Concussion have become a very prevalent topic due to the large amount of research that has been done in the recent years to show the negative effects they have on the brain at all ages and level of play. A concussion is a traumatic injury to the brain that affects the way the brain functions. In the National Football League (NFL) players are receiving hard hitting blows to the head in games and can receive serve concussions throughout their career. These concussions need treatment to assure that severe permanent damage will not occur. I want to be one of the people that get to treat these such injuries. I am currently attending USC in pursuit of an Athletic Training degree to be able to help athletes will all types of injuries including concussion. This question affects me because I might be treating these players one day and I do not want them to have severe brain damage because they tried to play through this injury. Concussion are especially interesting to me because my best friend in high school had multiple concussion and she tried playing through some of them which caused permanent damage to her brain function due to the fact that the brain did not get to heal properly after the concussion. From the point that she got her fourth concussion I had been interested in the healing process and in seeing the later side effects of her many concussions. I am qualified to be writing about concussions because I am learning about them in my athletic training classes right now, I have seen firsthand the effects of concussions, and I have done extensive research on this topic. 

The first source that I found lays out the steps that the NFL has put in place to determine when a player is cleared to return back to normal play. The NFL comprised a five page document to outline very specific detail in the recovery process that the player must go through. The beginning of the article states that "Each player and each concussion is unique, therefore, there is no set time-frame for return to participation or for the progression through the steps of the graduated exercise program set forth below. Recovery time varies from player to player" (Clarke). This shows that there might be guidelines to follow but each player cannot be treated exactly like the others. During each step of the protocol the team's medical staff must be on hand and activity will stop if any concussion symptoms occur. The first step in the protocol is for rest and recovery which allows light stretching but advises against the use of electronic devices. Bright lights such as the one on phones are greatly shown to induce concussion symptoms such has headaches. Next, it says that light aerobic exercise is allowed. The player is advised to stop as soon as they start to have and symptoms because this will just worsen the concussion. The protocol then goes on in saying that aerobic exercise in continued but now strength training is introduced in the exercise routine. The player will gradually add weight as days follow with this progression. The fourth step, football specific exercises are now added and the player is allowed to participate in non-contact drills. Since this is almost a full practice it is a very good sign if they are able to complete the full day without any symptoms. The final step is resuming to practice with no limitations. A team physician must clear the player in order for them to start full contact. The article also states how it was very easy for quarterback Robert Griffin III to pass the first four steps in only three days but then he was not cleared to play by the end because he was not fully healed. This protocol is very detailed but there are loop holes that the player can jump though to be able to play again. As long as they do not say they have any symptoms they are allowed to continue which can be detrimental later on. This is a credible source because The Washington Post is a well accredited new paper. 

The second article describes how Mike Webster's death sparked the entire concussion frenzy in the NFL. Webster was a well-known player for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He had played the most games in Steelers history and during those games he received many hits that may have led to concussions that were not known about. Some years after he retired, he went into an extreme downward spiral forgetting to eat somedays and wandering around Pittsburgh and sleeping under bridges. His brain was not functioning properly. Webster was dead at age 50 due to the significant trauma on his brain. When his body was taken in for autopsy the pathologist, Bennet Omalu, carefully studied his whole brain many times over. He had never seen anything like this before. He did not think that this much trauma could be seen in a football players brain due to the fact that the players wear helmets which are supposed to protect their heads. Omalu concluded after many weeks of research that Webster had suffered from dementia pugilistica which is almost exclusively seen in boxers due to the excessive head trauma they endure. The intense research that Omalu did to figure out what was wrong with Webster's brain started the great debate about concussions in the NFL and how they are making NFL players live a much shorter life. This article is credible because it was written by Jeanne Marie Laskas for The Atlantic a very credible new source.

The third article debates whether or not NFL players should retire earlier due to the fact that they have received concussion while they were playing in the league. Two views are given from retired NFL players that show their opinions about why players leave or stay with the league. Former quarterback Sage Rosenfels says the facts about concussions are hard to ignore because these symptoms affect their lives (the players) later down the road after football is gone. There have been multiple cases in high schools where a player has gone back in after receiving an undiagnosed concussion and they end up dying on the field due to "second impact syndrome". Second impact syndrome is when a players' brain is not fully healed form the initial concussion and then they receive another blow to the head resulting in even worst damage that sometimes results in death.  Rosenfels says there is eventually going to be a death on the field and this will cause concussions to be taken seriously by the league and players. On the other hand former center, Matt Birk, believes that players will continue to just play through concussions because football is in their blood. He stated that the reason these players are in the NFL is because they live for football. They did not work all their lives to make it to the NF to be on the bench due to a concussion. He says that the game is the safest that it has ever been and that concussion will continue to be a prominent issue. These players share how concussions can be detrimental but the player will do anything to get back into the game. This article is credible because it is from Fox Sports which is a well know and accredited sport news center.

I believe that this research question is arguable because there are so many different opinions on the topic plus a copious amount of research has been done on concussions. Due to the large amount of research that has been done it allows me to show how concussions are ruing player's lives after they retire. Some sources agree that player should stop player after concussion because it will then lead to a better quality of life later on. These sources clearly point out the reduction of cognitive function that happens to the brain once players start to age. On the other hand you have sources that say that the player will continue to play because this is what they worked their whole lives for and they will not stop over a concussion. These players are just simply looking to fulfill their dreams of being big name players in the NFL. I think seeing the statistics affect how I view the question because it show how horrible life is for these player due to the post-traumatic stress. I am going to continue to find research that shows why players should retire after a concussion but focus on the affects that occur later on in life and show if they are really worth all the money. I might narrow my question down to players retiring after their first concussion because this may happen at any point instead of me simply saying they should retire at an earlier age. 

