...Society Concussions in Sport: An Analytical Discussion “I had no idea what a nickel was (Kevin Kolb, The Concussion Blog).” NFL quarterback Kevin Kolb has suffered three major concussions since 2010 (Galliford, Buffalorumblings). His most recent one just this past August effectively ended his football career. This is just one example of the many in which multiple or severe concussions have cut short careers in sports. The issue of player safety in sport has become a topic of controversy and debate in recent years. Many professional leagues such as the NFL and the NHL have adopted strict concussion test protocols and procedures for its players. Player safety has no doubt become a major concern in contact sports. The problem is, many of these regulations have yet to address what happens after playing careers are over. What happens to former players’ mental and physical health after they retire? How do players whom have suffered multiple concussions playing contact sports live their lives as opposed to players whom have played non-contact sports such as golf or baseball? What will be questioned in this analysis is do known players that have suffered multiple and/or severe concussions throughout their playing careers due to playing a contact sport develop abnormally high levels of mental and physical health problems at an early age? Previous history on the attempts to lower the frequency of severe injury and concussions have shown advances...
Words: 3098 - Pages: 13
...Concussions in Athletes Concussions in Athletes Introduction Athletes are faced with a number of health issues including injuries that could require surgery. It is also important to note that there are a number of athletes who have died while participating in sports. Sadly, most athletes do not report these problems in time albeit they are aware of the symptoms that accompany such sport-related health problems. Concussion is one such health problem that is affecting athletes, especially high school students. It has been reported that most of athletes tend to avoid reporting symptoms of concussion in order to avoid being sidelined from playing (Diagnosing and Treating Sports-Related Concussion, 2014). In the United States, it is estimated that up to 3.8 million athletes suffer from concussions linked to high impact sports (Diagnosing and Treating Sports-Related Concussion, 2014). There is, however, a feeling that the figure is under-estimated in the sense that most athletes as well as their coaches are not conversant with the symptoms of this particular health issue. Therefore, concussions in athletes are a serious health issue which should be addressed immediately. There is need to inform athletes and all stakeholders in the sport industry on the symptoms of concussions as well as their capability to be fatal in order to help athletes seek treatment to avoid repetitive concussions which would lead to deaths. The purpose of this paper is to inform the reader, especially...
Words: 2830 - Pages: 12
...Concussions have been an increasingly controversial topic for many years with both reports on an increase of concussions to more awareness towards the issue, how both effects can happen at the same time is a puzzling mystery. The overall opinion of two medical professionals interviewed is that there is more awareness of concussions, causing more concussions to be diagnosed. From constant lawsuits and present and former athletes speaking out against sport associations, concussions are clearly having a large impact on society. According to Tria Physical Therapist Carly Mattson PT, DPT, OCS, a concussion is either caused by an injury or impact to the head or neck. Although once believed that concussions always caused unconsciousness, that is not always the case. “A...
Words: 1148 - Pages: 5
...Concussions are a danger to many athletes in our country. A concussion is what happens when the head receives a blow or is jarred resulting in a bruise on the brain. The effects of a concussion can be immediate loss of consciousness right after receiving the injury. Other immediate symptoms could be dizziness, nausea, aching of the head, memory loss etc. If the concussion is serious, some more long term effects are long term memory loss, depression, mood swings, loss of focus and an inability to move in certain ways. Studies have shown that athletes that suffer a concussion and then go back in the game and get another concussion can suffer serious brain damage. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) estimates that over 300,000 sports-related...
Words: 408 - Pages: 2
...At least, 300,000 sports-related concussions happen each year nationwide of all ages (Tanner,2). In high school athletics, they happen at a rate of 3 per 10,000 practices or games (Tanner, 2). Many leagues and association across America are being affected by this concussion epidemic. Many players are saying the leagues are not doing enough about it and are profiting off the injuries. This causes many of the leagues to be sued. The topic of National Football league concussion safety has been in the middle of all of the smoke, and there will always be supporters and critics who continue to debate this topic. Concussions happen in sports every day, they are very common in contact sports. First off, a concussion is a brain injury that is caused by a blow to the head or body that shakes the brain inside the skull (WebMD, 1). When you get a concussion, you may not think clearly there are a whole bunch of symptoms that can happen, it can be your thinking or it can be physical. A concussion can last up to a few hours, or they can last days or weeks (WebMD, 4). How long your concussion is really depends on how hard you hit your head. A concussion is caused if your head is hit hard enough that the spinal fluid surrounding your brain is not enough from cushioning your brain from hitting your skull (WebMD, 1). The only way...
