1. What is a TBI? What is CTE? What happens inside the brain? How could playing football lead to development of CTE? The Frontline episode entitled “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis” focuses on the injuries incurred by players during football and the impact of such injuries. Throughout the episode many acronyms are used, such as TBI and CTE. The effect the sport of football has players can lead to certain injuries also discussed in the episode. Meanings of these acronyms and their consequences are explored in the following paragraphs. TBI stands for traumatic brain injury. A committee was created by the NFL called MTBI, which stands for mild traumatic brain injury, which was led by the New York Jets team doctor who believed brain injuries were not a serious problem. In the episode a doctor by the name of Omalu was interviewed. After studying the brain of a professional football player, named Michael Webster, he believed he saw physical evidence of the long-term damage playing football could have on the brain. This physical evidence was concluded to be CTE. CTE stands for chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE is a progressive neuro- degenerative disease which had not been found in football players until recently. It was stated in the episode, “Repetitive brain trauma starts this cascade of events in the brain that changes the way tau [protein] looks and behaves. It goes awry, it starts destroying the integrity of the brain cells.” Doctor Omalu’s discovery was the first hard evidence which proved playing football could cause permanent damage. This finding was not well received by the NFL and Omalu was met with attacks by the MTBI committee and the NFL as a whole. Football players can suffer from TBIs which could ul... ... middle of paper ... ...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.
What does Jovan Belcher, Ray Esterling and O.J. Murdock Have in common? They all were famous football players who commented suicide. Each player had something called chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE. This is a condition where sufferers have had repeated hits to the head that leads to concussions and ultimately head trauma. In this research paper, we will go over the data about the NFL to see could they have prevented CTE in these players if they had placed the player’s safety first.
Kremer, Andrea. "Health of the Game: Brain Injuries beyond Concussions 0." NFL.com. N.p., 7 Mar. 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. (Online Video)
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
American football can be joyful and entertaining to watch but what people do not know is that players are suffering a disease that has never been discovering before. In 2009, Jeanne Marie Laskas novel “Concussion,” brought one question to American. Can football kill people? She concludes that playing football can cause permanent brain damage, cause a person to go crazy, and to the point of death. She uses diction and anecdotes to bring a threat to football players in America to light.
Athletes are one of the most highly paid professions, and with that comes a great responsibility to everyone but themselves, even it means putting their lives, and others around them at risk. A football player’s goal is to entertain the fans that tune in to watch them, however their only job is to win their games, and untimely a Super Bowl Championship, but not for themselves, for the franchise that owns them and their bodies. As long as they can run a play and take a hit foot players are gold to their employers, or if you will their owners. “Toughing it out, turns out, can kill people.” (Diaz Truman, M 2013), and cause irreversible brain damage to football players. Continuing to ignore evidence that supports the growing concern of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and how it relates to the NFL players is troubling because of the long term affects it has on a player’s mental s...
Concussions have become arguably the #1 most prevalent issue in football today. The number of concussions throughout football has been rising for the past 20-30 years and there seems no way of stopping them. However, the NFL and many private researchers are set on finding a way to conquer this issue. They want to stop these concussions from happening and prevent the diseases resulting from them that have ruined so many football families’ lives. In order to solve this problem, I think that these researchers need to combine all of their knowledge to solve an issue that so many want solved. As soon as we conquer this “illness” we can return to enjoying the game that we love.
Not many sports are as physically demanding on the human body as football. The physical toll that football players pay is almost impossible to comprehend unless one has actually played the sport for a significant amount of time. However, until recently any connection between the hits taken by football players and their health down the road was largely ignored. A common, yet difficult injury to detect in football is a concussion, the most common traumatic brain injury (Pearce). A concussion is defined as “a brain injury that is caused by a sudden blow to the head or the body. The blow shakes the brain inside the skull, which temporarily prevents the brain from working normally” (Heiner pa.5). Reports and studies have surfaced shedding light on just how much damage is inflicted upon the brain due to crippling hits. These studies suggest that NFL athletes who received concussions suffered lasting damage to the brain, which opens the gate to a multitude of other health issues such as dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and clinical depression (Pearce). This is an aspect of the game that not many are aware of and it is a serous issue that needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later. There have been too many heartbreaking stories such as that of Justin Strzelcyk who heard voices and died in a crash while fleeing police or that of Andre Waters who shot himself in the head after struggles with depression (Zarda pa.1). Many current and former players are suffering in silence; this shouldn’t be the case. The National Football League needs to extend a hand to former players debilitated by head injuries. The problem of concussions and other head injuries in the NFL is one that needs to be tackled head on.
