The Super Bowl brings together sports enthusiasts, music lovers, and commercial fans for the most watched event of the year, and millions of people come together to celebrate it even though it is threatening lives with every blow a player receives to the head. Concussions are a huge part of sports and can bring a day of fun and excitement to a screeching halt for a player. I have witnessed as a friend went onto the field for a game of fun and then was knocked down to change the next few months of her life and possibly her entire life. She could not stand and walk without help and even then she did not know which way the sideline was or how to walk in a straight line. She missed over a month of school, but at least she did not have to relearn the names of the players on our team or her own past experiences as another teammate of mine had to do after receiving a concussion. Football is a much more dangerous sport than soccer, yet these instances show that if it can happen in a non-contact sport then it can surely happen and even more frequently in a contact sport like football. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the National Football League (NFL) need to have unified regulations regarding concussions with equal protection for all positions trainers and medical practitioners that are unbiased, education for the players, loved ones, coaches, and trainers, and rules about a certain number of concussions while giving the players time to become fully healed.

In order to set rules and regulations regarding concussions in the NCAA and the NFL they first must understand what a concussion is and how it affects people. The definition of a concussion can be argued, but according to Dr. Terry Zeigler, "A concussion is a brain injury in which the brain is 'concussed' inside of the skull from either a direct impact (i.e., hit by a ball) or a whiplash-type motion in which the brain is concussed through the accelerated motion of the head when the head is snapped forwards and/or backwards" (n.p.). The NCAA and the NFL cannot treat concussions like any other injury because it is an internal matter which increases the difficulty in treating and diagnosing it since even the worst concussion does not cause the brain to stick out of one's head like a broken bone. The brain is a fragile matter because once the brain is damaged it cannot be reversed and one cannot simply get a brain replacement like one could with a knee or leg. The brain is what distinguishes people as human and it needs to be protected.

The NCAA and the NFL have to deal with concussions more than any other sport since football is a contact sport; therefore, the NCAA and the NFL should have the most regulations in order to combat the problem. Jenny Vrentas a NFL writer reported, "The collisions that draw the most attention are usually the ones that happen in the open field: A receiver streaking across the middle gets blindsided by a safety for instance" (n.p.). Certain positions have an advantage as to being the focal point of the game which enables their injuries to be more accessible to the eye than the injuries of those who are per se offensive linesmen. The NCAA and the NFL need to ensure that all players are all observed equally and that no position will be left behind to deal with repercussions of the injuries left unnamed. The NFL has put into place an "eye in the sky", "In response to the Colt McCoy slip-up in 2011, when the Browns quarterback was brutally hit by Steelers linebacker James Harrison but returned to the game without being checked for a concussion, the league began hiring an independent injury spotter to sit high above the field at every stadium" (Vrentas, n.p.). While there is one person sitting high in the sky watching every play there are 22 players on the field to be watched over. Even with the capability to rewind and watch plays over by the time a play has been reviewed the player will have played the next several downs already. With only one person in charge their eyes will not be able to see what happens with the open field and what happens in the background. There needs to be at least two people watching one for the linemen and one for the open field. While the NFL has taken steps toward trying to protect their players somewhat the NCAA needs to step up and follow suit.

Concussions are complicated by the fact that they do not appear on any scans performed and that there are not any regulated or standardized methods mandated by the NCAA and the NFL. Doctors and trainers can all agree on the fact that there are multiple symptoms including headaches, nausea, irritability, memory loss, and several other symptoms. One of the most looked for symptoms is the loss of consciousness; however, Chin, Saffary and Cantu said, "It is estimated that 90 percent of sports-related concussions occur without loss of consciousness" (2). This shows that if loss of consciousness is not actually the main symptom then players are more than likely not being diagnosed with concussions when they should be. There have been three levels or grades of concussions that have been the primary measuring tape with loss of consciousness as the worst grade. Dr. Cailyn Reilly informs everyone that, "As Dr. Bennet Omalu, co-founder of the Brain Injury Research Institute at West Virginia University notes, 'there is no such thing as a mild concussion'" (253). Therefore, the trainers for the NCAA and NFL need to make sure they are not primarily looking for one symptom but for any of the symptoms to ensure that the players are not released with any amount of head trauma since there is no head trauma that is insignificant. 

