According to Jason M. Breslow, players that receive repetitive blows to the head while playing football are more susceptible to life-threatening health concerns after their respective playing careers. Breslow’s decision to speak out about this controversial topic in his article with PBS may be extremely valuable with regards to recent legal actions filed against the National Football League, the NFL. This article may also be critical to those people who are debating whether to continue their playing careers, and to those who are considering picking up the sport for the first time. Breslow initiates the conversation by pointing out that an astronomical amount of NFL players who reported deteriorating conditions such as memory loss and depression …show more content…
were diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, CTE, a degenerative disease found in the brain, after death.
Through the use of advanced statistics, in-depth interviews with doctors and other professionals, and emotional appeal, Breslow successfully reveals to the audience the connection that the NFL has hid from players, parents, and fans for years: head injuries suffered while playing in the NFL are directly correlated with CTE and other traumatic diseases.
Breslow uses a variety of statistics and other factual evidence as a means of the rhetorical appeal of logos to persuade the audience that playing football and receiving multiple blows to the head can lead to life-threatening diseases later on in life. One of the main factual pieces of evidence that Breslow uses is from a recent study that was conducted by researchers from the Department of Veteran Affairs and Boston University. In this study, eighty-seven of the ninety-one NFL players tested
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positive for CTE, the degenerative brain disease that the NFL denied was connected to playing football in the NFL (Breslow). In total, this same lab has found that 131 out of 165 people who have played football at the amateur, collegiate, or professional level have tested positive for this disease (Breslow). These statistics allows the rhetor to convey to the audience that playing football at any level can have traumatic consequences. These statistics really hit home with one audience in particular: parents of kids who are aspiring to play football one day. When a study shows that almost eighty percent of all athletes who played football at one point in their lives tests positive for a life-threatening disease, parents will be alarmed. There have even been retired NFL players who have stated that they will not let their children play football because of the physical pain and head trauma that they have endured throughout the entirety of their playing careers. Furthermore, these statistics evince the rhetorical appeal of logos. The author uses proven facts and empirical data in his argument to persuade the audience that playing football in the NFL is more dangerous than what the league has portrayed it to be. Breslow’s credibility and sincerity, as well as his use of interviews with high-profiled doctors, successfully evinces the danger of playing football at any point during one’s life. Throughout the article, Breslow maintains a very sincere and formal tone, and he does not have a heavy bias. Although Breslow does criticize the NFL for being lax with its position regarding head trauma, the author maintains composure and delivers his message concisely. His writing approach is quite formal, as he states the facts, uses quotes from interviews from highly qualified professionals, and connects with the audience. Breslow has written articles for years about this subject, and he has clearly established himself as a credible rhetor. In addition to his own credibility as a writer, Breslow enhances his ethos by including information from Dr. Ann McKee, the lead director and chief of neuropathology at the VA Boston HealthCare System, the place where the concussion study was held (Breslow). She claims that she and the others in her lab “had no problem identifying [CTE] in hundreds of players” (Breslow). This clearly contradicts the NFL’s previous claim that there was no connection between CTE, repetitive head trauma, and playing football in the NFL. Breslow’s inclusion of this critical fact furthers his credibility in his claim that the danger of playing football is real. This is clear evidence of ethos at work in Breslow’s text. The author’s sincerity and validity in his writing persuades fans, football players, and parents that they should take a second look at playing a sport beloved by American people. Breslow is able to connect with the main members of his audience, football players, both current and retired, parents, and fans through the emotional appeal of pathos.
