In today's world, it has become common knowledge that the future of football is at risk due to concussions. Many people speculate that it will not be around longer than a decade from now; statistics say otherwise. 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 the sport or they're die hard fans of their alma mater's team. Will football even be around in the next 10-20 years? I strongly believe that it will. The amount of concussions that players receive due to daily head to head contact has caused a huge uproar in the football nation. The NFL has received over 5,000 lawsuits from former players regarding head trauma or CTE. As a matter of fact, multiple players have stated that they would never let their child partake in playing football. While that may be true, there has been a significant amount of rulebook and concussion protocol changes along with advancements in technology of the helmet that will safeguard the future of football. 

The topic of concussions in football and how the NFL is working towards present/future advancements in protocol and technology, 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 Aren't Killing American Football" affects my families cherished values of the sport and memories in the past having to do with football. I think that football is far from going extinct and is absolutely worth fighting 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 majority of the United States; I would be willing to bet that many of those people would be willing to fight for their freedom. Obviously the sport of football and a persons' overall freedom are not on the same scale, but I hold football high in my values and I would be willing to fight to keep this 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 put that into perspective, that's ten years of constant head to head contact every day for about 6 months of the year. Most would assume that I've had my fair share of concussions throughout my days of playing football. In high school, I played the position of defensive end for a 4AA football team in the state of North Carolina. At defensive end, bashing heads with other players occurs at a consistent play-to-play scenario, whether I was tackling the ball carrier or taking on a block by a 280 pound offensive lineman. One might think, "Wow, you must have had a lot of concussions." I've actually only been diagnosed with one concussion. The fact that I've had only one concussion while playing at such a highly competitive level of high school football, all comes down to the advancements in technology of the helmets that I wore and the safety protocol executed by our medical staff. In high school, each year our coach would buy our team the newest helmets available in order to protect his athletes from concussions. However, not every high school football team can afford to fund such expensive pieces of new equipment every year; which is why I can see how there is a growing concern about athlete's protection against concussions. 

Statistics found in this article show exactly why people would believe that football has an uncertain future. The first article that I have found to support that 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 affect the undeveloped brain. As said in this article, repeated head to head contact and minor head trauma may lead to major problems with the underdeveloped brain. Untreated concussions increase the mortality rate of receiving repeated concussions by up to 50% (Dotson). 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 lawsuit subject in today's world. This informative and argumentative article raises awareness to the public and young football players of how concussions effect the underdeveloped brain and how the NFL needs to take a larger 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. Forty percent of the positive tests were conducted on offensive and defensive linemen 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's 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; there are many more positions that they could have tested. 

The final article is called "Sports Law--Requiring High School Coaches To Attend Courses For The Prevention, Care, And Management Of Concussions And Brain-Related Injuries" written by Jacob Key. This article discusses the nation wide effort to better protect our student athletes against brain related injuries such as concussions. For example, since 2009 every state, with the exception Hawaii, has passed some sort of legislation that informs coaches, athletic trainers, medical staff, parents, and the athletes themselves of concussion risk and prevention. There are also 25 states that require coaches to attend mandatory courses in concussion prevention, care, and management (Key 444). This article serves an informative article supporting my claim that safety protocol advancements are in place and continue to improve, therefore safeguarding the future of football. This article is credible because it is a scholarly peer-reviewed source. It's not bias in a way; it only presents the evidence and facts of states requiring coaches and other staff to undergo mandatory courses on concussion prevention. 

The topic of how concussions aren't killing American football is arguable because many of the lawsuits that the NFL has received on head trauma by former players have been because of their claim of 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 a very strict protocol has been put in place in order to deal with concussion prevention, especially among high school athletes. Which brings invalidity to the argument that nothing is being done to protect these athletes who receive in-game head trauma. The first two articles that I chose, both have a common theme: lack of concussion prevention and the seriousness of head trauma injuries. The third article that I chose exemplifies the concussion protocol advancements that are being made in order to protect our nations athletes. 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 was contacted by a huge hit and stood up wile looking dazed and complaining of head pain, coaches and trainers both conducted concussion protocol on the player. I have also experienced first hand the advanced technology in helmets and how they will continue to improve their protection against concussions. With this given information from these supporting articles, I will continue to take the same stance that I have on this research topic. Yes, I do agree that football is at risk if companies and football teams doesn't improve safety protocol and technology. However, these regulations are being improved every single day. Due to the ongoing enhancements, concussions will not drive the sport of football into the ground. 

