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Injuries occur in all four of the major sports in the U.S. The four major sports here in the U.S are Football, Baseball, Basketball, and Hockey. Injuries are something that are supposed to happen here and there but in Football it has become a very common thing. The National Football League is looked upon a big audience which includes kids and adults. According to the NFL, there is an average of 6 injuries per game dating back to 2014. Injuries vary from Concussions, ACL tears to MCL tears. For the most part concussions is the most common injury in football. This worries many parents because their son maybe interested in joining their local football league but because the rate of injuries that they witness on Television it may worry the parents.
Al Toon, father of Saints receiver Nick Toon, was forced to leave professional football after sustaining nine concussions in eight years of professional football. Football is one of the most dangerous games. As the years go on, more and more rules are being written to prevent the danger, but danger is the nature of the game. Most of these rules are for the protection of the players, but there are times when injuries can be a good thing. The Philadelphia Eagles were 3-5 to start the year, but Michael Vick was injured and the backup quarterback led the team to be 10-6, win the division, and almost beat the New Orleans Saints in the playoffs. "About 1.7 million Americans suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI) every year, about three-quarters of them mild TBIs, or concussions" (Clemmitt). Traumatic Brain Injuries are used as the main form of evidence in Richard Cohen's claim that the end of the NFL is near, and quite frankly, his argument is pretty solid.
ACL Injuries in Athletes The Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) attaches the femur, which is the thighbone, and the tibia, which is the shin, together (northstar). A torn ACL is one of the most excruciating experiences in an athlete’s life. It is the first thing that comes to mind when they hurt their knee on the field; for many it is their greatest fear. A torn ACL can sometimes mean the end of an athlete’s career.
Children who are active recklessly engage in activities where injuries can occur. Nobody can predict when or how seriously anybody will get injured during an activity, however, the risks of children playing tackle football is prevalent where the dangers are imminent. The game of tackle football on a youth level is dangerous for children since they are developing physically and mentally. According to an article from The Atlantic, “America’s most dangerous football is in the peewee leagues, not the National Football League” (Barra, 2013). According to a journal article, “sports injuries account for approximately 23% of pediatric emergency department injury related visits” (Podberesky, Unsell & Anton, 2009). “Of these sports injury-related
Some are trading the fun and experience of diversifying between basketball, baseball, soccer, etc. for year-round football. As a result, overuse injuries are occurring at an alarming rate among these one-sport wonders. For example, "Little League Elbow" describes overuse injuries in kids who are repetitively throwing the ball. Kids are sustaining severe injuries to their growth plates, neck and spinal cord that could end their career in pro-sports before it begins....
[National Federation of State High School Associations] NFHS (high school statistics 14-17/18) participation data shows a little over 1.1 million participants; for a total of roughly 6.6 million participants in youth football from Peewee up through high school Varsity. You could probably adjust this 5 percent in both directions as a deviation because again, while each area may have full padded football, not all data is centralized [2].” Due to its nature, the sport of football has always been a physical sport and participating athletes have always been prone to various injuries; however, the issue of injuries inflicted by the game did not become a social issue until recently. Among the several injuries this sport exposes; the leading affliction and hottest social topic is chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). In 2002 Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist and chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, California, as well as a professor in the UC Davis Department of Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, first discovered CTE and defined the same as, “… a progressive degenerative disease that afflicts the brain of people who have suffered repeated concussions and traumatic brain injuries (TBI)” [3]. Omalu discovered this new found disease in
Sports Medicine is a medical field that specializes with physical fitness, treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise. It was introduced around the early Greek and Roman era when the first modern Olympic Games took place. The Greek felt they could do something to help heal and prevent injuries that the athletes were receiving. Now in sports medicine, certain injuries can only be assessed and treated by specific physicians. These physicians can include physical therapists, athletic trainers, and strength and conditioning coaches. Although sports physicians are most commonly seen by athletes after they are hurt so they can be treated, there are some physicians that are seen before an injury occurs so that they can learn how to prevent injuries.
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.