This enables him to get his message across in a manner such that the audience is influenced and takes his approach on this issue. Breslow primarily does this by mentioning the release of the film Concussion. This film highlights the embarrassing time period of the NFL in which the league “sought to refute research suggesting football may contribute to brain disease” (Breslow). This statement really hits home with parents and former players. There may have been hundreds, if not thousands, of athletes who went on to play football in their careers and did not know about these life-threatening risks. Had these athletes known about the risks, they may have chosen not to play football. This is why this emotional appeal hits home with parents and former players. Now that parents are informed about the risks, they may not let their kids play a sport that would endanger their health for the rest of their lives. Breslow’s claim in which the league refuted evidence could very well scare the audience and instill fear of a potential situation in which someone’s own son had to endure the pain that the eighty-seven NFL former NFL players did. The emotional appeal of pathos is manifested in this text in order to inform the audience of the extreme measures taken place by the NFL to suppress potential evidence linking itself
with brain disease. Jason Breslow’s decision to speak out about this controversial topic in his article with PBS’ Frontline may be extremely valuable to parents, both current and former football players, and fans. In several years from now, there could be drastic changes witnessed as a result of evidence and emotional persuasion brought forth by writers like Breslow. Through the use of advanced statistics, in-depth interviews with doctors and other professionals, and emotional appeal, Breslow successfully reveals to the audience the connection that the NFL has hid from players, parents, and fans for years: head injuries suffered while playing in the NFL are directly correlated with CTE and other traumatic diseases. Breslow presents shocking and unfathomable statistics that help to prove his credibility. He also uses pathos almost as a scare tactic. He wants the audience to be caught off-guard with his findings, and he wants to shed new light on the topic. If men and women follow in Breslow’s footsteps and write articles detailing findings as shocking as those in this article, writers around the world can easily persuade and influence their respective audiences, thus allowing the audience to connect with the problem or cause.
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
A big part of the NFL’s hold on players is their contracts and money. Thousands of young men aspire to be on a professional team, just for the fame, money and title. They are not made aware of the lasting conditions that come with playing football and their everlasting effects. If anything, the NFL has gone out of their way to discredit the newer research that links playing football with CTE. CTE stands for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is a disease that has the same effects as dementia and Alzheimer’s, except that CTE leaves tau protein deposition in distinctive areas of the brain, which is what separates CTE from dementia and Alzheimer’s....
In the article “Should Kids Play Football” from the Scholastic Scope on February 2015, writer Jennifer Shotz discusses both issues of the benefits and dangers of playing American football. For example, Jennifer Shots mentioned that tens of thousands of young football players get concussions every year. She states that most players return to the game after they are healed but some never return because their concussion was too severe to their health. On the other hand, the writer also discusses how football isn't the only sport that encounters concussions. The rules of football are always changing and each new rule provides a safer way to play the game. For example, the writer notes that Pop Warner has reduced the amount of practice time dedicated
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.
The average NFL player takes up to 1,000 blows to the head throughout their football career. Some of those blows can have the force of a sledgehammer (“RealNatural”). Based on a research study by Dr. Jesse David, there were 265 concussions reported in the 2012 season, during the 2011 season there were 266 concussions, and 270 concussions in 2010 season (Kacsmar). It has been known that repeated blows to the head can cause long-term brain damage since at least the 1950’s, long before most of the NFL players had begun their careers (“RealNatural”). Past infractions of the NFL have already resulted in over 4,500 forme...
A parents worst fear is to have something tradgic happen to their child, especially if it was something that was caused by a sport, such as football. “Don’t Let Kids Play Football” is an article that is warning parents and children about the dangers of playing high contact sports. In the article published in The New York Times, Dr. Bennet Omalu, a physician who diagnosed CTE shares research that shows the long term effects of high impact sports and discusses the possibilities of brain damage. ”Don’t Let Kids Play Football” is rhetorically persuasive because Dr. Omalu uses moral duty to appeal to audience’s emotions and uses evidence to support the research on CTE.
He begins by discussing Rugby and how hazardous it is for young men. He backs it up by including a quote from the Cornell President, Andrew D. White. Zimmerman (2016) quotes White by stating, “‘The sight of a confused mass of educated young men making batter-rams of their bodies, plunging their heads into each other’s stomachs, piling upon each other or maiming each other for life- something indeed… killing each other… is a brutal monstrosity’” (p. 1). By using this hyperbolic quote Zimmerman in injecting pathos into his argument in order to manipulate the reader. Pathos can definitely sway an audience’s opinion when used correctly, however, Zimmerman’s use of it here is considerably poor because it adds a bit of repetitiveness to his paragraph due to the fact that before the quote he states something very similar too it. Instead it may have been better if he stated a statistic that added more support and validation to his statement. Zimmerman (2014) then goes onto state, “Amid newspaper reports of 18 football deaths that fall” (p. 2). While this fact has potential to help maintain Zimmerman’s stance against football, it fails and becomes almost invalid because of how this statistic is from 1905. It has little impact with an audience with present day. While Zimmerman speafootball in the past and the days of rugby he could have instead spoken of why the American sport is a problem now, in present day. By focusing too much on explaining the past of football he has not given enough evidence and backing on why it is still so dangerous in present day. Zimmerman then goes onto discuss the inclusion of the forward pass and then the introduction of helmets. However, his argument still lacks solid evidence and statistics for backing up what he is claiming. For instance, when Zimmerman (2014) writes, “helmet-to-helmet hits remain one of the key causes of concussions and
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.