Words: 1041 - Pages: 5
...Concussions in NFL athletes Daniel Cetnarowski DeVry University Concussions in NFL athletes. Football, a sport of hard hits and exciting plays. Every year you see something in football which is amazing. A player breaks a record or catches a ridiculous pass for a touchdown. Your favorite team goes to the super bowl and wins. Your favorite player has a career season and breaks NFL records. These are the reasons why I love the game of football. But with the good, must come the bad. Players receiving injuries while playing. Minor injuries to major injuries, sooner or later every player in the NFL will experience an injury. The sad thing is, there is one injury that has an everlasting effect. Concussions. Once thought to be no big deal, concussions are now at the center of a huge lawsuit against the NFL and forcing retired players to change how they live. So, are concussions changing the lives of NFL players or is there something else happening to the players that are causing these brain disorders? My vote is the concussions are causing these players lives to change forever. The purpose of this proposal is to show that if something is not done to limit concussions the sport may change the way we know it and love it. I would not want to watch football if the NFL went to flag football and not full tackle. The players would not want that either. If that happens the players’ salaries will get decreased. It will be a trickle down affect. The NFL will lose...
Words: 2735 - Pages: 11
...pads, and helmets was always a fun time. Back in high school when the coaches would make you have two a day practices to get ready for the fall. In the back of the players minds, and even their parents is the idea of a very bad injury or even a concussion. What is a concussion you might ask? Concussion is a temporary unconsciousness caused by a blow to the head. The term is also used loosely of the after effects such as confusion or temporary incapacity. Concussions can be very difficult to spot especially since plays don’t necessarily have to be knocked out in order to receive a concussion. This is why players who suffer from head injuries are often told to shake it off and get back in the game. Many concussions in high school go undiagnosed due to lack of staff, player, and family knowledge about concussions. Being able to recognize a concussion is the first step in protecting athletes. Ways to recognize a concussion that has either been knocked out or still conscious would be if a player feels dizzy, confused and forgetful, complains about headaches, and/or vomit or feels nauseous. Concussion symptoms can either occur right away or in some cases they can begin weeks later after receiving the hit that caused the concussion. Concussions have been around since the beginning of time even out of sporting events like Football. Times have changed since the very first football game was invented. In the past players would not even use protective gear to protect them from different injuries...
Words: 1503 - Pages: 7
...purpose of work is to inform his readers about the current issues in sports. The intended audience is the sports nation and everybody involved. This source educates the entire world on the seriousness of concussions. From children playing pee-wee football to adults playing in the NFL, concussions cause brain damage. They can cause a player to be inactive for a month, year, or a lifetime. In some very serious circumstances concussions may cause death. Zirin, Dave. "High Price of Concussions." Progressive Oct. 2010: 42. Wilson OmniFile Full Text Mega Edition. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. <http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results_single_ftPES.jhtml>. 2 NFL commissioner Rodger Goodell is taking serious steps to make his players more safe. Coaches are looking at what Goodell is doing and are following him by example. Goodell feels that if coaches and players see how serious the problem is, they will find more and more ways to protect the youth. "Heads up! NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell talks about the importance of protecting student athletes from traumatic head injuries." State Legislatures 37.2 (2011): 21. Gale Student Resources in Context. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. <http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/MagazinesDetailsPage>. 3 E:60 is a segment conducted by the ESPN network. This network covers every single sport and is a very credible source. The purpose was to inform its viewers on the seriousness of concussions. By introducing second impact to viewers, it encourages...
Words: 2713 - Pages: 11
...Concussions are the most common type of brain injury and the least serious type of injury to the brain. Concussions are caused by a blow to the head that causes damage to the soft tissue to the brain. The brain is surrounded by a layer of spinal fluid inside the skull that acts like a cushion during normal movement. When you receive a hard hit, it causes the brain to move around inside the skull. The result is bruising to the brain and damage to the blood vessels and nerves inside the brain. This causes the brain to not be able to function normally. It can disturb the vision, resulting in sensitivity to light or blurred vision, and may cause the injured person to lose their balance. In short, the brain becomes confused and cannot function...
