Wednesday, April 27, 2011

What Can the NFL Do?- Part I

Concussions

           Before we can look into what the NFL can do to protect both aspects, we have to look at concussions themselves and how serious they can be.  Like found on WebMD, a concussion is a brain injury that is caused by a sudden blow to the head.  When the blow occurs, it causes the brain inside the skull to shake, which leads to the brain not working right temporarily.  (WebMD)  These concussions are nothing to mess around with, because your brain is one of the most important components in making you function properly and if that gets messed up you get messed up.  Some of the symptoms include; passing out, short term memory loss, acting confused, being light headed, having trouble standing, or throwing up.  (WebMD)  These symptoms are just what can happen after suffering a big blow to the head area.  I found on WebMD that the time it takes to recover depends on how severe the blow was; it can take anywhere from a day to multiple weeks.  Concussions by themselves are nothing to mess with, but then you have to think about how in football, one can suffer multiple concussions, which leads to worse problems.
          When an athlete is playing in a game, whether it is youth sports or professional sports, it takes a lot for them to exit the game due to injury.  Many athletes try to play it off and act like they didn’t get hurt, so they stay in.  This usually leads to the injury becoming worse and it ends up hurting them more.  This definitely comes into play with concussions and the NFL.  Players in the NFL are known for trying to be tough guys and not leaving the game, especially after receiving a head injury.  When players receive multiple hits to the head in one game, it tends to add up over time to even more damage.  Brittany Sauser claims, “The average player sustains an estimated 950 impacts to the head during a season; these hits could result not only in concussions but also long-term brain damage.”   This means that it is possible to suffer brain damage with repeated blows to the head, without having a concussion.  According to, Stephanie Smith, all of those hits put more and more damage on the brain, and that damage has a name: chronic traumatic encephalopathy.  (Smith)  Smith went on to say; in research done at the Boston University School of Medicine, they found that in six former NFL players’ brains they examined after their death, CTE was found in all six.  (Smith)  Retired NFL players usually deal a lot with depression, which can lead to suicide, which was the case with Dave Duerson, who recently committed suicide and left his brain to science.  Many doctors and examiners believe that the thousands of hits to the head a player takes over a course of his career can lead to many problems down the road, like suicide.  Stephanie Smith also said; one former player named Ted Johnson said for two years after he retired, he could only muster up enough energy to walk around for about fifteen minutes, and he spent most of his time in bed, with curtains closed, and lights off; he said that he dealt heavily with depression, sleep disorders, and mental fatigue.    Stories like Dave Duerson’s and Ted Johnson’s make the NFL now realize that something needs to be done about this concussion epidemic; there is no way the NFL can go on without trying to protect their players more.



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