Head injuries are a major problem in all sports and have been since they were created.  As sports such as football became more advanced, and became lifestyles and jobs other than games, new methods of training and conditioning were created.  Players became faster, stronger, bigger, and games became more violent, and dangerous.  The risk of injury increased dramatically and head injuries became a great danger to the game.  Football is not the only sport with the risk.  All contact sports, including hockey, boxing, basketball and many others have this problem.  Head injuries are a life threating part of the game that athletes who want to play at any level must be aware of.  It is a serious problem in sports today and is known to cause deaths, life changing events, and problems in the future for retired players.  Many problems occur due to the culture of the game, the mindset of the players and their coach, what they believe they can play through, and what they feel an athlete should be, tough dedicated, and one who sacrifices his or her body for the sport.  What are the problems that result from head injury?  How can we, officials of the sports, the government, parents, coaches, any person associated with the games, protect players from these threats?  Is it possible to protect them?  How does the culture of the game affect player safety?  What are the necessary precautions we must take?  Who really has the ultimate decision on whether or not the player can return to the game; the medical professional or the individual?  These questions all serve a purpose in the ability and effectiveness of the effort to prevent and protect players from head injuries in sports.

Traumatic Brain Injuries, or TBI's, are an everyday threat to players of all contact sports and can result in life changing affects, death, and complications in the future.  Concussions usually cause TBI's.  They occur with one fatal concussion or multiple concussions that result in a TBI or other brain injury in the future.  (Sahler).  A concussion is the banging of the brain against the skull, or excessive movement causing confusion, headache, sometimes bleeding and other quandaries.  Concussions are a common injury in contact sports like football, hockey, and boxing where players travel at a fast pace and hit each other with great force. (Sahler).  Players must be careful of head injuries through out their career, middle school, high school, college, and professionals.  Traumatic impacts to the head have led to deaths in high school football.  In one case, a boy named Nathan Stiles was playing a high school football game and was roughed up but did not tell anyone that he had been feeling strange during the game.  The next day, and for four days after the game, Nathan began experiencing bad headaches and felt strange.  He eventually went to get checked out and was diagnosed with a concussion and ordered to sit out for a week.  When he went back to be checked the doctor recommended he sit out another week but he said he felt fine.  The next day he played in a game and dropped dead of a blood clot in his brain. (Nathan Stiles).  If he followed orders his brain may have healed and he may not have died.  Another high school football player named Zack Lystedt had a similar occurrence.  He was playing a game and hit his head hard but continued to play.  After the game his head suddenly started hurting him. (cdc.gov).  It progressively became worse, he fell to the ground and fell into a coma for 9 months.  His brain had bled and had prevented oxygen from reaching his brain.  He is now mentally disabled for the rest of his life and has to relearn how to walk.  (Life Changed).  The two boys suffered from secondary traumatic impact.  Secondary Traumatic Impact is when the brain is severally damaged as a result of an already injured, unhealed brain.  The boys had injured their heads in a previous game, or earlier in the game, their brain was injured, their brains did not heal fully, they kept playing and their brains were severally injured as a result.  How can we prevent this from occurring? Can we prevent players from playing even when they feel they are ready and healed?  What precautions can we take that will prevent this from occurring?

Multiple head injuries and constant impact to the head may lead to major problems for athletes later in life.  There are many retired football players that complain of massive headaches, dementia, and depression.  (OTL).  A few have even committed suicide because of the pain and the way of life that had resulted from head injuries.  Last year Junior Seau, a former all star football player, committed suicide by firing a bullet into his chest.  Many believe he chose the chest so his brain could be studied after his death.  So many athletes have complained of this that researchers and scientists have begun examining and analyzing peoples brains who have died and donated their brains to science with a history of head trauma.  What they found was a disease called CTE.  Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a progressive neurological degradation caused by repetitive brain trauma in a person.  Repetitive brain trauma causes atrophy or the wasting away of various parts of the brain in CTE including the cerebral cortex, medial temporal lobe, and p-tau neurofibrillary tangles, a type of protein, through out the brain. (Spectrum of Disease).  When these proteins are defective and tangle, dementia will result.  With multiple hits and concussions to the brain, these tangles occur and inflammation of the brain persists.  The symptoms of CTE include irritability, impulsivity, aggression, depression, short-term memory loss and heightened suicidality that usually begin 8 -- 10 years after experiencing repetitive mild traumatic brain injury.  This is a serious disease that is affecting many retired football players with a history of traumatic brain injuries.  Something must be done to prevent CTE from forming and affecting more players' lives.  (Spectrum of Disease).  Is there any way we can prevent this?  Should rules be put in place to reduce the risk, such as not being allowed to hit above the shoulder?

The culture of the game has a great impact in all sports that pushes players to the limit, sometimes producing greater injury and injuries that will stay with players for the rest of their lives.  The culture of football for instance is all about sacrificing the body, physical and mental toughness, and playing through being hurt.  When an individual first starts playing the game of football, one of the first things they will hear come out of their coaches' mouth is that being hurt and being injured are two different things.  (Mellifont).  You can play through being hurt, but injuries are a different story.  Coaches will yell at and push players convincing them that they can carry on and play through pain.  This gives young players the wrong idea.  Players become frightened to admit something is wrong and ignore their bodies warning signals.  They try to fight through the pain just as their coaches say, sometimes even when it is excruciating.  Some coaches even tell their players not to go to the doctors if they get hurt, because they know they will have to sit out for a long period of time.  Is the culture of football and other sports causing greater problems and risk of serious injury?  How can we get coaches and staff on the same page as medical professionals and researchers? Maybe coaches should have to take a class every year on the signs of concussion and other head injuries.  Maybe that will prevent further life threatening injuries.  In other instances athletes are so dedicated and into the game that they refuse to sit out and try to play through the pain and injury.  Many times they don't even tell coaches or medical professionals about pain or problems they are having.  (Mellifont).  This is a major problem in all sports at all levels.  This happened to me in High School.  In one of the first games of the season I broke my index finger while playing on the offensive line.  I loved the game of football and did not want to miss or sit out any of the games of my senior season, so I didn't get it checked out, I wrapped it up and continued to play.  After the season I went to the doctor and found out I had chipped a piece of the bone and it had attached back onto the wrong place of my finger.  There was no way I could fix it besides surgery, which is very expensive.  And now I have an index finger that is huge and that I have very limited mobility with.  My grip is terrible, it is hard to open things such as soda bottles and jars, and many times I unconsciously don't even use it any more.  Its like I am missing a finger.          

The culture of the game, coaches influence, players dedication, and careless precautions create problems in sports and have led to many fatal head injuries that could have been prevented.  Deaths and problems later in life are resulting from traumatic brain injuries and it is very hard to prevent.  Sports are brutal; players hit each other with an immense amount of energy, strength, and force.  There is really no way to prevent head injuries from occurring.  Equipment is being upgraded, rules are being created, and better safety precautions are being put into affect, however, athletes will always be at risk of falling victim to these ailments.
