Head to head contact in the National Football League is continuing to be a problem that the country and players do not take seriously enough. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a growing disease that continues to affect several former NFL players, sometimes leading to death. Many famous Hall of Famers, such as Mike Webster and Dave Duerson, suffered greatly from CTE and saw their lives slowly deteriorate due to the disease. The problem involves players going back into the game after they clearly have gotten a concussion because the NFL concussion protocol has many flaws. The concussion problem in the National Football League needs to be addressed and acknowledged by everyone so that we can find a solution and the players can be safe, long after they hang their careers up.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurologic disease caused by recurring concussions or blows to the head. CTE was first brought to attention in 1928 by Dr. Harrison Martland who said it was caused by repetitive blows to the head. For years this illness was popular and known in professional boxers. The symptoms of CTE were "deteriorations in attention, concentration and memory, as well as disorientation and confusion, and occasionally accompanied by dizziness and headaches," (Chronic). As the disease progresses, more symptoms are shown in a person, such as "lack of insight, poor judgment and overt dementia," (Chronic).  Bad cases of the disease show a slowing of muscular movements, impaired speech, tremors and deafness. Three stages of the disease have been created and analyzed, the first being problems with "psychotic symptoms." The second stage brings "social instability, erratic behavior, and memory loss." Finally, the third stage brings "cognitive dysfunction progressing to dementia," along with Parkinson Disease (Chronic). In a study done on fifty-one cases of CTE, ninety percent of them occurred in athletes. The athletes began to see symptoms of the disease between ages twenty-five and seventy-six and one third of them saw symptoms shortly after they retired. "Common presenting symptoms included memory loss, irritability, outburst of aggressive or violent behavior, confusion, speech abnormalities, cognitive decline, gait abnormalities, unsteadiness, headaches, slurred speech, and parkinsonism." Almost thirty percent of the cases saw symptoms of depression and some were considered to be bipolar. For most of the athletes, the disease progressed for decades without any action being taken, causing the symptoms to get much worse. The studies done on the five football players showed that all of them died in their middle ages and were much younger compared to the boxers who died with CTE (Chronic). The length of the showing of symptoms in football players was also shorter than that of the boxers; the common symptoms were "depression, memory loss, paranoia, and poor insight or judgment, outbursts of anger or aggression, irritability and apathy, confusion, reduced concentration, and agitation." Out of the five football players that were studied, two of the football players died from suicide, one from a police chase and another from an accidental gunshot while cleaning his gun (Chronic). As time has progressed and more studies have been done on this disease, it has been brought to light that more and more football players live and die with this disease. 

In a study done by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University, eighty seven out of ninety one former National Football League players have tested positive for CTE. In total; the nation's largest brain bank has found the disease in one hundred and thirty one out of one hundred and sixty five people those of whom had played football before their deaths, whether it was professionally, collegiately, or in high school. Out of those who tested positive for CTE, forty percent were offensive and defensive linemen who face contact with each other during every single play of the game. This fact furthers the notion that CTE is caused by repetitive blows to the head rather than infrequent big hits (Breslow). 

Another one of the biggest issues regarding concussions in the NFL is players returning to the game after receiving a big hit, or even being knocked out. This causes players to think they are invincible and do not need to get checked out after an obvious concussion. This leads to repetitive blows to the head because players do not get tested for concussions after each hit. In a game against the Baltimore Ravens, St. Louis Ram's quarterback Case Keenum was hit, went down, and hit his head against the ground. His head bounced against the ground and he grabbed his helmet and did not get up. After a teammate tried to help him him, he slowly got to his knees, very wobbly and unsteady. Once he finally got up, he continued to play for the next two downs, until they lost the ball and then lost the game. Keenum was diagnosed with a concussion, but not until thirty minutes after the game ended. Dr. Jonathan Lifshitz of University of Arizona College of Medicine talks about how the concussion problem begins with the players. "Players will try to play through their injuries, which is why someone else should make the decision to pull players out of the game for testing," (Pittz). In addition, Wisconsin safety Mike Caputo took a hard hit in a game against Alabama, and proceeded to line up with Alabama for the next play. This player was hit so hard that he lined up on the wrong side of the field and didn't move or notice his mistake until the referee approached him (Goldman). It is clear the the sideline concussion protocol in the NFL is not enough, as players continue to play after obviously receiving concussions on the field. 

