After watching the movie, "Concussion", I learned a lot about Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. The movie finished with an open end of questions in regards to what the NFL is going to do in response to the discovery of CTE in many former NFL players. As I completed more research it made me angry how much control the NFL really has over Sundays. Although I'm not going to say that "I hate the NFL" and "I'm not going to watch football anymore" I strongly believe that action needs to be taken to maintain the health and safety of its players. Having many family friends who play football at a high school level, it makes me concerned for their safety because CTE is caused by repetitive blows to the head. Researchers found that the longer you play football, the more likely you are to have this condition. This prolonged play also holds the ability to cause increased severity of this disease. 

Source 1. "Timeline: The NFL's Concussion Crisis". Lauren Ezell.

This severity of head injuries has been questioned since the early nineties. In 1994, questions started being asked regarding the NFL's concussion policy. The main question continuously raised in this article discusses what the NFL knows about head injuries and how long have they known these horrific details. This article ties the relationship between injuries of NFL players, and the public statements the NFL makes regarding these issues. 

For three years the NFL explicitly ignored the severity of concussions occurring within it's program. Whenever publicly asked about this pressing issue, they would blow it off and change the topic of discussion. After about three years of early arguments, a new return-to-play guideline was finally established in 1997. Each year comes with a new complaint of a NFL player, and in 1999 the NFL took its first big hit when Mike Webster claimed that "football gave him dementia."

Lauren Ezell has written for PBS for many years. Rather than making opinions based on the information at hand, Lauren simply states the facts. She implements a timeline to discuss what injuries have occurred amongst NFL players, as well as any public statements the NFL has made regarding these injuries.

Source 2. "New: 87 Deceased NFL Players Test Positive for Brain Disease". Jason M. Breslow

Since the number of players who are found this disease has been rapidly increasing there have been changes in the NFL. During a period of time where CTE has become rather public and important knowledge to everyone, people are raising the question, "What is the NFL going to do about it?" In this article the author gives many examples of research which the NFL has funded regarding CTE. 

This article is primarily wrapped around what actions the NFL is taking to try and prevent this condition. It states that the NFL has given many research grants to medical facilities in order to further explore this relatively new disease. As well as revising their own rules and sideline regulations to ensure that players are only returning to play when it's absolutely safe to. 

The author, Jason M. Breslow, primarily covers the NFL's concussion crisis ever since joining PBS in 2012. However, I believe that this article contains a bias regarding what the NFL is doing. I think he might be over exaggerating all of the steps they are taking in response to this crisis. 

Source 3. "Solving Football's Concussion Problem". Dan Polnerow. 

Although the NFL has made rule changes, who effective are these rule changes? The author of this article starts off by stating that the NFL, as well as the NCAA, are in fact taking steps in order to minimize and prevent concussions. However, the article then states that the actions that are being taken, are showing little to no evidence that a statistical difference is occurring regarding the injuries of these athletes.

The author discusses how although helmets are continuously upgraded to ensure safety of players, the major structure and function of helmet has had little to no change at all. He specifically points out three main things which must be established before any significant changes will occur. We need to further learn about the impact of concussions, how exactly they are caused, and a more reliable testing process. 

This source does appear as bias towards the NFL in a negative way in regards to the steps that they are taking. The author shames the NFL for not being able to protect their players even with the abundance of money they are still managing to produce. 

Feasibility

The research question comes across as arguable because many people believe that the NFL is not doing enough to protect its players from serious injuries, like concussions. Also, the steps that they are taking, may not appear to be enough to make a statistical difference regarding the injuries of their players. There are some agreements among my sources that action is being taken and that the NFL should be applauded for it. However, the disagreement comes from how feasible these actions are. I initially though that the NFL was taking very little action, however, I am now seeing more of an attempt by them. Because of the amount of research, I have done in order to determine for myself what actions the NFL may or may not be taking, I think my continuation of research will allow me to make an educated decision, which will include a lot of research from both sides of the argument in order to take a stance on this topic. I'm going to focus on facts, rather than opinions to present to the reader in order to make a strong argument.  

