

Concussions have been around since the dawn of sports, but we have seen them happen more frequently as football seasons pass.  The serious issue is that people have not been taking them as serious as they should because this is very life threatening.  Now, players are coming out talking about how they have head trauma and headaches.  A lot of players have received repetitious hits to the head resulting in a change of life.  They forget things and sometimes they just are not themselves.  The only person the former players seem to be able to blame is the NFL.  Doctors were able to test for CTE because of the brain trauma that players have obtained.  Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, "is a progressive degenerative brain disease found in some athletes and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma" (Hanna, Goldschmidt, and Flower).  The only reason for these players having CTE was because of all the concussions they received in the past and all the knocks to the head they have obtained.  We are now trying to figure out how to slow down concussions from happening by either changing the way football is played or by producing new equipment.  Dani Bostick's article on concussions in the NFL discusses the NFL's concussion settlement.  Bostick says, "the NFL's 2013 $765M settlement in a concussion lawsuit brought by former players suffering from the long-term consequences of repeated head trauma" (Bostick).  This enormous settlement shows the severity of the situation by the NFL now knowing that they have to do something or more settlements may be in their future.  The NFL needs to do something to solve this concussion and head trauma problem or at the very least slow it down, because some football players are retiring or rethinking about playing due to the realization of how important their brain really is.  The general society should be trying to prevent concussions and head trauma from happening by learning about CTEs and what they do to your brain, by thinking about changing the rules or equipment/technology, and by listening and learning from the experiences of former players and deceased former players.  Hopefully one day we can extinguish concussions and head trauma.

From personal experiences, I have obtained multiple concussions playing high school football.  After getting a concussion, I would be put on concussion protocol.  That means that the trainers would watch me for about a week or so to make sure the symptoms of a concussion did not come back.  If at any step in the concussion protocol my symptoms came back because of something such as light jogging, then I would have to start the protocol over again.  It really put a damper on things, but I knew that the trainers were looking out for me.  If I had gone back too early and had another big hit, I might have had a bigger problem.  It's all about precautions, if we take this protocol seriously, then it would help prevent deaths from happening.  Reports have come out talking about how kids or NFL players return too early after receiving a concussion, and that can be detrimental.  Some of the problems of why they return to early is because of the nature of football players.  As a person who has played football multiple times, I can report that many players will lie when their hurt so that they can get back in the game.  Showing that you are hurt to your teammates makes you seem weak in the nature of football.  It just as simple as how a man is supposed to be tough and resilient to everything.  If we get out of this mindset, we can save lives and hopefully prevent future injuries from happening.

The first thing to accomplish is to learn about CTEs and what they do to the brain.  In the article, Evan Wexler talks about how in stage one of the disease, "CTE causes a protein known as tau to form around the brain's blood vessels, interrupting normal functioning and eventually killing nerve cells" (Wexler).  Tau forms from CTE and CTE forms from years of brain trauma and abuse.  Wexler talks about how in stage two, you start to see symptoms appearing as tau is taking over more of the brain (Wexler).  Stage two also gives you, "rage, impulsivity, depression" (Wexler).  In stage three, the tau spreads even more and it affects the brain by causing confusion or memory loss.  In stage four, the tau starts to fully take over the brain.  It also shrinks your brain tremendously (Wexler).  The effects that CTE has on your brain are, "difficulty thinking, impulsive behavior, depression or apathy, short-term memory loss, difficulty planning and carrying out tasks, emotional instability, substance abuse, or suicidal thoughts or behavior" (Mayo Clinic Staff).  More effects that can happen down the road from CTE are, "irritability, aggression, speech and language difficulties, motor impairment, trouble swallowing, vision and focusing problems, trouble with sense of smell, and dementia" (Mayo Clinic Staff).  Obviously, all of these effects are important, but the one that is most important is the suicide one.  Many former NFL players have committed suicide due to CTE because they feel like suicide is the only way to relieve their pain.  The big thing in CTE and how it grows over time is that tau builds up slowly and slowly until it takes away more of your abilities.  A quote from the article states that, "Injuries to the section of nerve cells involved in conducting electrical impulses (axons) interfere with cell-to-cell communication" (Mayo Clinic Staff).

The second thing that we need to do is to change the rules and equipment in football.  In Jason Hanna's article, there is a video that show a robot that Dartmouth College has that helps prevent concussions and major head hits by taking out the other half of a collision.  It takes out the half of the collision from the other player coming out to hit you because it absorbs the hit and doesn't give the hit.  Other places in the world have shown interest in this robot.  This means teams are taking a step in the right direction for safety (Hanna, Goldschmidt, and Flower).  Jason La Canfora talks about implementing medical timeouts into the NFL.  What he means by medical timeouts is, "a medical timeout could be called when a spotter or an independent person unaffiliated with either team on the sideline believes a player is in need of medical attention, but he remains in the game" (La Canfora).  This would be a huge rule change because men do not like to leave games if their hurt because it shows weakness.  This absolutely would take the that factor out a person's health is more important than his pride.  La Canfora also talks about implementing better spotters for the field.  He says that the spotter would, "relay the player he or she believes is in need of assistance and they are given a concussion test by a third-person independent sideline doctor hired jointly by the NFL and NFLPA to staff each game" (La Canfora).  Sean Gregory talks about changing equipment and training.  He says, "the Riddell Revolution Speed embeds sensors that can record the impact of collisions" (Gregory).  This revolutionary helmet will help the developers of helmets understand how hard players are actually hitting.  Gregory thinks about changing the rules by switching to a two-point stance for lineman so that you do not have such big collisions. (Gregory).  Part of Richard Ellenbogen's article discusses about improving helmets.  He talks about, "the scientists will try to model and measure the forces that impact a helmet, transfer energy through the skull and into the brain after collisions" (Ellenbogen, Berger, and Batjer).  This is very important so that helmets can have an updated version of force and hit resistance.  We need the hits to fall underneath that resistance threshold so that we can minimize concussions.  One big rule change in the NFL in Ellenbogen's article is that a, "defenseless player could not be hit in the head or neck by an opponent who launches himself and uses his helmet, shoulder, or forearm to make contact" (Ellenbogen, Berger, and Batjer).  This is a huge rule because it takes out some of the intent in the hit.  If your going to hit a defenseless player with any of those parts of the body, you were most likely intending to either severely hurt them or knock them out of the game.  And in order to stop players from continuing to do this, the NFL either suspends them or fines them.

