...Concussion Awareness Among Athletes The packed stadium all holds their breath. Everyone except the player who is about to catch the ball sees what is going to happen. Then just like that it happens, the loud collision of two bodies slamming into each other, helmet to helmet. The player who just tried to catch the ball drops it on impact and now lays motionless on the field. He gets up with help and walks slowly off to his sideline. This athlete has just suffered what professionals in the medical field call a concussion. This article will be taking a deeper look into what happens to a players brain during a concussion, signs of a concussion, and what rising athletes can do to prevent these concussions. Concussions have been an ongoing controversy as of late in the world of sports and it comes with good reason. Though concussions are most prevalent in football, they are common across the entire sports spectrum. A concussion occurs when the head is hit directly or indirectly, causing a chemical disturbance within the brain that can have immediate consequences. An estimated 1.6 to 3.8 million concussions occur each year (CDC 2012). The numbers will always be very broad when it comes to concussions because so many athletes refuse to take themselves out of their games and a majority of the time they neglect to report any concussion symptoms to a trainer or coach. Lets take a look at some of the factors that contribute to athletes neglecting their concussions. A university study...
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...Can We Tackle the Concussion Battle? Can We Tackle the Concussion Battle Within Football? Introduction The National Football League (NFL) or as some people may say, “Not for long” is responsible for some of the greatest athletes. Excellence appears to be their one goal, which is to win Super Bowl championships. Some players perform at a high level for a while, whereas others don’t have a chance at experiencing actual playing time on the field at all. NFL players are less and less likely to have a definitive long-term career in the NFL. On average their career may span for about 3 ½ years (Stradley, 2011). (Workman Pub Co, 2002) The NFL has added several new teams, provided innovative equipment, additional rules, distinctive playing styles, but most importantly there has been a revolutionary change of the NFL culture. The game of football is being played at a faster pace and players are becoming larger, and intelligent (Wharton, 2011). While the sport of football can be stressful, competitive, entertaining and enjoyable, it also poses a dangerous threat of injury. One of the more common injuries within playing or watching football are concussions. Over the past few years concussions have become a more serious endangerment to those who play, from new evidence we have seen on the effects on the brain and how it can affect a player’s future. The purpose of this project is to investigate the current status of football and concussions in finding a solution to reducing head...
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...Concussions in Football Paul Kowalczyk Lakeside High School 5th Period In this paper I am going to be talking about concussions in Football. I wanted to research this topic because I did not know how easy it is to get a concussion in sports. I also chose this topic because it can relate to the news today. The National Football League has just recently passed a rule that fines any player that tackles another player and creates head-to-head contact. I really wanted to know more about this new rule, and how this is going to affect the game. A concussion is a mild brain injury that happens when the brain quickly moves back and forth in the skull. Concussions are a short loss of normal brain function that is usually caused by sports injuries or by a blow to the head. American Football is one of the easiest ways to receive a concussion. Even though the players wear helmets they can still get a concussion. Researchers have found that out of 17,549 college football players, 888 players have received concussions and out of those 888 players 131 received another concussion that same season. Researchers at Virginia Tech, using sensors attached to the helmet of a college player, recorded more than 3,300 hits to the head during 10 games and 35 practice sessions in 2003 (Kuwana, 2004). They found that players receive an average of 50 hits to the head every game, and with an average force of 40 times...
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...Breyden Coates Research paper Development of Athlete Safety Presently safety is the key goal in the youth and professional sports communities. Over the years sports have become more and more intense. Advances in physical fitness, athletic ability, and technology have led to faster play and increased competitiveness. With this comes the potential for more danger which is why scientists and engineers are working on new safety technology for athletes. According to (www.safekids.org), in 2012, more than 1.24 million children ages 19 and under were seen in emergency departments for injuries related to 14 commonly played sports. The most commonly feared of these injuries is a concussion. A concussion is a “temporary unconsciousness caused...
