From 30 to 80 percent of those athletes who have sustained concussions still had post-concussion signs and symptoms three months after being injured, and about one in seven were still symptomatic after one year. According to the Mayo Clinic Staff,  a concussion is a traumatic brain injury that alters the way your brain functions.. Every day thousands of athletes are effected by this traumatic injury we define as a concussion. As defined by Mayo Clinic Staff, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) results from blows to the head over a period of time that causes a concussion.  These injuries can eventually result in difficulties understanding concepts, emotions, and behaviors that are long term effects that will happen years after the day of the concussion. In the 2015-2016 National Football League season, there were a reported two hundred and seventy one diagnosed concussions during preseason and regular season games. Concussions don't only effect the professionals, an estimated 300,000 high school athletes sustained concussions last year. Just like any other disease, every day scientist are in the laboratory truing to find the "cure" for these brutal head injuries. With numerous retired NFL athletes discovering that they did in fact have CTE, questions began to raise in the NFL. Were these players ever informed about CTE? Were these players knowledgeable about the risk they were taking?  In 2009, an NFL spokesman told the New York Times that it is "quite obvious from the medical research that's been done that concussions can lead to long-term problems." But when questioned in interviews, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and other league representatives have for years avoided taking a position, repeating that the league would let the medical community decide. The league had never expressly linked playing football to CTE. These questions have been dismissed by the NFL Health and Safety staff, until recently. On March 14th 2016, Jeff Miller, the Executive Vice President of NFL Health and Saftey was at a round table discussion with the US House Committee on Energy Commerce, and when he was promoted the question if he believes that there is a link between football and CTE and various other degenerative brain disorders. Miller responds "the answer to that question is certainly, yes." With this being said, this is the first confirmation that the NFL has been knowledgable about the link with post concussion syndromes. There has been multiple discoveries of CTE in dead retired NFL football players. Is it just for the NFL to have known about the horrible post results of concussions and not inform their payed athletes? The National Football League should reconstruct their concussion protocol, and be held accountable for the compensation of the players, along with their families for withholding information that later lead to multiple deaths and a life long illnesses.

Concussions have effects that last way longer than just the few week recovery that many people believe. Once a person gets a concussion, they are immediately more likely to endure another one, because of the unstable brain state they are placed in. Right after the concussion the athlete will endure headaches, fatigue, sleep disturbance, light sensitivity, tinnitus, neck pain and Irritability. In the first few hours after a concussion, the athlete will experience slight dizziness and maybe some difficulties concentrating. Then days after that it declines to constant headaches and nausea. But what is most important are the traumatic long term effects that concussions have.   While the majority of concussions resolve within 7 -- 10 days, in some cases symptoms persist for weeks, months or years beyond the initial injury. Laurie Ryan details in her  Review of Psychiatry that "Although these PCS often resolve within one month, in some individuals PCS can persist from months to years following injury and may even be permanent and cause disability. When this cluster of PCS is persistent in nature, it is often called the post concussion syndrome or persistent PCS." (Ryan 310). The evolution of a concussion injury to a post concussion syndrome is ill-defined and poorly understood. It is difficult to define where concussion ends and post concussion syndrome. or CTE begins. The symptoms of these post concussions syndromes can be subjective and objective and are often very unclear and vague which makes it difficult to diagnose. But it has been made clear with the recent findings of CTE in diseased NFL players, that these symptoms do persist to last in an athletes brain. The National Football League has known that the concussions their athletes were enduring has these horrible long term effects, and they have done nothing to protect the players and families from the tragic event that could occur. 

The National Football League is the very bottom of the total concussion consensus, anecdotal evidence from athletic trainers states that only about 5% of high school players suffer a concussion each season, but formal studies surveying players suggest the number is much higher, with close to half surveyed say they have experienced concussion symptoms and fully one-third reporting two or more concussions in a single season. Youth Sports contribute to nearly 80% of concussions in sports. Just because the game isn't being streamed live on national television doesn't mean they don't sustain the same injuries. The NFL has millions and millions of dollars into the most up-to-date "anti-concussion" helmets and equipment. In youth sports there is n

say the only way to protect these youth athletes is eliminate the game completely, to ensure their safety. Imagine the NFL as a parent, and the players as its children. Would a parent willingly let their kids continue to injure themselves and increase their chances of horrible long term effects over just a sport? No. If the NFL knew what was happening to their players wouldn't you think they would inform them? Michael McCrea is a neuropsychologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin and he has played a huge role in some of the most important advancements in sport concussion research in past two decades. After hearing some of the stories of diseased NFL players who's brains have gone against them later in life, his wife Ann Marie, said she would be reluctant to let their 6-year-old son, Joe, play football when he became old enough. Recently, with all the constant buzz about concussions, many schools have started teaching their kids the dangers of concussions in sports and its long term effects, making them well known to them the risks they are taking. In the article Looking at the Risk of Concussion in Sports Head On Elizabeth Eckhart informs the reader on the actual seriousness behind the commonly misunderstood injury. She explains the seriousness of the injury by giving statistics such as "In fact, a study conducted in May  2013 revealed that 53 percent of high school football players, said that they would continue to play despite a head injury that produced a  headache."