“Football’s Endgame: What would happen if America’s Pastime just...died” is the title that had heads turning when it made its way onto Sports Illustrated. Football is the United State’s favorite sport so an article like this one was sure to shock fans. The article was written to be set ten years from now when the game of football met its death. Giving the ongoing issues surrounding the game in 2016, the author Austin Murphy dated the article September 7,2036. In this article Murphy talks about the factors that led to the end of one of the U.S’s beloved sports. Factors like the AIG not protecting athletes against head injuries in the NFL, Pop Warner settling a death with the family of a former football player who committed suicide at the age of 25 from CTE caused by hits to the head, and the 10% rise in football concussions. A woman whose son had passed away from a motorcycle accident noticed changes in her boy. Playing football for almost a decade he was bound to get hurt, but it was after his death that doctors found he had CTE. CTE is a topic of discussion in this article. Sports Illustrated works to inform everyone about CTE and its effects on the mind. This disease targets the way a person thinks and changes their moods, “He had all these [football-related] problems with his knees and back, but his brain was
A. Background In recent years, there has been an increase in research investigating the long-term effects of repeated head trauma on the brain, especially in athletes. Following his discovery of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), Dr. Bennet Omalu inspired a movement of research aimed at establishing better safety standards and protocols in football. It was not until 2002 that the initial connection between repetitive head trauma, such as concussions, and brain injury was suspected (Ott, 2015). As common as concussions were during the late 1970s and 1980s, they were often swept under the rug, as they were seen as insignificant injuries.
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.
Many memories are made in football, but sadly some of the greatest players cannot recall them. The National Football League has been associated with concussions and brain traumas throughout the years, but lately it has been exposed by media and NFL veterans. The league recently “reached a $765 million preliminary settlement with thousands of former players who were suing the league over its treatment of concussions…” (Waldron). Many former players are experiencing the effects of taking hard hits over and over again; they were not properly treated, which makes the injury worse and long term. The concussion issue in the NFL is more prevalent today, because it affects not only the players, but the league as a whole.
Mihoces, Gary. “Parents Weigh Risks of Youth Football Amid Concussion Debate.” USA Today. USA Today, 23 May 2012. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
The failure of the NFL to disclose credible research linking concussions to permanent, hidden long-term brain injury to the players can be interpreted as both ethical and unethical. Ethical theories and traps influenced the NFL’s decision. Not disclosing the research is considered moral by the ethical theory of utilitarianism. Utilitarian ethics considers the best decision is one which maximizes overall happiness and minimizes overall pain is more ethical. Utilitarianism’s goal is to produce the best outcome for the largest number of people. The NFL’s failure to reveal the research connecting concussion to permanent brain injury’s is in line with utilitarian ethics. A larger population benefits from football compared to the small number of
From long practice hours, hot summer workouts, and many Friday nights, my personal observation of this dangerous sport is exceptionally prevalent. My initial experience of the damage that football brings came my eighth grade year when I witnessed a senior football player on my team try and eat a phone on the ride home after receiving a concussion in the third quarter of the game. Which is a prime example to defend the fact that football related injuries to the head result in people not “being all there.” Not only have I seen someone try and eat a phone, but I have also witnessed head injuries resulting in my own friend randomly yelling at me after a game for no reason, and also a friend trying to jump down a full flight of stairs thinking he was starring in a movie. The fast paced, high intensity contact that comes with playing football is nothing to think flippantly of when it plays a role on brain trauma, and the results of brain trauma.