Cause And Effect Essay On Concussions

The National Football League (NFL) is a very popular sport in America. It is known for its spectacular touchdowns and amazing comeback stories. But most of all, the hard hits from one player to another. There’s been a lot of controversy over the protection of the players and the punishment of those who put others in danger with these hits. The NFL enforced strict rules against players who collide with other players in the case of a helmet-to-helmet hit, such as penalties and huge fines. A helmet-to-helmet hit is when a defender uses his helmet to hit the helmet of a defenseless offensive player. This is what to be called as a dangerous action to do in the NFL. The league created these rules to make the game safer. The causes of these rules being applied were the depression of the players once they receive the hit to the head, a disease that was found in former players after collisions, and concussions.

The first cause was the state of these players being depressed. Players who were severely hit to the head were to be found depressed shortly after

retirement. Some of these players had receive some major concussions as well. The symptoms of a concussion include depression and sadness. Some players even had suicidal thoughts. A brain doctor, Dr. Bert Vargas, did a research of players who were involved in helmet-to-helmet collisions to see the relationship between concussions and depression. The 30 players who were experimented on, only 12 had mild to moderate symptoms of depression, while 4 of the 30 were experiencing severe depression. Those who were in severe depression had suicidal thoughts at one point in their life. Kosta Karageorge, a NFL prospect from Ohio State University, was involved in helmet-to-helmet hits multiple times in his college career. After his last season, he was going through depression and went missing. He, soon, was later found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. After running some tests on his body, they found that his brain was severely damaged due to the collisions he faced in college. This incident was one of the points that influenced the NFL into inputting these rules against helmet-to-helmet hits.
Another cause of the new NFL rules against helmet-to-helmet hits is a dangerous brain trauma called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is not only found in the brains of NFL players, but also professional boxers. CTE has been known to degenerate the brain tissue and leave serious damage towards the brain and to this day, there is no cure for the trauma. This disease was later found in the brains of multiple deceased players in the NFL who were involved in multiple head collisions. A former NFL player, Junior Seau, committed suicide in 2012 after experiencing severe headaches and dizziness. Two years later, San Diego County doctors found out that Seau suffered brain damage due to CTE. After the death of Seau, his family sued the NFL over the brain injuries suffered by Seau over his career. In 2014, this incident persuaded the NFL into creating several rulings against helmet-to-helmet hits against another player.
The last and major cause of the rules being placed are the concussions these players receive after colliding with another.

A concussion is a mild brain trauma where the brain shakes violently in the skull. Many players in the NFL have experienced concussions after a helmet-to-helmet hit. According to Dr. Gupta, in the past 4 years, there has been about 215 players who receive a concussion annually and is only “increasing” every year. Concussions are one of the worst injuries you can experience you can sustain. Symptoms include dizziness, memory loss, and lack of consciousness. It only takes one concussion to start damaging the brain. Concussions is the major controversy in the NFL. Some people believe that the NFL should be shut down over the harm of these players. The league is trying to reduce the number of concussions in the NFL by placing penalties against those who make contact with another’s

head.
The NFL is doing its best to protect the players. They introduced the rule of just a small 15-yard penalty in the case of a helmet-to-helmet hit. This wasn’t enough as the number of collisions with the players remain the same. The league then conducted another rule that suspended a player for several amount of games. This policy started to slowly reduce the amount of head-on collisions between these players. As of today, the league is still searching for ideas to punish those players who put another in danger, such as large fines and a larger amount of games suspended.