The debate on the healthiness of football and whether or not there should be restraints put on the game to reduce injuries. There are many people, like me, who believe that American football is bad for the players health. There are a couple bad things about football, the illegal contact and the concussions that come along with the sport. Football has been called dangerous and unhealthy by many medical and sports professionals.
The first problem with the sport is the hitting. The players are committed to their sport, and will not show any mercy to their opponents. For this reason the players at the college level and in the NFL are hitting hard and with force. These kind of hits can lead to serious injuries. Would you want to be hit by a 250-300
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There is a reason why the NCAA and NFL ban helmet to helmet contact, and that reason is the feared injury, a concussion. A concussion is one of the biggest things that players and all athletes have to be aware of. Even most doctors say that concussions are very serious and can end your career. Dr. Ann Mckee, a neuropathologist, did a study on 202 dead football players brains. Of the 202, 111 of those were NFL players’ brain. The study show that all but one of them had chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE. CTE is a brain disease caused by repeated hits to the head. This goes to show that the problem with injuries is common in the head, which doesn't shine a good light on American football to parents who have kids that want to play football professionally. As a matter of fact, the NFL and NCAA aren't the only leagues that we should be worried about the players sustaining head injuries. A concussion docter by the name of Dr. Bennet Omalu, the one who discovered CTE stated in a conference that “youth football is like child abuse”. He believes that kids under the age of 18 years old should not be allowed to play football. This year alone, about two dozen people have died from CTE and spinal injuries according to CBS
...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.
Hitting players head to head cause way too many life threatening injuries for both opponents. On Bill Brink’s "Tackling the Issue of 'proper' Tackling," Robert Cantu was quoted saying, “football teams should practice without helmets.” That would be the best way to teach players to avoid head-to-head collisions, avoiding life threatening injuries(Brink). The problem coaches have with that is they think there players will develop bad tackling habits. But Cantu, argues that tackling isn’t all physical it’s a lot of mental toughness and muscle memory. The head to head collisions don’t just come from tackling, it also comes from blocking, blind siding, and pancaking. On Bill Brink’s "Tackling the Issue of '...
Omalu. Former player that in their playing days were known as “Heavy Hitter” were dropping like flies and CTE was linked to their untimely deaths. The first diagnosed case of CTE was in Mike Webster a Hall of Famer Center who after his career ended in 1990 was found to have Clinical depression and dementia. In his life after the league he faced long periods of homelessness and died at the age of 50 (Noonan). His autopsy by Dr. Omalu showed microscopic damage to the brain caused by repeated blunt force trauma over a long period of time. After his work was published nothing was done to make Football more safe for players at any level but parents still signed their kids up by the thousands. Parents of young football players often have an attitude of “it won’t be my kid”. This irrational justification of them putting their children into scientifically proven harmful situations is without the child’s knowledge of what they signed up for. This is where Dr.Omalu made a great suggestion "Our children are minors who have not reached the age of consent, wait for our children to grow up then provide them, as adults, with information on the risks involved and let them make their own decisions."(Dobb and
The number of concussions in professional and amateur football has been rising and has sparked much controversy in recent years. These concussions are most likely linked with disease and even the deaths of some pro and semi-pro football players. New research is attempting to solve the problem but the issue is still prevalent in football today.
Concussions occur regularly on the football field and have always been an injury associated with football. They occur at all levels from little league to the NFL. One of the earliest reported concussion...
Ed Riley, who works at Stanford University as a physician, is the author of the article. In his opinion, parents are overreacting to head injuries in football. In return, the kids get put in a bad situation. If that kid wanted to play football, he or she would not be able to. Riley talks about “how their parents think the risk of brain injury outweighs the benefits of playing” (Riley, 2014).
Football, just another method to throw life away. Football is an extremely unsafe sport, yet it is glorified by several in the United States. A plethora of football players are impacted negatively by injuries that may occur just by playing an "innocent" little game of tackle football. It is necessary to consider all the dreadful outcomes that may happen before taking the chance to play. Young individuals shouldn't play tackle football due to the trauma it can cause to the brain, the injuries or occurrences that can lead to a harder life or even death, and it leaves the players to be less sharp in their old age. It is often thought that football is a harmless game for kids to enjoy. Nevertheless, the amount of health issues and injuries that can be caused by football is unbelievable and not worth the risk.
According to the article 'Hard Knocks' from The New York Times Upfront, this "culture encourages playing through pain and taking a hit for the team, many teens don't want to risk being put on the sidelines by telling their coaches when they think they may have a concussion". This culture that is created by the community has influenced teens to prioritizing the game over their personal health. With concussion being more dangerous for teenagers, purposely avoiding proper treatment can harm them even more. The football community also seems to put an empathize of things differently than other sports such as " We count the pitches of every baseball player to ensure a small number do not develop shoulder and elbow problems- and yet we don't count how often children get hit in the head playing football", stated by Dr. Robert Cantu, a professor of neurosurgery at Boston university. Even coaches are influence to have the idea that "practice should include a great deal of contact" as stated in Terrence Holder's article.
The first reason football is absolutely unsafe is because they’re have been fatal injuries through all levels of football critics often argue that injuries are apart of life and most people get injured in their lifetime however, those injuries can lead to fatal situations in the future. For example, Scott Hallenbeck said even if he had a young son he still wouldn’t let him play football because of the risk of injury. If a kid gets too many concussions he’ll eventually either end up ending all their sports careers or end up having CTE. CTE can develop from the repetitive hits that are an unavoidable part of football.
-Football is bad for kids I do not agree with it.Kids and adults are getting consussions from left to right.That is why it needs to be banned.It gives them OCD(a brain diesae from hits to the head).Football is to agressive for young children to play.An injury could hurt them for life.Some kids may just get mad because he got broke.That kid may come back and hurt him on purpose.
The once loud stadium is brought to silence with what could have been a “deadly” hit. Some boys are out on the field to have a good time, but other players are playing to hurt and demolish their opponents. This is when the reality of how safe a player actually is comes into play. While children play football becoming overheated, broken bones, and head injuries are major concerns as to why football should be considered an unsafe sport.
The NFL’s expectation of violence and tolerance of systemic violence is disturbing to think about. Our troubled consciousness, however, can easily shake off the pangs of moral discomfort, and carry on. The hundreds of athletes who experience the consequences of this violence every day can not. They “[regard] their bodies as machines and weapons with which to annihilate their opponents” and deliver pummeling blows with each passing down (Messner and Sabo, 95). A human being is simply not designed to withstand the cruel, punishing hits all too common in professional football.
Football, America’s (most dangerous) Sport Football has been known as “America’s sport” for many years, as wells as America’s most popular sport. However over the years doctors and researchers have found data that has shown a significant increase in football related injuries such as concussions, spinal injuries, ACL injuries, etc. Why are football injuries increasing when some might think they should be decreasing due to more advanced protection equipment? Although players wear layers upon layers of padding, football still remains as one of America’s most dangerous sports.
The NCAA has mandated that players deemed guilty of targeting with their head should be ejected. The National Football League, the most visible of all levels of football due to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), has dramatically increased the punishment for violent hits that involve the use of the helmet as a weapon. Teaching better blocking and tackling techniques is going to take time. Leading with the helmet is a byproduct of decades of poor coaching instruction. As time passes and the game of tackle football evolves, players will gradually drift away from this type of dangerous method of tackling.
Thirdly, College football has no academic purpose. Firstly, the repeated hits cause tons of long-term and short term damage to a player’s brain. Some disorders caused by this are things like Second Impact Syndrome (SIS). It’s a rare event which occurs when a second hit is amplified by pre-existing brain damage.