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...Contact Sports Head/Body Injuries Research Paper November 19, 2013 Down, Set, Hut, Hut! The ball snaps, and everyone clashes into each other like warriors in battle. This is what we love about the game of football. While we are enjoying this rugged game, behind the scenes there are players in pain on and off of the field. From them having concussions to broken toes, or in other words from head to toe, every game possibly being there last one depending on the extremity of their next injury they still continue to play and entertain us. In this paper we are going to journey through some of those injuries and issues due to this sport we love and how we could help solve it, and help these athletes we love so much be able to stay in the game of football a little longer. To start off, although we’re just focusing on NFL, I have to let you know it’s not just affecting them, but the little ones we having playing this sport as well. In an article I read entitled, “Hits to the Head Don’t Differ in Age, Research Indicates”, it says that more 25,000 kids ranging from ages 8 to 19 are taken to the emergency room seeking treatment for concussions each year (Belson, 2013). This goes to say that although we enjoy when the adults are doing all this physical contact, but when it’s our own kids do we feel the same way? Well, in this case think of those NFL players as you do your children. What if they could never play again, on or off of the field? In reading another article by Sabrina Rogers...
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...Occupational Safety and Health Case Study Draft Introduction Concussions have casted a dark shadow over sports throughout the last decade. They are the most common head and brain injuries suffered by athletes. A concussion is “a type of traumatic brain injury that is caused by a blow to the head or body, a fall, or another injury that jars or shakes the brain inside the skull” ("Concussion - WebMD: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention"). The major problem regarding concussions is that they are not visible to the human eye. Concussions occur all the way from Pop Warner leagues as a child to the professional leagues. My friend has played football his whole life. Unfortunately, he has been plagued by concussions ever since he started to play the sport. He is a prime example of an ordinary kid who plays a sport he loves, but has altered his future forever. Commissioners are actively trying to reduce the number of head injuries that occur while playing. However, the main problem regarding head injuries in sports is that players tend to rush back to their respective sports, without proper testing and treatment. This results in athletes risking their playing careers, a life filled with long-term head complications, and eventually putting their lives in danger. As an injured athlete, there comes a point where you have to ask yourself, is rushing back to the game really worth a lifetime filled with head injuries and complications? So what do team doctors need...
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...Running head: CONCUSSIONS IN SPORTS 1 Concussions In Sports Robert Hayes DeVry University CONCUSSIONS IN SPORTS 2 In todays society the sporting world plays some kind of role in all of our lives whether we realize it or not. Some of us may say that “I never watch sports” or “I’m not really a fan of sports,” could be true. One thing I can guarantee is that you have a family member, neighbor, friend, or co-worker that has some kind of affiliation with sports, it could be the clothing that we wear or that some else is wearing, maybe the accessories you see people wearing when you go out, or just could be a commercial you have seen on television. Wherever you are in the United States I can guarantee that you have some kind of affiliation with some kind of sport. As of the year 2013 studies show that “sixty percent of our children between the ages of five years of age and eighteen years of age play some kind of sport outside of school activities”, and if you think about how much sixty percent of our child population in the United States is, that is a lot of kids. Now think about how many of those parents think about there children having the potential for a brain traumatic injury, I would guess that statistic is probably quite a bit lower than ten percent, no study to my knowledge has been done for this. So I am writing this paper to make parents aware of what is currently...
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...contract, had brought a suit against the NFL concerning the head injuries that they sustained on the field during their playing careers. (Anderson, 1). Given the outstanding popularity of football in the United States, these lawsuits have garnered the attention of national media, prompting debate, discussion, and research about the dangers of football-related head injuries and the future of the NFL. (Fenno, 1). The litigation has the potential to reach the scale of the Big Tobacco litigation of the 1990’s, but the NFL has thrown a substantial roadblock in the players’ suit with a federal employment law preemption defense. (Fisher, 1). The consolidation of all the lawsuits into the Multidistrict Litigation has created the ability for both parties to decide the legal issues presented by the players’ claims and the NFL’s defenses. This paper will examine the merits of those claims and defenses, offer insight into how the players applied rhetorical devices to further their case, address the link established between the NFL and Big Tobacco, and how the court could likely rule regarding the concussion litigation, if it makes it to court. To begin, the history of concussions in football has been an extensive one. As mentioned above, retired football players have been joining lawsuits at a tremendous pace. The game of football is changing, as exemplified by the number of rule changes that have been...
