Preview

National Football League

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
981 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
National Football League
Codey Larsen

The National Football League has a bigger problem on their hands that go beyond the gridiron. Concussions in football leads to greater health risks later in life, because of the trauma that is put towards the head area which leads to more serious head injuries. According to Simon Flynn, Andre Waters, who was a former player in the National Football League, and who died at age of only forty-four had a brain of an eighty-five-year-old. If more preventions were in place in football then Water's’ chance of having an unhealthy brain at a young age would have been lower. The NFL (National Football League) has a bigger issue to worry about rather than who wins or loses on the field, but because of concussions and all the health issues with some former players. Now, the National Football League has a problem bigger than what is on the field, they have to deal with off the field issues.
What is a
…show more content…
A Concussion can be caused either by a blow to the cranial region or by violent shaking movement that causes the brain to shift within the skull. Symptoms associated with concussion differ between individuals and according to the severity of the injury (Issitt). The NFL is the most scrutinized league when it comes to concussions, and football is the sport most put under the microscope because of concussions. According to Maryann Hudson, concussion rates are highest in football and boys' ice hockey, but at the same time it is much lower in girls' and boys' basketball, in just high school sports. More steps should be taken to decrease concussions in football and in ice hockey, to make both of the those events safer. According to Issitt, 13 percent of concussions are being suffered by high school athlete, while 20 percent of concussions reoccur, which means that they sometimes happen again. Almost four thousand players sued the NFL because of brain injuries, and in March of 2013, the NFL announced they

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Frontline’s League of Denial explains how the glorification of violence plays a role in head injuries in the NFL. The National Football League’s chronic brain injury rates are increasing very quickly, causing the league to increase protocol to provide better protection for the players. It is hard to find a football player today whose body hasn’t paid a very high price; the love of the game may be destroying the brains of NFL players.…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Daniel Flynn’s essay “Football Does a Body Good,” he states his point of view on football and the way we should see it (Flynn). Football is not just an “ego bruiser” it is a dangerous sport that has cause many head injuries and other problems throughout the years. This sport has caused many players to have later on diseases such as CTE, Alzheimer's, Dementia,and many other things due to head trauma. Multiple head injuries has both severe short and long-term effects that have become a major problem in the NFL. Football has become careless, dangerous, and unsafe for those who play the sport.…

    • 211 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    TouchdownTouchups

    • 1417 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Despite innumerable measures from the NFL to increase safety guidelines for the game, concussions remain the most prevalent and, often times, the most fatal injury of NFL players. Take, for instance, Mike “Iron Mike” Webster, who plays center for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs, who died of a heart attack at the age of fifty. After numerous post-mortem autopsies, doctors concluded that Webster had suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease. His doctors estimated the damage to his brain was equivalent to 25,000 automobile crashes. According to neuropsychologist at Boston University Robert Stern, “In football, one has to expect that almost every play of every game and every practice, they’re going to be hitting their heads against each other. That’s the nature of the game.” Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is the most common disease found in NFL players. In fact, a study by the Boston University School of Medicine shows that, out of every thirty-four deceased NFL players, thirty-three were victims of CTE. However, this…

    • 1417 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    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,…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The National Football League has become the most exciting and thrilling sports league to watch in the last few decades. Most recently players have become much faster and bigger than in the past and the safety of their lives have become a risk. Recently the NFL has been subjected to a large amount of controversy and criticism dealing with how they have handled player safety. This issue has come to the forefront because concussions have become a weekly occurrence. In the last few years it has been studied then proven by doctors that former players have suffered traumatic brain injuries from hits to the head during their NFL careers. As a fan of the NFL, I believe it’s best for the game that the NFL makes some change so…

    • 1487 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    NFL Dress Code Rules

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Pro football is like nuclear warfare. There are no winners, only survivors.” -Frank Gifford. Football is a full contact sport, so it is not supposed to be safe, and no one ever expected it to be safe. Recently the effects of countless head injuries endured by players many years ago had just started to surface. The NFL has started to attempt to make professional football as safe as they possibly can without ruining the game. The majority of the rules the NFL has in place are necessary when it comes to how the game is played and maintaining the safest environment on the football field for the players, however some of the other rules being added to the rulebook are arguably unnecessary and truthfully ridiculous. Players are more often than not…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Concussions cause the dangerous disease CTE that has already claimed the lives of many athletes in the NFL and in other sports. We are doing research on CTE but a lot more needs to be done. If the NFL is going to be safer they need to relinquish all of their information and research on player brain injuries. Some good things are being done to rule changes to make the game safer, but it is still not enough. There is a fine line however between changing rules and changing the game, which the NFL will have to navigate carefully. One of the better answers to these brain injuries is to improve the helmet protecting the head. Many developers have made ingenious new ideas to combat the concussion epidemic in football. It is up to the NFL to adopt the new innovations to the football helmet to drastically improve player safety. A person’s brain is the most important part of the body. It just makes sense to want to protect it as much as possible. As the public becomes more aware of the dangers football has on a player’s brain people may reconsider playing football. If the NFL is going to have a future, they must make their game safer. If people see less players effected by concussions on TV public perception of football will improve. Something clearly needs to be done to combat these serious health problems facing current and past NFL…

