I have always had a passion for sports, and I started playing sports when I was four and have been watching them ever since I was born. Throughout my life, I have either been on the field, watching my sister play a sport, watching either of my parents' teams play since they were both coaches, or watching my dad stand on the sideline of every other game since he is a physical therapist. Throughout that time, I have seen countless injuries, and people coming and going from my house as my dad gave up weekends on his time away from his own physical therapy clinic to serve them. I have witnessed all different types of injuries, but the worst of them have all have been concussions. I have seen over 15 concussions take place, and watched as some of my friends did not even know which way the sideline was or how to walk in a straight line, even with help after being hit. My dad was always one of the first on the field testing players to make sure they were ok, and there to take players to the hospital if need be. I have been on countless runs to the hospital for players, and without exception my dad would explain what had happened and the procedures he took to see if they had the signs or symptoms of a concussion. Also with playing sports in high school I have taken a base line concussion test, and know what the tests are like and how they can be used to help.  

The "Sports Medicine: Concussions in Sports" article talks about how the education of concussions needs to be significantly increased in order to combat the large number of concussions taking place yearly. The article believes that trainers can be an additional issue regarding concussions, and helmets can also be a factor in the severity of the concussions based on how hard someone hits another player because they feel protected from the helmet. The severity of the concussion and return to play should be highly monitored by doctors that do not have any bias. Having multiple concussions or just severe ones can cause more life threatening diseases. The "Sports Medicine: Concussions in Sports" article is extremely concerned with every single athlete on the field. This information is all extremely relative because the "Sports Medicine: Concussions in Sports" article was written in 2011 which is within the past five years. The article was also published by an accredited journal of medicine by authors that all work at highly esteemed universities, and who have several degrees in the medical field. 

The "What's All the Headache: Reform Needed to Cope with the Effects of Concussions in Football" article informs its reader of the basics of what a concussion is and the effects it could have. There are several risks involved for all of the different parties taking a hand in the recovery and safety of the athletes. Therefore, different organizations are trying different methods and need to do a better job of protecting those with concussions. The "What's All the Headache: Reform Needed to Cope with the Effects of Concussions in Football" article cares about the fact that every side of the argument is heard. The article places all of the facts in front of the reader, and then it lays out several different options to help with the prevention and recovery of football players. These same facts still hold true today since the article "What's All the Headache: Reform Needed to Cope with the Effects of Concussions in Football" was written in 2010 only six years ago. The information placed in front of the audience can also be trusted because the article was published on the Law and Journal Library database which only publishes accredited authors and performs scholarly checks on the articles to ensure its credibility.

The article "Sports-Related Concussion increases the risk of subsequent injury by about 50% in elite male football players" created a study to view whether or not players were getting injured at the same rate before and after a concussion. Results showed that having a concussion severely hindered athletes and made them much more prone to injury than those who had not received a concussion. The article "Sports-related concussion increases the risk of subsequent injury by about 50% in elite male football players" is extremely worried about players after they have received one or more concussions. They want to ensure that the players be taken care of and that they are not forgotten about. Sometimes players are overlooked after a certain amount of time or a change in events, but the article pushes that the players be kept on the radar until they have been cleared. There should be certain regulations made to ensure that players health is accounted for and their injuries are not swept under the table so that the team can face their rival with the full team. The article was written in 2014 which is only two years old and therefore it is up to date and has relevant information. The article was found on a research database using google scholar. The authors are credible because they are professors at universities.

There are multiple ways to to go about resolving the issue of concussions in sports, so I am arguing for one to be the best. People could argue that the NCAA needs to make stricter regulations, that it is the teams fault, or that doctors who need to be stricter. Everyone agrees that concussions will not completely disappear, but there are different ways to prevent them. Different people believe that the NCAA and NFL could add more regulations, while others say that changes have already been made based on conventions the organizations have held. With concussions never being off of the table some people may argue for the extinction of contact sports because it is risking peoples lives. The different sources add to the knowledge I already had about concussions, and they bring authority to some of my preconceived ideas.  I may need to make the research question more specific and narrow it down some.