 (Eckhart). Eckhart explains that over half of athletes will return to the game regardless of how they feel. It is extremely important that these athletes are informed about the post concussion effects. It is very uncommon for these youth athletes to have a someone/somebody cover their liability to the fullest extent like the NFL can for their athletes. I'm not saying that these youth athletes do not have enough money to protect themselves, and cover the medical costs of the treatment. I'm explaining how youth athletes don't have scientist working everyday to prevent their chances of getting a concussion, obviously, but this is not what is most important. What the NFL CAN do is what is important. The NFL was fully able to inform their athletes of what is to come from the most common football injury in the world. In the National Football league's concussion protocol, it explains how the NFL Sideline Concussion Assessment evaluates the players directly after the players injury. According to the protocol, "The athlete may have a concussion despite being able to complete, and pass the NFL Sideline Concussion Assessment 'within normal limits' compared to their baseline".  It was rumored that the NFL has been withholding information and has never acknowledged the link. But with the recent confirmation from Jeff Miller, It has been proven that the NFL has withheld such valuable information. 

In the National College Athletic Association (NCAA), concussions are rampant. Every player is going all out to make it to the draft, the NFL. The NCAA has recently redefined its rules to help prevent their unpaid athletes unlike the NFL who has done nothing to aid in its paid  players safety. One rule that differentiates NCAA football and NFL football is the Targeting Penalty. The NCAA's targeting penalty "discourages defenders from targeting above the shoulder when coming into contact with a defenseless player" (Kashyap).Targeting results in an immediate ejection from the game. In the NFL they have no such penalty, the closest penalty they have to this is unnecessary roughness. Unnecessary roughness is when a player uses any part of his helmet or face mask to butt, spear, or ram an opponent violently or unnecessarily, which results in a 15 yard penalty. With this penalty called, the player who committed it is sometimes, and rarely fined based on the severity of the injury. Based off the rules in the NFL and NCAA football, there is not much the officiating can do to protect the players. In the NCAA, there are different ways that some schools are using to protect, and better evaluate their players after concussions. Dartmouth Head Football Coach Buddy Teevens, is adopting new standards for limiting contact in training camp and during practices. Players will go through practices and drills without hitting another player. This is just one small way a Coach is aiding in the protection against concussions, and the NFL still fails to help? Elizabeth Eckhart details on how some athletic facilities are engineering new ways to attempt to prevent such a harsh injury. She states "Another solution, now implemented by the University of New Haven men's basketball team, is the use of Triax head sensors. Placed inside a headband, these sensors track the g-forces of a blow to the head, transmitting the data wirelessly to computers in real time, thereby enabling trainers to know when athletes are injured and, potentially, to remove them from the game." (Eckhart). If the NFL was constantly fighting the prevention of concussions like the NCAA has, the NFL would not be under investigation. 

Since 2005, there have been many different confirmations of CTE and Brain disease in diseased NFL players bodies. Previous research has indicated that concussions could also raise the likelihood of suicide by 300 percent. Starting in 2006, Dr Bennett Omalu, forensic pathologist, conducted the autopsy of Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster, along with Andre Waters which led to his discovery of a new disease that he named chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Both athletes committed suicide. In February of 2011, former Chicago Bears defensive back Dave Duerson, who was only 50, committed suicide with a gunshot wound to the chest rather than his head, and left a note requesting his brain to be researched for CTE. In April 2012, former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Easterling, know for his explosive hits on the football field, committed suicide, and after autopsy results, his brain as as well affected horribly by CTE. In 2012, just before Ray Eaterling's suicide, one of the leagues most dominant linebackers, Junior Seau committed suicide, with a gunshot to his heart. After autopsy, Seau's brain was terribly affected by CTE. All of these athletes had a common source, and this was their concussions in football. In a parallel type league, the Canadian Football League has endure similar instances. Arland Bruce was knocked unconscious and suffered a concussion while playing for the Lions in September 2012. He reported fogginess, headaches, sensitivity to light and sound, memory loss, confusion, dizziness, anxiety and personality changes, all symptoms of the common concussion. Bruce is currently in a law suit against the Canadian Football league because the team permitted him to play following his concussion. The law suit claims that the CFL should have prevented him from being able to play. Bruce continues to suffer permanent disability, and his head injury will continue to cause earnings loss along as well as the loss of enjoyment of everyday life. Similar to Arland Bruce, Junior Seau's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the NFL, claiming that Seau's suicide was the result of a brain disease caused by violent hits he endured while playing the game. To silence the controversy all the NFL did was donate 765 million to fund the medical research towards concussions. 756 million may seem like a ridiculous amount of money. There are 32 professional teams in the NFL, each team averaging in a net worth of 2 billion. The NFL is roughly a 70 billion dollar industry and the 756 million they put towards research has been questioned as just a silencer of the Seau case. The NFL has been covering up, and continues to hide the truth behind CTE. 

Overall, Concussions are single handedly the most dangerous injury in sports. 97% of football players around the world have reported symptoms of concussions after playing football. 90% of retired NFL players have experienced a concussion in their career. The NFL has and will continue to lie, and withhold information from its players about valuable life altering information. The NFL's focus is not on its safety of the players, its focus is mainly directed towards profit. A 70 billion dollar industry, has been covering up, and dismissing lawsuits the past 10 years and needs to be justified. The National Football League is guilty of wrongful death should reconstruct their concussion protocol, and be held accountable for the compensation of their diseased players, along with their families for withholding information that later lead to multiple deaths and a life long illnesses.