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...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...
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...of the same things but some are every different. Cnn News had to people on this story since it broke. The other website sites just had one person cover what was going on with this. The story from Cnn was on about player safety in the Nfl not so much about what is really happen to him. MSNBC: The story starts out that the Chargers chaplain telling Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles times that the family has made the choice to allow his brain to be studied. The news broke Wednesday that he died from a gunshot to the chest. The family does not know who will do the test on his brain but the two leading groups are Sports Legacy Institute at Boston University and the Brain Injury Research Institute. The family really wants to help other people down the road with this. The link that is given is to the LA Times paper where that the Chaplin is...
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...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 loss, agitation and even increased anger management issues. It can also cause death, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS). This neurological trauma...
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...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...
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...are completely free of symptoms and that also the players consent to feeling normal, the NFL should take on more responsibility with current and former players and acknowledge fact that they have knowingly allowed players to compete in games when they should have been kept on the sideline. There have been over 4100 former players who have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) which also includes illnesses like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. There have been several suicide related deaths that have left many unanswered questions. Some have even left suicide notes that requested that their brain to be researched. Additionally, medical research has been able to show connection through several studies that head injuries, especially repeated, can cause traumatic brain damage. The main point of this research paper is to argue that repeated head injuries suffered by current and former NFL players are directly related to the neurological problems and the deaths of Junior Seau, Jovan Belcher and others, while also presenting the reactive measures that are taking place to prevent future occurrences in regards to rules and equipment. Every NFL football team is assigned a medical staff that is a paid member(s) of the organization. Their sole purpose is to tend to players after they have an on the field injury during a practice or game. The history behind the NFL’s medical staff dates back to 1966. They formed a society called the National Football League Physicians...
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...FSU Winner Florida State’s Caitlin Quinn has been named the NSCA’s Assistant Strength Coach of the Year. http://www.seminoles.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/112613aaa.html Critical Condition A California high school football player is in critical condition after suffering neck and spinal cord injuries during a game. http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/corona/corona-headlines-index/20131124-santiago-football-player-remains-in-critical-condition.ece State Total More than 4,400 middle and high school student-athletes in Massachusetts suffered head injuries last year, according to reports filed by the schools. http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/11/25/mass-schools-report-head-injuries-among-athletes-compliance-with-concussion-law-rises/njPFK6a92knIhcvY9UGxdN/story.html Refueling Product A new product can allegedly help athletes refuel during competition by providing precise carb and electrolyte recommendations based on a quick analysis of their sweat. http://www.prweb.com/releases/FuelstripMMA/UFCBellator/prweb11284260.htm Vegan Praise Several top athletes credit veganism with playing a key role in their success. http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/elite-athletes-reveal-the-vegan-diet-secret-behind-their-success/story-fneuzkvr-1226768537898 Baseline Challenges Three new studies of baseline testing highlight the difficult of accurately assessing an athlete’s true baseline ability. http://www.momsteam.com/studies-show-pitfalls-in-baseline-neurocognitive-testing ...
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...are completely free of symptoms and that also the players consent to feeling normal, the NFL should take on more responsibility with current and former players and acknowledge fact that they have knowingly allowed players to compete in games when they should have been kept on the sideline. There have been over 4100 former players who have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) which also includes illnesses like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. There have been several suicide related deaths that have left many unanswered questions. Some have even left suicide notes that requested that their brain to be researched. Additionally, medical research has been able to show connection through several studies that head injuries, especially repeated, can cause traumatic brain damage. The main point of this research paper is to argue that repeated head injuries suffered by current and former NFL players are directly related to the neurological problems and the deaths of Junior Seau, Jovan Belcher and others, while also presenting the reactive measures that are taking place to prevent future occurrences in regards to rules and equipment. Every NFL football team is assigned a medical staff that is a paid member(s) of the organization. Their sole purpose is to tend to players after they have an on the field injury during a practice or game. The history behind the NFL’s medical staff dates back to 1966. They formed a society called the National Football League Physicians...
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