    • 3109 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The problems that we are having now in football at this time is the head injuries that are arising we feel that football is an amazing but at the same time dangerous sport .The reason we feel that football is a dangers sport is because to many young men are seriously affected by this sport. For example “up-and-coming professional football player Chris Borland, of the San Francisco 49ers, is now leaving the sport out of concern that a career in football would increase his risk of brain disease”. The brain disease that some football players are contracting is affecting them to the point was we had a case when a football player committed suicide. This is a very serious topic, we as lovers of…

    • 231 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    concussions in NFL

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, has been under a lot of scrutiny for the past couple years for his attempts to change the rules to decrease and pretty much get rid of violent hits to the head and neck to protect the players. These rules are under scrutiny because there are many people that are saying these rules are making the game of football a “soft game” and ruining it in a sense. Football has been a game that since its beginnings has always praised and celebrated toughness and violent hits. Now these rules are making it frowned upon. These rule changes drastically started popping up before the 2010 season. There are a couple big events that have pulled concussions to the forefront of concern in football. One of the biggest ones is the Concussion lawsuit that was brought against the NFL by4,500 members of former players families and even former players themselves. The lawsuit was just settled last Thursday that will cost the NFL $765 million. Much of that money is going to players and families to compensate for all the medical treatments. Also some of it will be going to baseline testing for retired players, and $10 million will fund research and education for concussions. Another big event that has been occurring over roughly the past 10 years has been many ex NFL players such as Dave Duerson, a former Chicago Bear, who shot himself in the chest after struggling from “chronic headaches, blurred vision and memory loss.” Before he died, he left messages to his family requesting that his brain be donated to a lab where it would be studied. He was only 50 years old. There are many like this including Andre Waters, 44, and Shane Dronett, 38, who both also committed suicide in the past six years. All 3 men were diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which you get in part from multiple hits to the head. The NFL players are not the only ones that are being affected by CTE. Doctors found the CTE in 21 year old…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Head injuries are taking a very big toll on those that have long since left the game. The game of football is exciting and most everyone watches on Sundays to see who wins and who loses. Football players are sustaining head injuries in every game and they’re being allowed to return to the field before the injury has a chance to heal. This causes more problems down the road. Many players are being diagnosed with early dementia and memory loss. Others are falling deep into depression. The NFL has assured the players and the fans that precautions are being taken in order to avoid this problem going forward. The real problem is knowing when these players…

    • 5124 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    American football is a well-known sport throughout the USA and most likely the world. Professional football players are rich and a lot of them are seriously injured like having concussion. By the time a player retires from the sport they might go through many concussion in the time spent playing the sport. Some factor like artificial turf and dehydration are having an effect on concussion in football players.…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Brain Injuries In Football

    • 1303 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The awareness of brain injuries and the effects it has on a person during and after their football careers has to rise on all levels. All the untold facts has to be told to the world in order to prevent brain injuries. Every head collision effects the brain, it is very important that every person who participates in the game know that. Many concussions occur on every level of the game. Those concussions causes players brains to function differently forever. Repetitive head collisions can lead to the development of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. That disease can possibly lead to death. It is essential that the players of the game have a great reason to believe that they will not develop that disease. The people of America love football it is a great sport, but too many lives have been lost and too many lives have been altered negatively forever to allow the game to stay this way. Everyone affiliated with the game of football must help to create a safe game. It is imperative to the safety of the game and those who play the game for fun and for a living. The United States is a country of safety and freedom. Football is one of America’s most popular sports, it is essential that the sport is altered to ensure safety for all the players…

    • 1303 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The National Football League has made it a focal point in the past decade to prevent concussions as much as they can. The actions such as training team physicians to be able to identify symptoms of a concussion and to ultimately increase awareness of head injuries.In the current day in age with football, there are countless players that play through concussions and hide the symptoms. This ultimately concludes with long-term brain damage to the player and gives a bad reputation to the NFL for not noticing the injury. In a recent push to garner the public’s trust again, the NFL talked about the risk of concussions and brain injury’s comes along with the game, but they are doing their best to prevent them. George Miller, a National Football spokesman,…

    • 167 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 2012 there were 3,800,000 reported concussions, 47% of those reports took place in high school football. 1 in 5 athletes will experience a concussion in each sport season and 33% of those athletes will experience at least one more before their high school graduation. Together as high school athletes, we need to stand up for our neurological safety in high school football by learning how to identify, treat and prevent a concussion.…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays