...Benny Nduwayo Peter Beyer Eng Comp 26 February 2015 Mike Webster Concussions have been a big problem since the day the NFL started. People did not know how dangerous football was until the crisis of Mike Webster broke out in the 90s. He played for Pittsburgh, played in the center, and wore number 52. By wearing that number he knew he obviously had to be the toughest player on the field. By playing in the center, there was no glory for Mike Webster. It was play after play while going in head to head with other players. Most guys play for 6 years or so, and then retire but that was not the case for Mike Webster. He played for 17 years in a dangerous game that he loved a lot. After he retired from the NFL, he was a different person than he was before he started playing in the NFL. Pam Webster recalled, “To see his brain declining years later was such a sad thing, because he was incredibly smart, and what I've said the boys have this gift that they see detail that no one else picks up on, and Mike had that gift.” During a football game, sometimes Mike would see someone flexing, moving, and he would then draw them off to the side just by moving his body. He basically knew where everything was on the field. If you were to look for that in his old films when he was playing, you would see mike notice something like that play, and he would turn to Terry Bradshaw and tell him to change the play. Mike was the master of the game for sure. Mike’s ex-wife Pam Webster, said in League of...
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...of North American football. What would tell your friend about the potential neurological consequences of playing football and what is currently being done to prevent neurological injuries? The first thing I would say is that while football is certainly fun and entertaining to watch, the human body was not designed to handle the frequent hard hits to the body and head as a result of playing the sport. Unfortunately these professional athletes end up suffering from brain damage as a result of our thirst and fascination for hard hits and violence. I would explain that while football helmets seem safe, they truly only provide very minimal protection against concussions that cause the brain to bounce, shake and rotate back and forth hitting against the wall of the human skull as a result of frequent football tackles that appear harmless to those watching the sport. To ensure the message hits home, I would bring up examples of their favourite former NFL players such as Hall of Famer Mike Webster who actually suffered neurological effects of playing the sport. It is important to highlight the most severe consequences first, which is that playing football can cause severe trauma to the brain as a result of multiple concussions that these athletes regularly experience. This trauma starts to destroy the integrity of the brain cells, causing a degenerative brain disease known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). High levels of CTE in a football player’s brain can result in memory...
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...The Concussion Crisis “Mom, Papa keeps stopping at green lights” (Moyes). Ken Stabler realized he was declining but he didn’t want to talk to anybody about his situation. The only good thing that comes from football, is the entertainment for the fans. This game is destroying the brains of the players. Each hit, tackle, and concussion is shaking up their brains and giving them Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. We must take a stand and stop these football players from dying at such young ages. Ken Stabler left his brain for scientists so that people he left behind could understand the reason he acted the way he did in his final years. “Stabler is the seventh former N.F.L. quarterback found to have had C.T.E. by Boston University, which...
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...healthy - a promise of a better digestive track and calmer nerves. However, this was not up to par with the reality that of inhaling toxins such as nicotine, which was made with harmful pesticides. Smoking was also a positive experience, and that sensation in the back of the throat was nothing a filter could not fix. In comparison, Players, current and retired, are exposed to the risk of long term damage and mental disorders. In smoking and football are very...
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...During each National Football League (NFL) season, hundreds of concussions are recorded, and potentially a significant amount are not even reported. Increased concussions have short-term and long-term effects on players, and these effects are damaging to their health. Right now, little is being done to solve the problem, and the NFL is trying to pretend that concussions are not a big problem since injuries are common in football. However, the fact is that increased football head injuries over the years have created a big problem that the NFL cannot avoid. They should consider the proposed solution which will help reduce head injuries in the league. The solution will help them save lawsuit money and show the public that the league is dedicated to their players’ well-being. Problem The problem with the NFL is that the league is taking minimal steps in...
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...believed that injuries to the brain recuperate similarly to other typical injuries, no one would question you. Today, if you believed that your brain had the ability to fully recover from a concussion, you would be in the vast majority of individuals uneducated on this topic. However, in more recent years, researchers have found that the structure and the way the brain functions can be permanently affected by a traumatic brain injury. Although the brain's ability to repair itself through brain plasticity compensates for the minor damages, more severe damages are not as simple, and are often unable to return to the previous uninjured state. Significant collisions can result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy, in addition...
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...Almost every single athlete that has played football has obtained a concussion or the symptoms of one. Concussions are the injury that everyone pays least attention to but little do they know it has more of an effect than they think. Neurologically speaking concussions cause damage to the nerve cells in the brain which can affect the rest of the body. The more damage those cells take the slower the recovery time. Consequently, once those cells take more damage than they can handle they will die off like any other cell would. Do players really stop and think about the damage that could be caused to brain without the proper safety put in place? With the data collected there is more than enough to prove the fact that concussions can and will cause permanent brain damage. If football players in any level were taught the seriousness of a concussion and the permanent effects it has on the human brain, many players would stop and reconsider the rules that are placed upon them. Concussions are not an injury to take lightly, they have been the shadow of death upon many football players who didn’t take the injury seriously. According to Lili-Naz Hazrati, Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is the term coined for the neurodegenerative disease often suspected in athletes with histories of repeated concussion...
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...Introduction The National Football league is America’s most popular sporting league, drawling millions of fans each year. Fans wear jerseys, hats, and other merchandise to represent their favorite player(s). However, over 70% of National Football League fans, don’t realize the battle players (and retired players) have been facing for the past 20 years. For the two last decades, players have been facing life-threating health challenges that have resulted in mental illness and even death. The National Football league failed to acknowledge these medical conditions until 2010. The argument faced is whether or not players should be allowed to file a lawsuit against the National Football League, even though players sign contracts which has a acknowledgement of the possibility of injury during gameplay and practice. In 2013, the National Football League had revenue of $9.5 billion, not including the amounts that the teams earned throughout the season. A total of 1,696 players played for 32 teams in 2014. Football is the most physical athletic sport played, in the Untied states of America. Injuries are often expected to occur to players each year. However, most players only expect to miss a few games before they return from an injury, not realizing the potential risk of long term injury. Every play on a National Football League field consists of head to head contact between some player, or with the ground. Retired National Football League players have proceeded to file a civil...
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...develop permanent brain impairments. Safety, especially when protecting an individual’s brain, should be highly encouraged, even more than it is now. Safety is highly necessary for hockey because the player can get seriously hurt. If the player does not have the proper gear, especially paddings and helmet, the body and brain can be severely damaged. Even in baseball, the player has to wear protective head gear because of possible strikes to the head. As studies show, violent physical activities can have detrimental long-term effects on the participants. Sports or games that have the possibility of leading to concussions should be banned. Just because the individual...
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...celebration of football, a game Dr. Bennet Omalu, the doctor who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), calls our "collective societal intoxication and addiction." From an entertainment perspective, football is more popular than ever. Attendance figures, television ratings and the growth of fantasy football tell us that. However, while the game's popularity might be on the upswing, so is the scientific evidence that football is hazardous to the human brain. And it's not just concussions. "In terms of the truth, it is not about concussions," said Omalu in a recent interview with sport and culture writer Patrick Hruby. "It is about blows to the head." Long term, repetitive sub-concussive...
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...Andres Franco September 27th, 2010 Research Essay Can concussions affect brain function? The question whether concussions can affect brain function has been asked for years. Only recently medical researchers and scientists have found the answers to why concussions can affect the brain severely. Not only have they examined pro sport stars that have died due to concussions but also serial killers who have died or who are still in prison. Many pro football players suffer from concussions the most, since they do play head-on; the ones who have died from other natural deaths were examined. Some serial killers have also agreed to have their brain looked at for irregular brain function, and in both players and killers, there were either undeveloped frontal lobes or damaged frontal lobes. This was the answer they’ve been looking for not only to keep players safe that play pro sports, but to maybe save people from being a victim of homicide. Pro wrestler Chris Benoit suffered brain damage from his years in the ring and getting hit by metal chairs, rails, stairs, and even baseball bats. Maybe that could help explain why he killed his wife, son and also himself. A doctor who studied Benoit’s brain found out that his frontal lobe was damaged. Chris Benoit was a family man and everyone who knew him apart from wrestling, knew that that was most important to him. When he wasn’t wrestling he was with his family. In the ring he wasn’t so nice and his opponents weren’t either so they hit...
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...King, Peter. "Concussions The Hits That Are Changing Football." Sports Illustrated. 01 11 2010: Web. 13 Sep. 2012. Dr. Ann McKee an associate professor of neurology and pathology at Boston University who has been studying the brains of deceased football players, wanted to illustrate the damage that repeated hits to the helmet can cause. When she slipped a slide of a cross section of a human male brain into the microscope it showed hundreds of tiny brownish triangular bits of a toxic protein called tau which chokes off cellular life in the brain. The slide of the cross section was 10-year NFL offensive lineman Lou Creekmur. “You can see that there are hardly any areas untouched by the damage, I would call it incredible chaos in the brain, Lou was demented when he died” said McKee. Over the past three years McKee has been given the brains of sixteen former NFL players, some of whom suffered dementia and ALS of severe depression. The families of the players wondered whether there was a link between football and the psychological, physical or behavioral problems that afflict some older players. Testing has been completed on fourteen of the brains; thirteen were diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes (and others) with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including concussions as well as hits to the head. A film was showed to all 32 teams about the hits and...
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...Helmet-to-Helmet: the Fall of Football? In the year two thousand, one thousand and ninety retired NFL (Nation Football League) players had some type of brain injury (Advance sport staff). The players had speech, mood, or change in reaction time. Many doctors and trainers have proven, the injuries are from player, spearing (using their helmets to hit the other players helmet: which is harder and throws off other players balance). The biggest problem is younger children are developing a similar problems too. On a young brain, the affects are worse. New technologies or strategies must be created, or else football could be in danger. Football officials should provide the teams with newer helmets to lower the occasions of concussion, rule change and long-term effects. To comprehend the subject you must grasp difference of types helmets. The new helmets from Riddell are so far best in class by the University of Pittsburgh Neurology department. What makes the helmets different are wear they put the padding, the padding then absorbs more of the blunt force. This should be the standard football helmet from Midget (little league for football) to professional. This study is monumental for how we will build helmets. The study was taken over a three period, with more than two thousand football players from over one hundred schools. With Riddell Revolution helmets, players are thirty-one percent less likely even have a concussion. When the player did have a concussion the rate was two point...
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...Concussions have always been known to be a widespread problem, especially in sports. This is because of the lack of precautions the athletes have taken to asses themselves. They do not follow the necessary guidelines that the athletic trainers have given them when they have received a concussion, which will also harm their recovery time. Some of the causes of a concussion might be a serious impact to head from football or a car crash. High school football boys are more prone to receive concussions. Concussions are usually the result from when the head and body are violently shaken. The brain is mainly made up of very soft tissue, which is surrounded by spinal fluid. It is then encased by the skull. When you have sustained an impact,...
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...Specific Aims When we think of football players what is the first stereotypical remark that comes to an individuals’ mind? As judgmental as we all are, most individuals consider these subjects exceptional athletes without the highest intelligence quotient (IQ). With an increased focused being built around concussions in football it is important that we determine the mechanisms behind concussions and how they affect intelligence quotient from high school to the professional level. An increased number of law suits are continually being filed against the National Football League (NFL) and more concussion based research is being driven towards retired players; however, a greater focus needs to spent on how concussions affect these players from a younger age. Specific Aim 1: To test the hypothesis that multiple concussive episodes, commonly associated to football, results in a decreased intelligence quotient. Rationale 1: Studies indicate that one of the most significant effects of concussions and head trauma include memory loss; however, less focus has been placed on more measurable determinants of actual intelligence. In this specific aim, IQ test will be administered to every athlete at the high school level prior to starting a football program. Focus will be placed on highly recruited high school programs such as St. Thomas Aquinas, which currently has the most professional football players in the NFL. After every concussion and post recovery from the trauma...
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