CTE affects players in worse ways than just memory loss or confusion. In some cases it causes former NFL stars to literally lose their mind. One of the most famous cases is of Mike Webster, famous Pittsburgh Steeler and Hall of Famer. After seventeen seasons in the NFL, the center had several medical problems, but most importantly, something was wrong in his brain. He showed signs of dementia and had constant headaches. He was on countless medicines, some usually prescribed to Parkinson's Disease patients. Years after Webster's retirement, his problems became so severe that the idea of him once being an invincible football star seemed fake. He lived in his pick-up truck with duct tape covering the broken window in the parking lot of a train station in downtown Pittsburgh. When he remembered to eat, all he would have was potato chips and dry cereal. He repeatedly stunned himself with a taser gun to try and get rid of the pain. The only way he could sleep was if he tasered himself. He wrote in a journal in words that people could barely read. His son, Colin, commented on these journal entries, "you had absolutely no idea what was going through his mind" (Garber). He layed in his car for days on end confused about his life and thinking about killing himself. He often called friends and family, struggling to form sentences, wondering where he was. He apologized to his family saying he couldn't find his way home and saying to them "all I see is trees" (Garber). Webster died in Pittsburgh on September 24, 2002 at the age of 50 (Garber). Mike Webster was once a famous football star who ended up in the Hall of Fame, but he ended his life living out of a car barely recognizable to his friends and family because of the brain disease, CTE, he contracted from his time in the NFL. 

Another famous football player took his own life due to the symptoms and physical effects of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Dave Duerson, one of the best defensive hitters the National Football League has ever seen and Super Bowl champion, suffered endlessly and confused from the disease he acquired from continuous blows to the head in his football career. In a span of five years he went from being a millionaire to someone who could barely afford the rent of his condo. He also saw his family rip apart at the seams. Apart from these social problems, he suffered from countless physical and mental ailments. He had horrible headaches and blurred vision. His memory deteriorated until he felt helpless, trying to find his way around towns he once knew like the back of his hand. He had to write memos everyday about what he would do and when he would do it so he wouldn't forget. It got so bad that he couldn't remember names, simple words, or even what he had eaten for dinner that night (Solotaroff). He suffered from many more symptoms until the day he laid himself naked under a bed sheet and shot himself in the chest (Solotaroff). He planned his suicide out long in advance. He set up a shrine of trophies and medals in his room and left notes and letters for whoever found him. These notes wrote out specifically where his assets were and who to contact to settle his affairs. He even wrote down his reasons for ending his own life as "the rupture of his family and the collapse of his finances." In the last few hours of his life, he sent several texts saying "get my brain to the NFL's brain bank in Boston." He specifically shot himself in the chest, not the head, so his brain could be studied by doctors in order to help find a cure for the awful disease he suffered from (Solotaroff). He and everyone around him knew what he had suffered from. There was no question that the once genius, Harvard student, had suffered from the disease that many former NFL greats suffer from: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. 

This topic recently came under the limelight when the movie Concussion hit theaters on December 25, 2015. The movie stars Will Smith, playing forensic neuropathologist Bennet Omalu. It tells the story of how chronic traumatic encephalopathy was discovered in NFL players that have passed away. Omalu performed the autopsy on Mike Webster after he had suffered from dementia and depression. Omalu found traces of the protein tau that is similarly found in CTE patients. Before Omalu had done this autopsy and discovered CTE in football players, the disease was frequently known to be shown in "punch-drunk" boxers. The movie Concussion was not the first time that the concussion problem was brought to light. Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada wrote a book in 2013 outlining the effects of brain trauma caused by playing football. This book, however, did not create nearly as much buzz as the movie Concussion did. The movie starred an extremely famous actor and was shown on the big screen in front of millions of people. Not only that, but it also had a love story on the side, attracting all kinds of viewers (Vrentas). NFL players were able to receive free admission to this movie if they showed their NFL Players Association Card at certain theaters. Reactions to this movie varied on a wide scale. Some NFL players tweeted positive reactions to the movie. Former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner wrote, "took my boys to #Concussion last night, important movie 4 all those involved in game! As we know more we MUST do more ... " Dustin Fox, former NFL cornerback, tweeted "Just saw concussion. Scared the hell out of me." Other players, on the other hand, did not have such a positive reaction to the movie. Robert Smith, former NFL runningback tweeted "#ConcussionMovie smears Dave Duerson and all of us who serve or served on disability board. Filmmakers are cowards to lie about a dead man," and "they aren't getting my money" (Wire). Pennsylvania State University football player Jason Cabinda tweeted "Have zero intentions to go see the movie 'Concussion'." Players have had reactions to the movie that vary on opposite sides of the spectrum, even though this movie was made to inform not only the public, but most importantly the players on the danger they are putting themselves into every time they step onto the field. The NFL, however, had a different reaction to the movie. In the movie, when Omalu tries to alert the public about the dangers of CTE, he is warned, "You're going to war with a corporation that owns a day of the week." Omalu, in the movie and in real life, is not going to take down the NFL simply by telling people the dangers of the disease he found in several former NFL players. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters "We're not focused on a movie, we're focused on continuing to make progress" (Vrentas). The NFL does not want to add fuel to this fire by talking negatively about the movie so they avoided the question by talking about progress they are making regarding the topic. 