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).
Football is America’s favorite sport. It is a fast-paced, hard-hitting game. Every week thousands of men and boys all across the country take part in football and every week these men and boys receive violent hits during the game. Frequently, as a result of these violent hits, the player receives a concussion. However, the long-term effects of concussions on players are not fully understood. New research shows that even a slight concussion in a football game can have lasting effects on a player. As a result of this research, children under the age of fourteen should not play tackle football.
Struggling to maintain consciousness as well as retain my vision after embracing a brutal hit enforced from an opposing player really makes me question the seriousness of football related trauma. How many injuries does it take until it really matters? For me, after having experience with concussions, I came to the realization that the positive externalities of football do not make up for the numerous negative externalities. Football, as well as any other contact sport, can be very dangerous and potentially threatening to a persons overall health and future.
That being said this is the most prominent disorder within athletes, the disease has no symptoms which is why is becoming such a prominent disease among athletes such as NFL players. Recent research has suggested several mechanisms for brain injury in the setting of repeated trauma. Neurofibrillary tangles in CTE have a characteristic perivascular distribution, grouped around small intracortical vessels (Mckee 1999). This finding suggests that trauma may damage the blood-brain barrier, releasing neurotoxins that promote the formation of neurofibrillary tangles around blood vessels. In a
Many football players who have this cannot be diagnosed with it until after death. Also it is not easily detectable, for it is a internal brain injury. CTE causes extreme pain and suffering to many retired football players, and there is nothing they can do to fix the problem. In Jason Breslow’s article 76 of 79 Deceased NFL Players Found to Have Brain Disease, he says, “Researchers there have now examined the brain tissue of 128 football players who, before their deaths, played the game professionally, semi-professionally, in college or in high school. Of that sample, 101 players, or just under 80 percent, tested positive for CTE.” This is important because almost eighty percent of former football players tested positive for CTE. There are no ties to football because all the people diagnosed are dead, however many of those who have played football and have died had
Tackle football is one of the most controversial sports in the modern day. As more and more pro football players are diagnosed with brain diseases, the argument against tackle football is growing. Football has always been a contact sport. After all, that’s what makes it so much fun to watch. However, with new technology, the cause of diseases such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is becoming more clear. “It’s not concussions that cause CTE. It’s repeated hits.”
The major issues that have emerged from this review are just how serious and life-altering concussions and CTE can be. What this review showed is just how unpredictable it is to suffer from CTE. The study with 2 NFL players one who played in the league 20 years and one who played 3 years. It goes to show that sometimes it is just the way you get hit repeatedly not necessarily the number of hits taken. Suffering multiple concussions is also something that can turn catastrophic after reviewing this literature. Suffering from multiple concussions can lead to learning disabilities which can really harm one's future abilities such as their critical thinking and processing skills. Recovering from concussions is also very critical to return because of optimal baseline levels. After reviewing multiple pieces of
Baseball may be America’s past time, but football is America’s game. The crack of pads and the roar of the crowd in the crisp fall air is a part of America’s culture. The best of the best play professionally in the National Football League. Incredibly big, incredibly fast humans put their bodies on the line for gridiron glory. Football is a beautifully violent game, and the fame and glory are not without their perils. In the past few years, the high profile suicides of former players Junior Seau and Dave Duerson, as well as the murder/suicide of Jovan Belcher, have placed a target on the NFL, specifically as it relates to head trauma caused by concussions. The prevalence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, in the brains of many