We need to listen and learn from the experiences of former players or the experiences of deceased players.  In Joseph Stromberg's YouTube video, he has a video of Mike Webster talking and he just suddenly forgets what he was about to say due to many years of hits to the head (Stromberg).   Anthony Davis was former NFL player for the San Francisco 49ers who retired at twenty-five due to problems he was having with his brain.  He said, "it's scary when your brain's not working the way it's supposed to" (Bostick).  And this was at the age of twenty-five.  Just think the damage to a player's brain who has been playing way longer than that looks like.  Chris Borland also made the decision to retire early and right after his rookie year!  He made the decision based on his health and his history of concussions (Bostick).  Merril Hoge retired in 1994 due to an experience that changed his life and the way he looked at it.  He said, "The take me to the training room where I died.  I flat-lined.  My heart stopped ...  ... It was after that I was basically trapped in my home for six weeks ...  I had to learn to read again" (Bostick).  This shows the seriousness of repetitious hits to the head and multiple concussions.  He died and thankfully he came back.  And that was the moment he realized his life mattered over everything.  We need more players to learn from this experience because this could be them easily, but with a different outcome.  They could die and not be able to be resuscitated.  

Another big problem is that, "almost 50% of athletes who have suffered a concussive blow do not report any symptoms" (Bostick).  This goes back to the nature of the sport and how men do not want to show weakness.  We need more players to become aware like Davis, Borland, and Hoge did.  Joe DeLamielleure describes his experience with concussions as saying, "I count myself lucky that the main malady affecting me after those many blows to the head is a 60% hearing in my left ear- probably due to undiagnosed concussions" (DeLamielleure).  Even though he has fared better than most of his former friends, he still has a consequence from playing and especially playing with undiagnosed concussions.  He has definitely fared better than the former players that committed suicide.  The article states, "Three committed suicide recently: Dave Duerson in 2011, and Ray Easterling and Junior Seau in 2012" (DeLamielleure).  This statistic projects the situation even more than people are taking it.  In Tej D. Azad's he talks about how Junior Seau's career was full of, "headaches, episodes of dizziness, and insomnia since as early as the 1990s" (Azad, Li, Pendharkar, Veeravagu, and Grant).  Since those were reported as early as the 90s, this means that a lot of his trauma rolled over from high school and college.  Junior Seau committed suicide and that was probably due to what was going on in his brain.  His ex-wife also recalls that every time he would come home from games, he would want the rooms dark and wanted silence (Azad, Li, Pendharkar, Veeravagu, and Grant).  The article shows many effects that repetitious hits had on him.  Azad talks about how Seau had, "withdrawal, heavy alcohol consumption, reckless business and financial decisions and gambling" (Azad, Li, Pendharker, Veeravagu, and Grant).  This shows more consequences that come with playing football and the head trauma that comes with it.  Azad even talks about how Seau became extremely aggressive towards his family at times.  All of these experiences from former players or deceased players shows the importance of self-preservation over anything else.  Current players need to learn from these experiences and realize that if they don't take action properly, they can end up in a grave or have permanent damage.

The NFL should be trying to prevent concussions and head trauma from happening by thinking about changing the rules or equipment/technology, by listening and learning from the experiences former players and deceased former players, and by learning about CTEs and what they do to your brain.  If we become more aware as a society, one day we can hopefully extinguish concussions and head trauma.  What I've learned throughout the course of my research is that concussion, brain trauma, and CTE is nothing to joke about.  It can lead up to hurting your family in terms of when the concussions turn into CTE after years and years you can become aggressive or even distant and no be able to communicate with them.  I have many positions and conversations surrounding my argument.  One part of my research that supported my thesis entirely was showing first-hand what concussions and numerous bashes to the head will do to you.  This was shown in the article about Junior Seau and his CTE.  They talked about how his family recognized his characteristics changing.  A quote from the article that shows how CTE changes those personal characteristics is, "After Seau's retirement from the NFL in 2010, his family and friends reported surprised behavioral changes that included withdrawal, heavy alcohol consumption, reckless business and financial decisions, and gambling" (Azad, Li, Pendharker, Veeravagu, and Grant).  In Azad's article, he talked about how Seau's demeanor changed.  He even was arrested for a, "domestic violence incident with his girlfriend" (Azad, Li, Pendharker, Veeravagu, and Grant).  The conversation surrounding my argument is that we need to do something not just in the NFL, but also in football in general to try and prevent not just concussions but also CTE.  CTE stands for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and it is a, "neurodegenerative disease pathologically confirmed by the presence of a unique of hyperphosphorylated tau neurofibrillary and astrocytic tangles in the brain" (Azad, Li, Pendharker, Veeravagu, and Grant).  Another position is showing the ways in which we can prevent concussions by either making rule changes or making different equipment. One thing that I'm trying to get through to people how serious this concussion issue is.  Having personally received concussions in the past, I can say that they certainly leave you feeling helpless.  Also, by having eight-seven of ninety-one former NFL players containing CTE in their brains obviously shows how serious this issue is.  It also shows that if we don't do anything about this, then many other people that play sports in general can end up like this.

