Jose A. Jilpas
Rebecca Millan
Engl-1302 VF1-Composition 2 - Rhetoric
9 December 2014

The Big HIT in the NFL:
Head injuries are changing the way the game is played
I firmly believe that the future of the NFL and all of its players is in jeopardy of being lost as the American sport as we know it simply due to the fact that too many injuries are occurring in the NFL today than what was happening in the past. Sure past players got hurt, but players now hit ten times harder, play ten times tougher, it’s obvious they are due for a serious injury, it’s just a matter of time and when, surely they make millions each year, but is all that money worth the risk of losing your life or possibly harming it?
Imagine this, you’re at your sons final football game as he’s a senior about to graduate, he’s got the crowd rooting for him, he’s the one who snaps the ball, yes the quarterback of the team. The defense is running full force, showing blitz when suddenly “ WHAM!” he takes a huge hit from a defensive player and stays laid out on the floor , suddenly coaches and staff from the team rush to the field while he remains still, the crowd silent , awaiting the outcome . Slowly he gets up with the help of the staff and coaches, he’s then carted to the locker room by team staff where they tell the parents that they are checking him for a concussion because it’s UIL protocol when it comes to hard extensive hits taken by a defenseless player. Not one person who loves football can deny that the big hits and huge plays are the main reason we watch the game, but has anyone ever stopped for a second to observe how dangerous the hits can actually be and how they can affect a player and their families long term? We often hear about how NFL players current and from the past are being accused or charged with domestic violence, assaults, murder, and other heinous crimes, but often we over look the fact that maybe a head injury from their past football experiences may come into play as to why the player acts the way they do. Concussions are proven to cause loss of brain functioning that can lead to physical and emotional symptoms, attention disorders, depression, headaches, nausea, and amnesia. These symptoms can last for days or week and even after the symptoms have gone, the brain still won't be completely normal. Players with multiple concussions can have drastically worsened symptoms and exponentially increased recovery time.
Michael Vick, four time pro bowler, Desean Jackson, Rookie of the Year, and Peyton Manning future Hall of Famer, have received concussions before. They come from a hard blow to the head and that's more common now in football because players hit head to head more often. According to American Medical Society for sports medicine, high school and college football has the highest concussion rates. It has been estimated in the USA 3.8 million concussions occur and 50% are not reported (Harmon pg.17).
Concussions are the NFL's biggest problem right now even in 2014, The NFL has made changes to decrease this injury by creating new helmets, rules, and tests. Concussions have caused financial troubles and now they are in progress of paying some of the Hall of Famers. According to Nfl.com, a group of ex players agreed to $765 million settlement for a lawsuit over concussions. It's been reported that over 4500 former players are suffering depression. If a concussion is severe, the concussion develops in the brain as a degenerative disease.
According to the Harmon, "concussions are a traumatically transient disturbance of brain function and involves a complex pathophysiological process." It means concussions are a hard blow to the head that the brain goes through a process that can affect the brain. Concussions symptoms are: headaches, nausea, amnesia, balance problems, dizziness, fatigue, irregular sleeping patterns, and increased sadness (Diehl, pg. 89). There are two kinds of concussions; mild or severe. A mild concussion is the shorter version of concussion since it doesn't last as long and the permanent structural damage is severe (Cecile, Roe pg. 1235). Concussions can cause minor but frequent injuries (Cecile, Roe pg. 1235). Post concussion syndrome also known as PCS, requires persistence of at lease three typical symptoms for at least three months, according to the International Classification of Diseases, Version 10 (Cecilie, Roe pg. 1237).
Imagine this, the sound of cheering fans riding over the beating of your own heart as your feet glide across the ground. You have the ball and your team is depending on you, then bang, you're hit hard and you feel only a sharp pain in your head and down your neck. That's what it is like to have a concussion and the NFL is trying to prevent this injury. According to ESPN Commissioner Roger Goddell said, "NFL players can wear a helmet they want as long as it complies with prescribed standards". These helmets include Schott, Xenith, and Rawlings. They are all new helmets to prevent concussions. Also, they changed the kickoff rules in 2011. Kickoffs are now at the 35 yard line that was moved up 5 yards (Lisa Henderson pg. 12). It was accounted 43% decline in concussions (Lisa Henderson pg. 12). Players are also fired or suspended for head to head hits.
Now, when players are hit hard, doctors take them to the locker room to run tests on them before they can return to the field. On YouTube, there are over a thousand videos on big hits. The videos are nothing but hard hitting videos. Many of these people are injured. Some of them suffer concussions from these hits. It has been researched that the NFL knew about players suffering CTE according to PBS. Many players that played with concussions are suffering and paying the consequences now. Mike Webster was a tough player. He played for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1974. He suffered several concussions and played with them. That caused Mike to act different. According to PBS America his wife said "There was this change in his personality where he didn't trust anybody; he felt everybody was out to get him; that wasn't the Mike I knew and loved". Mike died in 2002 and his brain was used for research. For the League of Denial. Mike is just one of many who are suffering the same thing. Dave Duerson was a former Bears player who killed himself and it was discovered he had pain in the left side of the brain (Intil, John pg. 1). Many of the greats have suffered physical pain. Concussions can change your life. The change it makes is not for the better it makes you much worse. You can suffer memory lost, pain in your brain, nausea, dizziness, and depression. Many of players have died because of this. Concussions are a serious factor that needs to be fixed in the NFL. It's becoming a big risk now for players to step on the field. The NFL should change the rules and make it more serious that if players are hit above the head there will be consequences. The focus needs to be on the players. The NFL needs to be much more safe. Football historians report that President Theodore Roosevelt called representatives from Harvard, Princeton and Yale to the White House in 1905 and said he would ban the game of football if they didn’t stop the brutality which, in that year alone, had caused 18 deaths and more than 150 severe injuries. He was especially outraged by a tactic called “the flying wedge,” in which 10 football players on the receiving team locked their arms together and created a V formation that would barrel down the field and crush anyone in its way.
Although players now wear much more sophisticated protective helmets and padding, and a host of rules are in place that prevent the routine slugfests and gang tackles of 100 years ago, football is still a violent game. Even more than that, of course, it is big business — The National Football League’s (NFL) revenues this year are projected at $8 billion.
So what happens when the NFL’s main product — the game — comes under scrutiny for the very violence that makes it appealing to so many fans? Collisions between players have always caused visible injuries, ranging from broken bones to dislocated shoulders, that are considered the unavoidable byproducts of a rough sport. Now the invisible injuries — most notably, concussions — are getting attention as well. According to the latest medical research, concussions can trigger long-term consequences — including depression, cognitive dysfunction, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease — that often don’t show up for years after the initial hit. Furthermore, research is demonstrating that concussions are common not just among pros, but among college and high school players and even those as young as 12.
The issue gained enormous traction after three NFL players on October 17 sustained concussions from tackles so brutal that even hard-boiled game announcers were shocked. Two days later, the NFL fined three players a total of $175,000 for what it said were illegal hits to the head (although penalties were not called at the time) and said it would begin suspending players for helmet-to-helmet hits starting immediately. An estimated 3.8 million sports and recreation related concussions occur each year, with football-related concussions leading the pack.13 According to one study, the average college football player sustains a whopping “950 to 1,100 sub-concussive blows per season—hits that are enough to do cumulative damage to young brain tissue but not enough to cause immediate symptoms.” There are approximately 1,700 concussions sustained in the NFL each season. The investigator explained, "After a certain number of hits, the damage starts to show." According to studies conducted by the NFL’s Committee on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI), a “concussion in professional football involves a mean impact velocity of 9.3 m/second (20.8 mph) and a head velocity change of 7.222 m/second (16.1 mph).” The Committee actualized the severity of this finding by comparing car accidents, stating car accidents typically “involve impact durations of less than 6 m/sec for head impacts.” The NFL’s own Committee recognized the severity of concussions, yet for years, the league denied the connection between football-related concussions and long-term neurological injury. Now, the NFL finds itself embroiled in massive litigation surrounding the long-term effects of concussions. More than 4,000 former players have sued the NFL alleging the league caused and contributed to the increased risks of latent brain injury by failing to disclose the risks of repeated MTBIs and by failing to take the appropriate steps to prevent and mitigate repeated traumatic head impacts and the latent brain injury.20 While the former players want relief, litigation is not the answer. Litigation presents hurdles to both the plaintiff-players and the NFL that will be difficult to tackle and which make litigation ineffective to solve this massive dispute. The time has come for the NFL to step up to the line of scrimmage and take responsibility for its players and families. For the NFL, these health and safety concerns raise a number of questions: Was their response to the rash of concussions last week an over-reaction, or too little too late? How does the resulting publicity affect the long-term viability and popularity of the game? What legal issues are raised when players are paid to risk their long-term cognitive health?