If there are many injury reports then the sport has to be pretty dangerous. “Based on almost 1,900 injury reports submitted to the RIO, the researchers estimate there was 517,726 football-related injuries during the 2005-2006 season at the high school level across the United States.” (High School, College Football Comes With Risk) High school sports are more dangerous because the athletes are still growing. “High school athletes are less physically mature and have less muscle mass than the collegiate athletes, for instance. They also have incomplete growth plates, meaning their bones are still developing.” (High School, College Football Comes With
An Athletic Trainer working at the high school level gets to enjoy a variety of sports and with different sports comes different injuries. With football, the injuries an Athletic Trainer has to tend to are often more on the severe end of the scale. It is not uncommon to see a concussion (see Figure 2) or a torn ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament in the knee) in a football game compared to a softball game where a concussion or an ACL tear (see Figure 1) is less likely to occur. But in a softball game in comparison to a volleyball game, it is more likely to see a black eye or even just a very painful bruise. The more contact in the sport, the more injuries the Athletic Trainer gets to see and try to
The sheer energy of a gymnast alone can be felt by audiences of all ages, but what the spectators lack the ability to feel is the pounding of the bodies that bear the impact of the athletes in action. Gymnastics consists of a mixture of acrobatic performances of four different events for females, and six different events for males (Gianoulis 1). Gymnastics is demanding in a multitude of ways, including: physically, emotionally and mentally. It requires countless hours of dedication. The concerns of most gymnasts are moving up to the next level, or getting a more advanced skill, while the concerns of the doctors, coaches, and parents revolve mostly around the athlete’s health, which is put at stake for the adored yet dangerous sport. Injuries are common among both male and female gymnast alike, but due to the fact a female gymnast’s career peaks at the same time of major growth and development, a female gymnast’s body as a whole is more likely to undergo lifelong changes or affects (Gianoulis 2). Among the injuries of the mind blowing athletes, the most common ones affect the ankles, feet, lower back, wrist, and hands of individuals (Prevention and Treatment 1). From sprains, to the breaks, the intriguing sport of gymnastics is physically demanding on a gymnast’s body.
Football isn’t even the most dangerous contact sport that you could play. Other high school sports have recorded just as much, or even more concussions than football. In an article on WebMD.com Robert Preidt writes that, “Between 2010 and 2015, the concussion rate was higher in girls' soccer than in boys' football, the findings showed. During the 2014-2015 school year, concussions were more common in girls' soccer than in any other sport in the study.” Despite being viewed as one of the most dangerous sports, football does not even have the largest rate of concussions or the most serious concussions. In fact, in another study on Fox Sports.com, soccer was seen to be responsible for more of the serious concussions. Concussion numbers can be dropped with attentiveness and responsibility as kids play the game of football. Most concussions in youth football are a result of the player being irresponsible or intentionally violent while they play. But, new rules are in place that diminish this style of play. The amount of concussions can be reduced, and organizations are working on making football a safer game to play. In an article on the New York Times Marvin Washington, a former NFL player, says, “I know this is contrary to public opinion, but the game of football is safer than it has ever been, and is evolving into an even safer game.” The safety of football players at all
To summarize, football is a dangerous sport that can cause multiple serious injuries like brain damage, concussions, fractures and or death. The majority of people still think football is a menace, especially for teens that are still growing and developing. Equally important, there are analysis and programs indicate a number of injuries between high school exposures and collegiate football exposures and trying to find safer ways to play. Then again, there are doctors, trainers, and N.F.L players that are recommending new ideas to create a safer game for everyone to play without risking injuries as
In any sport there will be injuries, however with the NFL the risk of getting injured is higher than any other sport. Players in the NFL are likely to get a concussion. It could be the physicality of the sport. Football has a long history with physical contact. To avoid injuries, the NFL has been changing rules and modifying player equipment, for safety. When the NFL was introduced in the 1920's player safety was in the creator's mind; there were only 14 teams, the uniform was made of thick wool, and helmets were not mandatory. The head injuries were gruesome; concussions to cracked skulls were the injuries players would suffer. The injuries became serious enough for the NFL to increase player safety. In 1930's helmets became mandatory. Even though players were able to wear helmets, the helmets were leather, and had no facemask. By the 1950's the NFL was changed, the overtime quarter was born and players were wearing hard plastic helmets. It was not until the 1950's the NFL made the plastic helmets mandatory. Concussions have been a part of the NFL since the beginning of the sport. In August of 2013 the NFL agreed to pay $765 million to settle a lawsuit brought by more than 4,500 players and their families. New York Tim...
Football injuries is something people hate to see and experience but are all a part of the game; and if athletes choose to play this sport they have to realize the longer you play the sport the more likely you are to get hurt playing that sport. Therefore athletes should be very careful and try to prevent if possible any injuries from happening to them as well as others.
The volume of injuries in sports is very high, and the effects of these injuries on the sportsman are very severe. There is constant medical research to maximise the effect of the psychosocial recovery of the athletes. The main reason behind this is to enhance their successful return to the training and finally to the actual competition. It is often observed that these physical injuries have a prolonged psychological effect on the athletes. Even after surgeries, the players are concerned of re-injury. This is commonly termed as re-injury anxiety. This anxiety or fear influences the injured player both psychologically and physiologically. It lowers the rehabilitation performance and increase the actual chance of re-injury. From the previous research, it is found out that almost 7% of the injuries are re-injuries. In medical research, two of the most common methods to treat the injured are imagery treatment and rehabilitation treatment. In rehabilitation treatment, the injured players are treated with a usual course of physiotherapy along with counseling techniques to overcome their fears and return to the competition (Hoeger and Hoeger, 2013). The imagery treatment is marked with visualization of an object, sensation or scene as though the situation is occurring in physical reality (Gregg, Hall, et al., 2011). It tries to impart the physical characteristics of a situation that is absent, that has occurred in the past or has a chance occurring in the future. It is believed that the imagery affects all the five sense of the players.