Head Injuries In Football

1768 Words4 Pages

Mind blowing catches, lighting quick speed, tight space passes, and body shaking hits are just a few of the many reasons Americans like myself enjoy watching and playing the game of football. According to one study, approximately 5.5 million people who are 6 years old and older play football in America (Martino). But while football is incredibly enjoyable to watch, there are some serious health concerns that come with playing the sport. Here one will see just how dangerous football is for the head and brain. First, injuries occur more often in football than almost any other sport. Research shows that in college sports, football accounts for the most injuries. A player is injured about 40 times per one thousand exposures. An exposure is practice, …show more content…

Most head injuries stem from concussions. According to one study, “A concussion is a blow to the head followed by a variety of symptoms that may include any of the following: headache, dizziness, loss of balance, blurred vision, ‘seeing stars,’ feeling in a fog or slowed down, memory problems, poor concentration, nausea, or throwing up (McCrea 2).” Basically, any blunt force to the head that causes irregular side effects is a concussion. Many people think concussions are the only type of head injury, but that simply is not true. According to studies, a compilation of hits to the head can often result in many life altering effects over a long period of time. But for simplicity’s sake, most people simply refer to any injury to the head as a concussion. Football is the leading sport for head injuries (Martin 47). In conclusion, concussions are basically any injury to the head, and football is the leading cause of …show more content…

CTE is was discovered by Dr. Bennet Omalu. When asked to do research on a few former players who seemed to suffer from brain damage, Omalu discovered that these players had a protein called “tau” on their brain. This protein is often associated with Alzheimer’s, but since it was in young people it had to be something different; thus, the name Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy was born. CTE occur by reciving numerous blows to the head, or by sustaining one-time concussions. According to one study, CTE was found in 90 of 94 professional players, 45 of 55 college players, and 26 of 65 high school players (Schmindle). These numbers show that it is very likely a large number of players suffer brain diseases, and many cases of CTE are fatally

Show More
Related

  • Bennet Omalu's Rhetorical Analysis: Is Football Too Dangerous?

    488 Words  | 1 Pages

    He Appeals to Logos when he writes, “Over the past two decades it has become clear that repetitive blows to the head in high-impact contact sports like football, ice hockey, mixed martial arts and boxing place athletes at risk of permanent brain damage….Why, then, do we continue to intentionally expose our children to this risk?” He continues by writing, “If a child who plays football is subjected to advanced radiological and neurocognitive studies, there can be evidence of brain damage at the cellular level of brain functioning…. If that child continues to play over many seasons, these cellular injuries accumulate to cause irreversible brain damage, which we know now by the name Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy,” a disease founded by Dr.Omalu in 2002. C.T.E can cause “major depression, memory loss, suicidal thoughts and actions, loss of intelligence as well as dementia later in life.” C.T.E has also been linked to “drug and alcohol abuse as children enter their 20s, 30s, and 40s.” Dr.Omalu Appeals to Ethos when he writes, “As physicians, it is our role to educate” and “protect the most vulnerable among

    Read More

  • How Playing Football Can Lead to Developing CTE

    1266 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...he NFL dismissed claims [of TBI and CTE] parents continued to [allow] their children to play football without knowing the repercussions.” There has recently been an acknowledgement that children could develop brain injuries through playing football and it was suggested in the episode that no one under the age of fourteen should play tackle football. Although, in my personal opinion, I believe that tackle football is still very dangerous to play even after the age of fourteen. Due to the fact the brain is not fully developed until the mid-twenties there are negative results playing tackle football could have on children to young adults. Although young people playing football may be more susceptible to the negative consequences playing football can have on the brain it does not mean those over a certain age are invincible to such problems, as learned from the episode.

    Read More

  • Malcolm Gladwell Analysis

    1899 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gladwell provides research conducted by Anne McKee a neuropathologist who is involved in the detection of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E) on football players which was caused by head trauma. Using the research of McKee who is deeply involved with C.T.E allows the reader to better understand C.T.E. First we are presented on how by autopsying a brain of a person who had received a diagnosis of dementia. McKee discovered that this patient was a boxer in his early days and due to many hits in the head he developed C.T.E. Unfortunately, this person was diagnosed with dementia but ultimately he had C.T. E “which is a progressive neurological disorder found in people who have suffered some kind of brain trauma”. (Offensive Play). We are also presented with a research done by Kevin Guskiewicz director of the University of North Carolina’s Sports Concussion Research Program. Guskiewicz carefully monitors North Carolina’s football team with sensors on the player’s football helmets. These sensors allow Guskiewicz to measure the force of the impacts the players receive while playing football. Guskiewicz compared the hits to the head a payer receives to a car accident: “if you drove your car into a wall at twenty-five miles per hour and you weren’t wearing your seat belt, the force of your head hitting the

