After having a discussion with my uncle, who was a high school football coach for close to twenty years, about taking the helmets off football players I became quite intrigued about the topic. My uncle mentioned that he believed a lot of different concussions and other head injuries could have been prevented if players were without their helmets. My uncle argued that a majority of head injuries were because players would lead with their heads to make a hit and removing the helmets would prevent these types of hits from happening. Sport safety is something I am passionate about, because I would like my future kids to play sports, and while I understand that every sport has risks, I want them to play in the safest environment possible. As a former high school and travel athlete I have seen firsthand the dangers of concussions, and other head related injuries. I have had close friends who had to miss months of schooling just because of head injuries they acquired. I am qualified to write about this issue because I have had friends in the past talk about their hitting techniques in their particular sports. I have also read six different articles talking about why head injuries are such common occurrences in contact sports like football. 

In an article called "Sports Concussion Psychology: Should Helmets Be Taken Off?" it mentions how football players use their helmets as weapons. This article also suggests why football players tend to do this. With such extravagant safety equipment players have a false sense of invincibility which makes players use their bodies as weapons in games. This article can be quite valuable for my essay because it shows the psychology behind players playing the way they do. The name of the theory is risk compensation. The theory explains that people adjusts their behavior on the amount of risk they suspect from a certain situation. The author of this article is Harry Kerasidis M.D. Dr. Kerasidis is qualified to talk about this topic because he is a cognitive neurologist who has a doctorate degree. Dr. Kerasidis has studied how the brain relates to the behavior of people for over twenty-five years. Dr. Kerasidis has devoted a large part of his career to educate the public and the sports world on the relationship between the brain and behavior. 

Another article I read was called "An Unintended Consequence of Football Helmets". This article talks about the statistics and numbers when it comes to concussions suffered in football. The article includes a graph that shows that the rate concussions has nearly doubled from 2005-2006 to 2011-2012. The article also brings up a theory called the peltzman effect, which explains that people who feel safer involve themselves in riskier behavior. This article could be used to show different statistics on how concussions are still a very real threat in football, despite having bigger and more advanced helmets. This article also mentions that when people wear seatbelts they "lower the cost of risky behavior and they may drive more dangerously" (Schwartz). Having an example of the peltzman effect not related to football could be beneficial to the essay, because it relates the same psychology with a different activity. The author of this article is woman named Elaine Schwartz. Elaine Schwartz is an economics teacher and writer at the Kent Place School in Summit New Jersey. In 2004 Schwartz wrote financial history articles for the Encyclopedia of New Jersey. Schwartz is qualified to write about this topic because she has an extensive background in economics where studying the cost of risky behavior is vital. 

One other article I read was called "Why is it so hard to stop sports concussions?". One interesting thing this article went into detail about was how we might be able to one day stop concussions by studying woodpeckers. The article states that woodpeckers "undergo accelerations of 1,200g as they hammer their bills on trees, and the birds show no signs of concussion or brain damage." (Piazza). The reason for woodpeckers being immune to concussions is due to a unique hyoid bone system. The hyoid bone system helps to secure the brain on impacts. This article could be useful to show science behind brain injuries in football. Explaining how woodpeckers do not show any signs of brain injuries gives people hope for the future on one day being able to create a concussion proof helmet. While humans cannot grow extra bone systems we can try to create a way to harness the brain like woodpeckers do. The author of this article is a man named Stephen Piazza. Piazza is a professor at Pennsylvania State University. Piazza teaches kinesiology, mechanical engineering, and orthopedics and rehabilitation. Piazza also lists different articles he read before writing this article showing he has done research on the topic. 

My research question is; should football players take off their helmets? This question can be argued because it would seem ill-advised to remove something that is supposed to protect you, and no one has died during a football game since helmets were required. A few things that seem to be agreed upon are; players use their helmets as weapons, people indulged in riskier behavior when they feel safer and despite advances in technology concussions have not decreased. With articles from an economist to a cognitive neurologist it is interesting to see the different roles people take on this issue. I might revise my research question to; how can people prevent concussions in different contact sports? The reason being it would not limit me to only talking about football related brain injuries. 