In this argument it is clear who the opposition is: The National Football League. According to studies conducted in 2015, eighty-seven out of ninety one former NFL players have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease caused by repeated brain injuries, like concussions. More than five thousand former NFL players even sued the National Football League saying that the league wasn't truthful about the dangerous concussions and the NFL still denies that the sport is dangerous. NFL commissioner even said that he would "encourage his young son to play football" (Bellware). The reasons for which the NFL continues to insist that the sport of football is still safe is because the League is a money making machine. Advertisements played during the Super Bowl this year were sold for five million dollars and some fans were willing to pay almost five thousand dollars to get a ticket. If the National Football League were to admit that the sport is as dangerous as it really is, and caused the former players to get CTE and later die, the League would be ruined. They wouldn't make nearly as much money because less and less people would want to watch the sport. More importantly, less and less people will want to play the sport because of fear of becoming ill with a disease that could potentially kill you. The opposition by the NFL makes sense logically, but morally the ends do not justify the means. 

The biggest problem regarding the concussion debate is the concussion protocol used by the NFL. The current concussion protocol has a "sideline assessment" that is very brief and compares results from a baseline test taken when the athlete is fully healthy. "The athlete may have a concussion despite being about to complete the NFL Sideline Concussion Assessment "within normal limits" compared to their baseline, due to the limitations of a brief sideline assessment" (NFL). This is a serious issue because players often finish the sideline assessment and go back into the game with a concussion. 

Currently, nothing is being done to fix this evident problem. The NFL hasn't been denying that concussions are a problem for decades and still have yet to do anything to solve the issue. Concussions have continued to increase year to year since 2012 (Breslow). To fix this issue, there should be several changes to the concussion protocol, as well as changes to the consequences for playing the game too rough. There should be consequences if a player goes back into a game knowing that he has a concussion. In addition, all players should be required to learn about the effects of CTE and all of the previous cases of the disease and how it affected the people who suffered and died from it. Players need to become more informed on how the sport they are playing can affect not only their body but also their life. Many players have the mindset that they are invincible and this is one of the main issues regarding this topic. In addition, there should be a limit on the number of concussions a player can receive. No player should be able to get near having over fifteen concussions and continue playing because this clearly leads to CTE and sometimes death. Football is a sport and should be played and watched for entertainment reasons. These players have a job to do and that is to play the sport, but they should not be risking their lives to do so. Fines against these players clearly do not work because they have so much money that it does not phase them. The consequences for hitting someone head on should be suspension and this rule needs to be more heavily enforced.  If these rules were implemented I believe the League would see a huge decline in the number of concussions diagnosed every season. 

Head to head contact in the NFL is continuing to be a problem that the country and players do not take seriously enough. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a disease that has affected and will continue to affect football players if they continue to receive repetitive blows to the head. In several cases players have been hit very hard in the head or even knocked out, and were allowed to go back into the game. This is a main reason as to why players are being hit in the head enough to be diagnosed with CTE after they die. Eighty seven players, and counting, have been diagnosed with this disease and many have suffered through the latter half of their lives living with this disease. Many people oppose the link between CTE and football and the current concussion protocol for the NFL has many flaws. Changes need to be made to this protocol to make sure that players in the NFL are not at risk for suffering alongside their teammates similarly to Mike Webster and Dave Duerson. 