    Read More

  • Head Injuries in High School Football

    1542 Words  | 4 Pages

    American Football is a huge spectator sport where offensive and defensive players will use teamwork and perseverance to try and score more points than their opponent. Football is highly respected in America, where boys will try and pursue the dream of playing in the NFL (National Football Association) someday; but if you look at an average neighborhood, you will find that kids and adults of all ages love to go out and throw around the pigskin. (Lerner and Lerner 275). One thing Americans will take pride in is the college and NFL football teams they root for. People sit down with a beer and talk hours upon hours of football and two individuals can get in a heated discussion in the local sports store of whose sports team is better. Surprisingly enough, one will find the most passionate football players at the high school level. Most boys will start their football career as a young child in football programs such as Pop Warner to get a foothold and to get those involved in teamwork and friendships. These programs are usually the start to someone falling in love with the sport and making it a career choice eight years later. Football is one of America’s favorite sports. When fall season comes around, people across America are placing bets, finding out where that new sports bar is, and buying wide screen T.V’s to watch NFL on Sundays. After their team plays, they will go out and reminisce what happened that Sunday. While thousands of fans are still pumped from the NFL games they watched; small towns across America are getting ready to shut down their shops and restaurants to have the chance to make it to the local high schools football game. Ray Glier, a reporter for the New York Times, writes about football in the small town of Appala...

    Read More

  • Head Trauma In Athletes

    1049 Words  | 3 Pages

    Of these injuries, 56% of them occurred during a game, as opposed to during practice. The players who received the most injuries were the offense linemen followed by the defensive back and then the defensive lineman. The most common activity in which players sustained a mild head injury was by blocking an opponent and the most common mechanism of injury was a helmet-to-helmet collision. A headache was the number one symptom reported by players who experienced a concussion (Barth, et al., 1989).

    Read More

  • The Concussion Problem in Professional and Amateur Football

    2124 Words  | 5 Pages

    To understand the issue of concussions in the NFL we must first understand exactly what a concussion is. A concussion is a minor traumatic brain injury that jars or shakes the brain inside the skull. Severe concussions can cause loss of consciousness and/or forgetfulness. However, you do not need to lose consciousness to have a concussion. Minor concussions usually cause headache, nausea, dizziness, and tiredness. An NFL study showed that most concussions occur when one player delivered a hit to the side of the head of another, and when the player was either standing still or moving slowly. These hits that cause concussions pack an average force of 980-pounds. Concussions affect professional athletes as well as amateur or youth football players. Studies have shown that high school football players are nearly twice as likely to get concussions as college football players and high school athletes in other sports. Also, they show that 47% of high school football players say they suffer a concussion each season. As a result about 250,000 people under the age of 19 went to the emergency room with concussions in 2009, compared with 150,000 in 2001.

    Read More

  • Effects of Concussions in Youth Sports

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    The very first step to solving the concussion problem is to train coaches how to spot a concussion. The most common symptoms are: headache, sensitivity to light and/or sound, trouble remembering plays, dizziness, nausea, and balance problems. Players suspected of having a concussion must be removed from the game or practice immediately. A concussion is described as a “mild traumatic brain injury” because it is not usually life threatening if treated properly. That name does not indicate the possible consequences if an athlete returns to play too soon.

    Read More

  • What´s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)?

    1498 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease attributed to single, sporadic, or repetitive brain trauma, including concussions and subconcussive hits (Baugh et al., 2012; Wortzel et al., 2013). This disease was originally referred to as dementia pugilistica, and nicknamed “punch drunk,” because individuals suffering from this disorder would present symptoms that were similar to someone’s mannerisms while being intoxicated (Wortzel et al., 2013). This “drunken” behavior is thought to be attributed to the cognitive, mood, and behavioral alterations as a result of the repetitive hits to the brain over an extended period of time. Because individuals suffering from this disease are often exposed to conditions that allow them to sustain blows to the head multiple times, the populations most often examined in these studies are athletes (football, boxing, rugby) and/or individuals in the military (McKee et al., 2009). Individuals can be symptom free for several years (Baugh et al., 2012). The onset of symptoms are sometimes seen about eight to ten years after an individual retires from their sport, which roughly equates to someone aged thirty to fifty yeas old (Baugh et al., 2012; Wortzel et al., 2013; Karantzoulis and Randolph, 2013). As with all diseases, symptoms can range from mild to severe. Researchers have found a positive correlation between the number of brain injuries sustained during a length of time playing a sport and the severity of symptoms (McKee et al., 2009).

    Read More

  • Should Children Play Tackle Football?