Words: 1452 - Pages: 6
...On Concussions and High-School Football With risk comes reward. Concussions are a growing issue in sports, but especially football. Members on a school board in Las Vegas have proposed banning high-school football because of this increasing issue, and this is being considered in other places. Davis County is debating whether or not to ban high-school football, in my opinion there is more good that comes from football than bad. Football is a collision sport in which players tackle each other, which can lead to injuries and concussions. A concussion is the force from an impact that causes the brain to strike the inner surface of the skull. This can result in long-term brain damage, and can be fatal in some cases. While concussions are bad, there are good things that come from playing football. Ed Riley from the Portland Tribune said "My son and his teammates have learned more about hard work, sportsmanship and resilience on the football field than anywhere else". Some parents believe that the risks of injury outweigh the benefits of playing, but by playing sports in high-school, students can learn skills they’ll use throughout their lives. Another reason football is a good sport for students is that it’s a equal-opportunity sport. Any kind of athlete can join a football team, and the skill needed to play don’t require...
Words: 608 - Pages: 3
...I am so happy you wrote to me a topical question. Football is the most popular sport in America. More than hundred people tune into watch the Super Bowl every year. Playing football is the great way to improve healthy lifestyle, teamwork, and concentration, etc. Although there are a lot of great reasons to playing football; there are also some problems that must be considered. Injuries are the part of football. Getting hit happens normally and the most dangerous problem when playing football is head injuries which can lead to health issues later in life, or cause a person’s psyche. Professional football players have stand a lot of jarring hits to their heads, and getting hit regularly will cause concussion. Brain damage is an important problem in football and you need to be aware of there are a lot of research showing that it is dangerous to let kids play football and there are also some true stories about kids died because of brain...
Words: 1386 - Pages: 6
...Literature review A concussion is often referred to mild brain injury by medical professionals. The study of Gerberich published in 1983 was one of the first widely cited articles to deal with concussions in high school football and spanned the years 1978–1982. Emily A. Harrison, a doctoral candidate in the History of Science Department at Harvard University researched, sports concussion has become a prominent public health problem in the early 21st century, also referred to as “The Concussion Crisis.” Harrison found that Football-related concussion contributed to much of the epidemic burden and inspired a lot of public awareness. The crisis has been around for more than a century. In the first decades of the sport of football, concussions...
Words: 724 - Pages: 3
...Today, concussions are a serious factor in most sports and have moved to the center of attention in public awareness. According to the Sports Concussion Institute, a concussion is “a complex pathophysiological process that affects the brain, typically induced by trauma to the brain” (2016). Most concussions occur without the individual losing consciousness yet these impairments can lead to dementia, aggression, confusion, impaired judgment, and depression and may not be treatable. In fact, per Marcos Abreu, “the American Academy of Neurology discovered that athletes are at greatest risk of repeat injury in the first 10 days’ post-concussion and suggested that the more head injuries a person suffers; the more likely they are to face complications...
Words: 1013 - Pages: 5
...Concussions A concussion occurs when the head suddenly stops moving and the brain smashes into the inside of the skull (Goldsmith 4). Concussions are especially an issue in the NFL due to the amount of head-to-head. The main issue is due to the amount of velocity a person has with the contact of one person to another. So, by saying this concussions need to be taken more seriously in the NFL due to the amount of players who have suffered from them. What is a concussion? A concussion is a milder form of a traumatic brain injury in which the brain moves inside the skull due to external force (Goldsmith 7). Concussions are common in sports with any contact that can result in any kind of brain or head injury....
Words: 394 - Pages: 2
...High school student-athletes can relate to this, for the matter: at some point in their athletic career they were injured and did not fully recover.They were not able to fully bounce back because there was never the thought that it would result in long term damage. Playing through the injury was key. This was due to constant repetition saying, “play through the discomfort and pain, it sucks not but it will pay off in the end.” Many athletes are taught that sports are all about fighting through struggles; if that task cannot be completed then they are not resilient enough for sports. “Despite the NFL’s best efforts, however, football is an extremely physical and violent game, in which concussions and head injuries are inevitable. Players continue to hide concussion symptoms from coaches and trainers to avoid being taken out of a highly contested game and possibly even losing their starting positions permanently” (Drysdale 427). In the long run it is better to address the injury right away instead of trying to stay in the game. It would be most beneficial to sit out the few games required for recovery, than to play and worsen the injury. NFL players did what any athlete would do and stay in the game, regarding whatever their condition was. They did this to avoid the disappointment their teammates might see in them, but also the satisfaction they would get when...
Words: 2668 - Pages: 11