Some people may say that the NCAA and the NFL are using baseline tests and are therefore regulating player's health. Daniel Kain does describe the baseline test by saying, "Baseline testing provides a comparison between a player's normal brain function tested at the beginning of the season against the player's post-concussive brain function54" (705-706). The baseline test is a great tool to utilize; however, the test is not a quick test, so it cannot be used to determine if a player has received a concussion on the sideline of a game. With this in mind the test is usually used only after a player has been diagnosed with a concussion, and at this point half of the battle has been lost since players have already slipped off and under the radar. 

One regulation that the NCAA and the NFL need to enforce is that players do not return to the field for any length while they have not completely recovered from their concussion. Danie Kain states, "However, suffering repeated concussions raises the danger of 'second-impact syndrome ('SIS'), a potentially fatal condition that occurs when a player returns to competition before the symptoms of a first concussion resolve" (703-704). The team is not thinking about the player's life that is at stake when they tell the player to go in for one last big play of the game, but rather the team is only thinking about their wins and money earned by taking the game home and how they can use each player to accomplish their goal no matter what the price. If the brain has not had time to properly heal then when it is put back into action it is easier to reinjure just like continuing to play on a broken ankle will only further the injury and make it worse. 

The NCAA and the NFL need to have a limit on the number of concussions a player can receive in a season and continue to play with because when players obtain multiple concussions their immediate symptoms are not the only worry, but the lifelong effects the injuries will bring. According to Daniel Goldenberg, "A small 2005 retrospective study reported that retired professional football players who reported three or more concussions were five times as likely to report mild cognitive impairment and three times as likely to have memory problems as compared to retirees with no concussion history (Guskiewicz, 2005)" (345). A concussion does not heal overnight for the most part, and usually takes a while to heal especially if the injury has a higher grade. Therefore, if multiple concussions are received and managed properly the player should more than likely not be returning anyways. All of the recovery time in between would have caused the latter injuries to happen late in the season causing the player to be off the line up. When injuries management starts to fall apart though proper recovery is only said to have happened causing the player to be in a dangerous situation, and thus there needs to be a regulation to protect the players from under the table deals regarding their lives. Daniel Kain's research shows that, "The NFL's internal concussion committee maintains that if multiple concussions are managed properly,1 the player will not suffer any long-term effects.2 This stance taken by the NFL represents the minority opinion on the issue" (697). Regardless of what multiple studies have shown with receiving three or more concussions the NCAA and the NFL have not responded and chosen to continue to believe that players will be fine. This is because the organizations that are making the decisions are the people hiding behind the desks where they are not worried about their own brains being damaged but their wallets that profit off of success no matter where it may come from.

A huge part of the aftermath of concussions is the fact that players are not being educated on how severe a concussion can change their lives forever, so players are not reporting their injuries. The NCAA and the NFL need to increase the education to players, coaches, trainers, and even loved ones to make sure they are fully aware of what they are signing onto. In Kerr, Register-Mihalik, Kroshus, Baugh, and Marshall's survey they found, "Former football athletes were most likely to report that they did not disclose a SISRC [Self-Identified Sports Related Concussion] (68.3% of those reporting SISRC)" (222). Over half of the players surveyed had received a concussion and knew that they had a concussion, but they decided not to inform their coaches and training staff of their injuries. There are several factors that can be blamed for this attitude such as not believing that concussions are that serious, players not wanting to let their team down or look "weak" since no one can see the injury. Constantly coaches tell players to toughen up and even loved ones will chime in with their two sense of how the player just needs to wait out the injury and it will be fine eventually. Dr. Lawrence Chin proclaims that, "Instead, it should be emphasized that they may produce varying degrees of lifelong changes in neurological function, which may be delayed in onset" (3). If players are only being told that the injury they receive is a major injury yet they only feel a headache and slight nausea, then they will believe that they can deal with the symptoms and are tough enough. If players are informed that the effects may not appear immediately and will affect their long term memory and behavior, then they will be more likely to understand. Also if the people surrounding the person with an injury understand exactly what the injury means then the player will not feel as pressured by his loved ones and teammates to sacrifice him for one win and moment of fame.

