Football is one of the most beloved sports in the United States. Around 100 million people watch the Super Bowl every year, making it one of the most watched sporting events of all time. For many families across the country football defines the fall season, whether their kids are playing it or they're die hard fans of their alma mater's team. Will football even be around in the next 10-20 years? Unfortunately, the amount of concussions that players are receiving due to day to day head to head contact has caused a huge uproar in the football nation. Is football a dying sport due to concussions? The NFL has received over 5,000 lawsuits from former players regarding head trauma or CTE. Many players even say that they would never let their child partake in playing football. 

The topic of concussions in football and how the lack of knowledge and protocol is killing the sport really interests me. I grew up in a huge football fanatic family. My father played football in college and my mother is the biggest football fan a person could meet. I have been playing tackle football since the third grade and it was absolutely the first thing that I fell in love with. The topic of "How Concussions Are Killing American Football" affects my values because I think that football is worth fighting for to keep around. Values are comprised of things that you find important and worth fighting for. For instance, freedom is a commonly shared value by probably all of the United States, and I would be willing to put money on it that the majority of those people would be willing to fight to keep their freedom. Obviously the sport of football and a persons' overall freedom are not the exact same thing, but I hold football high up in my values and I would be willing to fight to keep the great sport around for a long time. Like I previously stated, I have been playing contact football since I was in the third grade and played every single year until I graduated high school. If you think about that, that is 10 straight years of head to head contact every day for about 6 months of the year. You could guess that I have had my fair share of concussions throughout my days of playing football. I played the position of defensive end; bashing heads with other players was an every play scenario, whether I was tackling the ball carrier or taking on a block by a 280 pound offensive lineman. You must be thinking, "wow you've had a lot of concussions haven't you?" Actually, I have only been diagnosed with one concussion. But, I can guarantee you that I have had a lot more than that one concussion in my 10-year career of playing football. Which is where the problem and major threat to football begins. 

The first article that addresses the problem of concussions in football is, "Concussions in Football: Addressing Uncertainty and Establishing Institutional Regulations to Protect Athletes" written by Sean Dotson. This article addresses the issue of football related concussions and how they effect the undeveloped brain. As said in this article, repeated head to head contact and minor head trauma lead to major problems with the undeveloped brain. Untreated concussions increase the mortality rate of receiving repeated concussions by up to 50%. This article stresses the lack of protection that athletes receive for head trauma and also addresses problems with the NFL's concussion protocol. The author, Sean Dotson, graduated from Tulane Law School with a Sports Law certificate. This academic achievement by the author makes this article credible because concussions in football are a major law suit subject in todays world. This article is an informative and argumentative article to raise awareness to the public and young football players of how concussions effect the undeveloped brain and how the NFL should take a bigger stance on improving the concussion protocol. 

The second article is called "Study: 95.6 Percent of Deceased NFL Players Tested Positive for CTE" written by John Breech. This article was published to CBSSports.com. The purpose of this article is to bring awareness to CTE. CTE is a disease caused by concussions and minor head trauma in football. As it says in the title, they have found CTE in 95.6% of deceased NFL players. 40% of positive tests were conducted on offensive and defensive lineman who are subject to head to head contact on every play. The article also states that they only tested 100 former players. The author, John Breech, has credibility in writing this article because he is a professional sports writer for CBS Sports and specializes in the NFL. He is a very popular and respected author for CBS Sports. The article seems to be a little biased leaning towards the support side that CTE is a very serious disease and that action needs to be taken. The article has multiple loaded sentences and the evidence was also only taken for 91 patients where 40% of the tests were performed on only offensive and defensive linemen where there are many more positions that they could have tested. 

The final article is called "Judge Approves NFL Lawsuit Settlement" by Steve Almasy and Jill Martin. This an informative article on a lawsuit settlement filed against the NFL. The settlement states that the NFL will provide up to $5 million dollars per retired player who have been diagnosed with serious medical conditions related to head trauma injuries. The settlement applies to all players who retired by July 7, 2014. 200 former NFL players opted out of receiving this settlement. This settlement also applies to families of deceased NFL players. This article is credible because it was written by two professional writers for CNN, which is a very popular and credible news source. This article is not bias in any way because it does not include an opinion of either of the authors, it is strictly an informative article. 

The topic of "How Concussions Are Killing American Football" is arguable because many of the lawsuits that the NFL has received on head trauma by former players have been because they claim that no measures of protocol were taken to make sure that they did not have a concussion during in-game scenarios. This may be true, but I know from personal experience that the competitive nature of athletes can drive players to convince team doctors and coaches that they are fine and able to continue playing even if they due feel pain. Which brings invalidity to the argument that nothing is being done to protect these athletes who receive in-game head trauma. Between these three articles, a common opinion found in all of them is that players aren't being protected or going through any type of concussion protocol. This is important because I have experienced this first hand. I know for a fact that in my 10-year career of playing football when a player is contacted by a huge hit and stands up looking dazed and complaining of head pain, coaches and trainers both conduct concussion protocol on the player. This is not a very hard thing to convince the trainers or coaches that you are healthy enough and able to continue play. With this given information from these articles I will continue to take the same stance that I have on this research topic. I do agree that an improved on field protocol should be established when dealing with concussions, but players who state that they did not receive this protocol should be seen as invalid. 

