North America is a vast land with a population of over 500 million people. Of these 500 million people, an estimated 4 million are athletes and this number continues to climb every day. Our National Anthem describes America as, "the home of the brave and the land of the free". This fighter mentality has led our athletes to succumb to the aggressive nature of sports and become slaves to the game. In this exploratory analysis, I will examine why professional sports leagues should be required to admit that repeated head injury caused by their sports can, and will lead to serious brain damage in their players. 

My interest on this topic is not one that came blindly and uninformed. As a public health major, I understand the seriousness behind a "silent-killer" that lurks among our athletes today. Without the necessary changes to our health policy and health education programs on the dangers of sports, we as Americans will continue to lose our beloved athletes to battles with aggression, dementia, and the now popular Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. I was prompted to write this paper because of my background living in a culture where football season is awaited every year. From early childhood, I sat and watched as other children around me began Pee Wee sports, then moved to playing sports in middle and high school. I have watched the lucky few from my favorite sports teams then transition from playing high school sports to college sports and on to playing in professional sports leagues. For years, I had a naive mind concerning the safety of the players and even adopted the aggressive mentality to win at all costs. Unfortunately, I now see that being invincible on the field could lead to the downfall of these athletes. Although I am not a doctor, and do not claim to be someone who has conducted famed research on the topic, I believe that I am qualified to write on such questions because I have done extensive research looking into the matter. 

Perhaps the most criticized league on injury to it's players is the National Football League, and rightfully so. The first source I will examine is an article in the Journal of Law & HealthCare Policy titled "A Head's Up on Traumatic Brain Injuries in Sports" which details the dangers of football. Authors Hodge and Kadoo make a very bold claim that the neglectful attitude towards return to play in sports starts at a young age and only gets worse the further an athlete progresses in sports. The authors stress that better education for both the parents of the athletes and the coaching staff could lead to a dramatic decrease in the number of sports head injuries we see today. Hodge and Kadoo focus greatly on using statistical evidence, actual athlete stories,  and defining terms such as "second impact syndrome" and "chronic traumatic encephalopathy". The major argument of the two authors is focusing on a push for change. The authors stress that informing the public will lead to a greater uproar which will then lead to directly enforcing policies that will change how professional sports league conduct their games. Hodge an anatomy professor at Temple University and Kadoo his former student, are both knowledgeable about the human body and the damage it can sustain. While this article is not excessively pushing for a change, there is a presence of bias because the authors are still arguing that the player's safety is not on the top list of priorities of the team. 

My next source "The NCAA Needs Smelling Salts When it Comes to Concussion Regulation in Major College Athletics"  from the UCLA Entertainment Law Review examines football, soccer, and hockey. The author, Cailyn M. Reilly, presented a very strong argument on how the NCAA is the major organization that should be blamed. Her claim is that the NCAA has no effective plan, or care to protect its student athletes from brain injury that could affect them later in their lives. By outlining the different leagues separately such as the National Football League, Major Soccer League, and the National Hockey League, she is able to show how broad this concern is and that it is not just limited to one sport. Reilly's argument claims that the NCAA is failing to enact a specific concussion policy which is detrimental to the players. Reilly, a graduate of Villanova School of Law,  has an extensive background in writing about sports law. It is clear that this article contains a hefty amount of bias because Reilly is so strong in her claims to address the problems with the NCAA that she does not provide reasons why they have no specific plan. 

My last source "Loss of Possession: Concussions, Informed Consent, and Autonomy", is from the Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics and it expresses how the NFL should take the blame for misinforming the public on the serious brain injury that the game of football can cause. Authors Robeson and King utilize specific athlete examples to show how return to play after a concussion is conducted and to argue for the correct way of doing so. The authors' major interest is to out the NFL on it's lack of responsibility regarding the matter and demand answers from them. The authors' background makes this a credible source because they are both professors at Wake Forest University teaching bioethics and health policy. Their combined knowledge on the matter makes them qualified to speak on sports policy. This article however, is greatly biased in how the authors' mock the NFL when detailing the opinions of the league. 

My research question is arguable because it asks a question about a very controversial topic. A vast majority of people feel that sports were meant to be "dogfights" and only the best survive. This perspective, while questionable, is so popular because the history of sports in America was founded on terms of the strongest winning. Many question why we should change the rules now when they have always been this way. However, as science changes and we become more equipped to analyze the beating our athletes are taking, we should use this knowledge to advance the rules of professional sports leagues and in turn make them pay for knowingly hurting our players. Of the sources used, they all have a common ground for wanting a push for changes in sports policy. While some focused more on one sport, football in particular, others felt that the issue is greater than just football. These different perspectives have prompted me to examine the opinions of the top leagues that ignore their players' safety because the business aspect matters more to them. In the future, I might choose to ask why the leagues have gotten away with ignoring safety for so long. 

