Hirschman's Theory Of Concussions

Almost all of America has seen or heard of the popular sport football. Football’s main objective is to get the ball across to the opponent's goal. As a way to protect the opposing team from scoring, the players can tackle members of the opposing team. As a result of tackling an opponent, it can lead to concussions which can be detrimental. Concussions consist of forceful collisions against the head and can lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy or C.T.E, a degenerative brain disease. As a result of this danger, the National Football League (N.F.L.), established the Head, Neck, and Spine Committee to help diagnose, prevent, and treat players with sports related injuries. However, the committee has accomplished very little since the N.F.L established
In this case, Hirschman’s theory could be applied because the job represents the need to prevent the concussion crisis from continuing, and the people continue to voice to change the direction in which the committee handles the crisis. While many people may disagree, it is time to question the failing value system of the league’s Head, Neck, and Spine Committee because they have not been following their original intentions, then the concussion crisis continues and the committee tries to influence the research on concussions; if the community doesn’t speak up on these issues, football players will continue to become detrimentally affected by
They believe that the Head, Neck, and Spine Committee remain an essential part of the league and that they are doing their job of diagnosing, preventing, and treating the N.F.L’s football players by passing certain laws and protocols. The New York Times acknowledged one protocol in particular. They acknowledged that Mr. Miller from the N.F.L, managed to enact the league’s “concussion protocol”. In the article, Mr. Miller described the protocol, “directs how teams handle injured players and later clear their return to action” (Schwarz). This protocol represents a positive sign of the committee and that they are trying to do some good to help insure the safety of their players after receiving an injury. By clearing the players return to action, it helps ensure that the player has fully recovered from the injury. However, 33% of high school athletes who sustain a sports concussion report two or more in the same year (Sports). This means that even though the committee passed the “concussion protocol”, the players are still receiving concussions more often than they should if they used the protocol. It also shows that not only do the players receive one concussion, but two in the same year. Despite placing the protocol into action, many football players continue playing even though they sustained a