE, can cause constant headaches, and injuries can result in memory loss.…
I. Introduction A. Attention Grabber: Imagine your kid sitting in a doctors room crying cause he hit his head so hard he got a concussion. B. Background Information 1. History of the Issue: since so many younger kids start to play sports there are a lot of concussions happening to young children today. When you get a lot of concussions as a child you can grow up with permanent disabilities. Players in the NFL committed suicide because of concussions.…
The NFL Playoffs, Steelers, Bengals. The running back Giovani Bernard receives the ball and looks up field, and finds himself staring at a linebacker Ryan Shazier. Shazier explodes onto him and knocks Bernard out cold. These jarring hits are common in the NFL, but most people don’t understand the consequences of them. Later on in life, football players that received head trauma experienced side effects later on, like CTE. CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a neurodegenerative disease that can cause aggression, depression, disorientation, and lead to suicide. But it can only be diagnosed after death. We need to learn more about concussions in football, and how they relate to CTE, to help save people’s…
The NFL has continued to remain under fire, in the recent years especially, with problems regarding concussions. In July 2009, researchers published findings that suggested a causal link between head injuries sustained while playing football and a degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy otherwise known as CTE (“NFL Head Injuries”). CTE, a progressive degenerative disease of the brain, causes the brain to increasingly deteriorate over time. CTE has led to multiple counts of player suicides and other symptoms after retiring from the NFL such as: memory loss, dementia, and depression. When the brains of multiple retired NFL players were examined,…
Although football is a fun sport, and it is fun to watch, but sometimes it causes concussions that are career ending for some players.“my life will never be the same.” says Bryce Monti a former…
When a player has any type of injury(broken arm, sprained ankle, and most commonly a concussion), doctors and pediatricians alike generally tell a kid, “You’ll be fine,” or “You can go back to playing tomorrow.” Now of course they won’t send you a kid out that quickly with a sprained or a broken limb, but more often than not, doctors will let players go back out onto the football field when they think the player has a very mild concussion. This is where the brain disease CTE comes in. Doctors and pediatricians, judging from a statistical standpoint, do not do a thorough job of looking over a players brain. Now, medics don’t have x-ray vision to see what happened, but they generally don’t see the actual problems going on on the field. They might think that the player has only “normal” symptoms, and this is the reason doctors let kids go back to playing football pre-maturely. This is why medical researchers have called high school football a “high risk contact sport.” Unhealthy practices follow when the coaches are pressing their players to try their hardest to basically “crush” or “kill” their opponent. Team physicians are no better, and they are the ones who say they are “taking care of….” the kids on the field. Two kids from the states of Ohio and Texas have died because of premature playing(3).…
Football has a lot of health risks. My mom says that if I get three concussions that I can't play anymore but football injuries aren't just concussions . Broken backs or Brocken necks could be a result in being paralyzed and they may never be able to walk again , Health injuries occur during practice and games . Common injuries include strains, sprains, fractures, dislocations, and concussions . Concussions have become a concern, as they increase the risk of mental illnesses like dementia. In many cases football injuries have long term effect and almost never go away .…
Imagine that feeling when all your friends are playing football, but your parents do not let you because they are afraid of concussions. You would feel left out, right? In an ESPN survey, two thirds of the parents said they were afraid of concussions and think it is a big issue (Lavigne, 2012). Football is an awesome experience for kids on and off the field, so, why take that away from them? Parents should let their kids play football with the risk of concussions because new helmets meet the safety standards, concussions are easily treated, and football will benefit health.…