In sports everyone who commits to playing for an organized team knows that there is a large risk involved by the time you are stepping onto the field, Court or Ice Rink. One of the most common sports that athletes are being injured in is the sport of football. Everyone knows the dangers of the full contact sport because it is so widely commercialized for all ages. From pee-wee all the way to the NFL football is a big deal but what about the injury's that come along with playing this violent game. Concussions are one of the most common injures that occur out of the football field and it has begun to get the public talking about what is being done to save these athletes from serious head trauma. Each organization, weather it is pop Warner to the National Football League is doing everything they can to prevent head injuries in the sport of football.

How many athletes are concussions actually affecting through out the season?
It is no secret that every time an athlete is strapping up his helmet and walking on to the football field, he is putting his body in risk of serious injury but how often are these injury's; particularly head injury's, occurring on the football field. According to The American Journal of Sports Medicine it is said that four out of every 1,000 High School Football exposures resulted in an injury. This study was taking during the 2005-06 season. This means that every 1,000 plays four athletes were getting injured. In the same study taken for Collegiate Football players it was found that the college athletes were twice as more likely to be injured then high school students were by the end of the 05-06 season. It is surprising to learn that the injury rate in high school and football are so high. Many people may think that 1,000 is allot but for those who done know an every football game has about 140 plays in each game and many more in each practice through out the week. The results of injury’s the NFL for the past is some one sickening. According to CBS Sports more then 61% of former players had concussions during there time in the league. The study consisted of 1,094 former players, ranging from 27 to 86 years old. This study was completed in 1996 and is one of the main reasons that football is the is the sport it is today. Organizations Looked at these statistics and realized that it was time for a change in the sport of football because it was not worth the life's of athletes simply to enjoy a game.

Is the refurbishing of equipment preventing injuries for athletes?
A large factor that has played a big role keeping athletes safe from head injury's is the development of helmets, Styles, Padding, even Refurbishing. When it comes to keeping athletes safe it is the responsibility of the NOCSAE. Founded in 1969 it has been there responsibility to improve athletic equipment and as a result, reduce injury's. One thing that the NOCSEA has been working on for some time is refurbishing helmets. There has been many controversy over helmets because the brain is the most important part of your body and with out it you can not function as a normal human being. The task of refurbishing helmets is one that has been broken down to a science. The entire process is all done by hand by a professional licences by the NOCSAE. The workers have to make sure that each helmet that is done meets the NOCSAE code before being shipped out and put into use. The Process of refurbishing an old helmet in order to make it suitable for the football field is somewhat easy but has no margin for errors. The process consists of stripping down a helmet by taking out all of the padding. After that a worker will file down all the scratches and dents. The last part of the repairing process is the layering of puddy that will seal up any cracks of deep scratches that could be harmful to an athlete when in use. After the repairs are finished the helmet will then be cleaned and put through multiple tests before it can be painted and shipped out.

Treatment of Head Injuries in the NFL vs High School/College
It is no surprise that treatment for injury's in the NFL differs from treatment that an athlete in High School or college would receive but not many people really understand how much different each level is when it comes down to it. In High School athletics concussions are an extremely common injury but when it comes to treatment there is not always trainers that know how to deal with these types of injury's. In many parts of the country High School students are aloud to go right back into practices with no limitations after being cleared from a concussion. One school in Colorado is taking the next step to protect there players by making it a rule that there athletes must start with low-Impact practices before jumping into full contact in order to lower the risk of re injuring the athlete. College athletics take more precautions when it come to head injury's. When an athlete receives a concussion the athlete must under go a balance/symptoms test, if the athlete is able to pass the balance/symptoms test they will then be giving a computerized test called the IMPACT Test that will determine if there brain is functioning properly. The final test given if the athlete is able to pass the first is a conditioning test; This will consist of multiple trills that will test there ability to do activity with out there symptoms returning. When it comes to treatment in the NFL and College there are not many differences, In the NFL each injured player is required to go through the same tests and drills that an athlete in college must go through in order to get back onto the football field. The only big difference is that in the NFL there are many more doctors treating the athlete then there would be in college witch makes sure that the athlete is defiantly being treated correctly and ensures that he will be back and healthy as soon as he possibly can.

What else can be done?
Football organizations from Youth programs all the way up to the NFL are doing all they can to keep there athletes safe but there are still many people and many groups who feel that there is still not enough being done to ensure the safety of these athletes. Representative John Conyers Jr, a Michigan Democrat and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is just one of many fighting to make more laws for football to obey by. In December 2009 a law was passed requiring any player that exhibits any significant sign of concussion to be removed from a game or practice and be barred from returning the same day. Conyers is just one of many fighting to change the rules and regulations of football when it comes to injury's but it is with out a dought a constant battle because of the fact that so much is already being done to ensure the safety of every Football player weather it be someone just strapping up there helmet for the first time or a veteran in the NFL. The main priority it so keep the athletes safe and allow them to play the game that they love to play and that we love to watch.

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