    1412 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since football’s inception, it has been considered a manly sport. Young boys have been encouraged by their parents to participate in the game. For many boys, it is considered a rite of passage. However, football is a dangerous sport. A study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy found, “an estimated 5.25 million football-related injuries among children and adolescents between 6 and 17 years of age were treated in U.S. emergency departments between 1990 and 2007. The annual number of football-related injuries increased 27 percent during the 18-year study period, jumping from 274,094 in 1990 to 346,772 in 2007” (Nation 201). These reported injuries include sprains and strains, broken bones, cracked ribs, torn ligaments, and concussions. A concussion usually happens when a player takes a hard hit to the head or is knocked unconscious on the playing field, and if not diagnosed and treated quickly, a concussion can result in death.

    Read More

  • The Effects of Concussions on Athletes

    1581 Words  | 4 Pages

    A concussion is a head injury that can have damaging effects on athletes of all sports and ages. Concussions are regularly caused by a hard hit to the head or body that causes the brain to shake inside the skull. While there is fluid within the skull to protect the brain, when an athlete is hit hard enough, the brain moves to the point of hitting the skull, causing a head injury otherwise known as a concussion (“Concussions”). Terry Adirim, a medical doctor who writes articles for Clinical Pediatrician Emergency Magazine, says that an individual may have many different symptoms after receiving a concussion. Symptoms can include headache, nausea, dizziness, loss of consciousness, and vomiting, but each of these symptoms do not necessarily happen with every concussion.

    Read More

  • Concussions By Peter Landesm Film Analysis

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    As CTE progresses, it can cause memory loss, impulsive and erratic behavior, difficulty with balance, impaired judgment, and behavioral disturbances including aggression, depression, and increased suicidality. Ultimately, CTE progresses to the onset of dementia. A similar accumulation of tau protein is also seen in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. CTE symptoms can manifest months or years after brain trauma, and a definitive diagnosis of CTE can only be made after death by analyzing brain tissue at autopsy. The CDC estimates that up to 3.8 million concussions occur each year, with up to ten percent of high school athletes suffering from post-concussion syndrome.

    Read More

  • CTE Argumentative Essay

    893 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 2005 Dr. Bennet Omalu first discovered CTE In the Brain Of the retired player Mike webster, after he passed in 2002, at the age of 50. However CTE has been identified, there is no way to diagnose it in living individuals. In a study done by the National Institutes of Health, and the Concussion Research Funding, they came to the conclusion that, “Current tests cannot reliably identify concussions, and no technique reliably differentiates individuals who will recover quickly, suffer long-term symptoms, or develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)” (NIH, NFL, and Concussion Research Funding). Therefore, currently there is no way to treat or identify whether or not a person has CTE officially until they have died. Doctors only way of identifying if a person has CTE is to diagnose based off their symptoms. CTE symptoms vary based on the severity of the case, However according to researchers at the CTE Center at Boston University School of Medicine; “CTE is associated with “memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse-control problems, aggression, depression, and, eventually, progressive dementia” (Karaim). Theses Symptoms have a dramatic effect on the everyday lives of the people that have CTE. With nearly anywhere from 1.6 million to 3.8 million concussions occur each year, leading professional athletes and

    Read More

  • The National Football League

    1813 Words  | 4 Pages

    Brain injuries can play a major role in football. Reoccurring concussions also occur due to these brain injuries, and cause these athletes permanent damage. Trainers and doctors in the medical field diagnose these brain injuries by loss of consciousness, slurred speech, loss of balance, and loss of memory. In football, they could improve the safety of the helmets; improve the rules, or safety regulations in all sports to help prevent concussions.

    Read More

  • What Can be Done to Help Prevent Concussions

    2270 Words  | 5 Pages

    Concussions and the effect they have on people ranging from the young to the old has become a very popular discussion in recent years. Generally people watch sports for entertainment and then there are those who engage in high impact sports from a very young age on. The people at home know how fun playing in a sport is, however they may not know the brutal consequences for some participating in that sport. Injuries to the brain are a main concern among those in the world of high impact sports. Football, soccer, wrestling, lacrosse, and rugby are among sports that athletes receive injuries in. The injuries vary from sprains, to fractures, to torn MCL or ACL, and bruised organs. Concussions are a severe type of injury endured by athletes in the sports world and this life changing injury is one that people are becoming more aware of.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On College Football

    384 Words  | 1 Pages

    Not saying there is no risk in it, but football is not as dangerous as people think. The number of football death at each level have dropped to five a year; where as previously in the 1960’s about 20 people died from brain related injuries(Flynn, 622).

    Read More

More about Head Injuries In Football

Open Document