After seeing some of the after effects on retired NFL players, this topic began to interest me. Through documentaries, I was able to see that it is very important that we further understand what these hits to the head could possibly be doing to the brains of athletes. Getting paid to play football should not mean giving up your future away from the sport. Sometimes the well-being of these men is overlooked based on the fact that they choose and get paid to play; that is irrelevant. Safety should be the number one concern. I have experienced the game of football, as I played for 10 years. After a high school game, I sometimes felt the dull ache of a mild concussion. If this happens in high school, there is no doubt that in the NFL, where the intensity is very much higher, concussions come by frequently. After doing research on the topic and experiencing football first-hand, I am qualified to write on this subject. I have been following the cases of several men's mental health after retiring football for several years on television and news reports. Some of these ex-athletes are facing hard times now because of the poor regulation that took place in the NFL's past.

This article tests whether the hits to the heads of athletes negatively effects them in the future. These tests showed that the former athletes had brain injury in several temporal medial lobe regions, including the amygdala. They also showed injury in the supramarginal gyrus, and atrophy in the hippocampus. This article has at stake what the future post-concussion protocol will be. With these findings, it is evident that something has to change. The way athletes are treated immediately after a concussion could mean whether or not they succumb to permanent brain damage. There is minimal bias in this article, as it is research based, and has a control group as well as an experimental group. The credibility is sound as well, as the research is done by a John Hopkins medical research team. These specialists have no agenda then to figure out some possible ways to help the health of those who have suffered head injuries and those who will in the future. 

This article talks about the rule changes that are necessary for the game of football to go on. The NFL paid almost a billion dollars in settlements to players with negative effects from the head injuries received during their tenures in the NFL. The author argues that rule changes, such as banning helmet to helmet hits, should not be looked at as "ruining the game." They are the only way that the game will go on. This article has the future NFL at stake. Rule changes, no matter how necessary, will never be approved by all fans. This could result in a loss of fandom for the NFL, or a distaste by some of its players. No entertainment is worth the livelihood of the athletes; things will and must change. Don Banks, a sports analyst for many years, is a credible man if there is one. Despite this, he is biased. He does not lean his arguments on research, but on his experience in the NFL. This makes for a very opinionated article. 

This article brings to light what has been a troubling realization over the past few years in the NFL. Suicides have been a trend in former football players. Not only have those alive been confirmed to have brain damage, but deceased NFL players have been tested as well. There was a test done on 91 previous NFL players, and 87 of them tested positive for CTE. CTE is chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative disease of the brain. What is at stake here is the possible treatments that could reverse this process in those who are still alive, and prevent the future suicides and mental issues. Expanding medical resources, sideline technology, and regulations in game are the top priority to prevent this trend from continuing. Jason Breslow is the reporter covering this article. He is not biased toward one way, as he relies on the statistics of the research for his article. He does have credibility as a reporter however, as he has covered frontline reports for many years. 

This research question is arguable based on the fact that some people deny the feasibility of rule changes in the NFL. Some may call the allegations of brain trauma to be "overreacting." The sources mostly agree that some type of reform must happen, but it is not yet clear what this reform must be. Players must be protected from repeated head injuries. The evidence is conclusive; repeated head injuries causes mental illness and degeneration of the brain. These sources even further cement my opinion on the matter. If suicides and brain illnesses are a result of the game of football, it is time for a change. I could revise my research question by being more specific with the questions asked. 