The NCAA was created in order to make the football league safer, but the organization have since lost their focus and goal. Cailyn Reilly declares, "While this undoubtedly demonstrates an acknowledgement of the severity of concussions, independent, bilateral actions are not nearly as effective as unilateral, standardized regulations from the NCAA would be" (260). Small individual organizations and teams have started to make rules and regulations regarding concussions, but they the rules vary on where one looks. Also with varying regulations each organization can decide the ratio of how much to actually protect the players and how much of the rule is just a mask to the fact that they really only care to win. Some people may say that the NCAA does have rules and regulations, so they are protecting the players. Erika Diehl looked into the rules and said, Although the handbook stresses that 'it is essential that no athlete be allowed to return to participation when any symptoms, including mild headaches, persist,'49 the handbook goes on to conclude that 'for any injury that involves significant symptoms, long duration of symptoms or difficulties with memory function (either retrograde or antegrade), not be allowed to return to play during the same day of competition' (112).

Keeping a player with a serious injury away from playing for the day the injury happened is not protecting the player. The handbook is allowing trainers and coaches to throw their players back into action by "encouraging" them to admit to be symptom free and then putting them back in the ring of fire. The handbook contradicts itself and only brings to the table an argument for the fact that they care since they put a regulation in the book. People may also argue that the addition of helmets from the NCAA acts in favor of them. Lawrence Chin argues, "Nevertheless, the risk of sports-related head injuries remains high with stranger and faster athletes and equipment enhancements, the modern helmet with face guard, which may paradoxically increase risk taking and result in blows to the head that have higher energy" (2). If players did not have helmets on their head they would be less likely to rush in head first to a tackle or to be so aggressive. The addition of a helmet is an illusion of safety because while it can protect the skull no addition can protect the brain. A concussion occurs when the brain bounces around inside the skull which is more likely to happen when a player rushes in with their head and is more aggressive. 

 A large amount of concussions happen in practices, so some people believe that the NCAA and NFL needs to implement a new resource that has recently been created called a robot. Dartmouth College has created a robot and claims, "This is actually the first tackling dummy at any practice of this sort that can actually move and replicate player motion. You take one player out of any tackling at practice and you have already cut your injury risk by half because that player is not standing there taking the hit" (Robot Helps Football Players Avoid Concussions). This seems helpful, but in reality the robot will not decrease people tackling. If the offensive linemen use the robot to practice against then the defense will just have to wait to practice and tackle to robot after the offense. The robot only decrease the amount of tackling against people, so the same amount of people are still tackling which means that the injury risk is not cut in half if one looks at the entire picture. 

Team's trainers and medical staff should be hired and paid through the NCAA and NFL. Each team should still pay their staff, but by adding a middle man the act of bribing and swaying the staff's professional opinion would be greatly minimized. The NFL and NCAA could enforce fines on teams that refuse to pay or threaten trainer's job security and would continue to pay the trainers. Daniel Kain says, "In order for teams to maximize profit through winning games, it stands to reason that coaches and management place incredible pressure on trainers to return their most talented athletes to the playing field as soon as possible" (708-709). Diagnosing a concussion is subjective because each concussion is different, and adding someone holding one's check and job above one's head informing one that there is no concussion makes the decision to declare an injury that much harder. The people who athletes who are supposed to be their solely for the players and who they should be able to count on are the very ones turning their backs in order to continue to make a living. 

In conclusion, the NCAA and the NFL need to step up and get over their pride and need for success in order to protect the very people giving them the success. Educating players, coaches, and even loved ones could bring down the amount of hidden concussions and help save players lives. Also trainers should be paid from the NCAA and NFL instead of directly from teams, and regulations on the number of concussions need to be added. Football player's lives matter more than the enjoyment of the people; therefore, the NCAA and NFL need to add regulations and rules in order to actually do their job and protect the players. 

