In this day and age, the percentage of the world population that partakes in athletic activities is at an all time high. More and more parents are beginning to sign up their children to play sports at a young age in order to get involved and stay busy. Programs such as “Pop Warner” and “Tee-ball” teach the youth community the basics of the designated sport to prepare them for more advanced levels in the future. This is where the worry of early and improper coaching comes into account by teaching children how to win by any means necessary and potentially play aggressive. As a result, the players could get seriously hurt beyond the extent of a minimal risk bruise or laceration. Just to put this into perspective, imagine a six-year-old Pop Warner football player participating in football up until he retired from the National Football League at the age of thirty-four. That is twenty-eight years of constant direct trauma which causes the brain to essentially shake inside the skull like Jell-O. Of course, not all cases are like this but even playing sports for a short amount of time could be detrimental. A concussion is defined as a bump or hit to the head that inhibits the normal function of the brain. They are the leading brain injury amongst athletes that can cause various physical, mental and emotional effects. From blurry vision to extreme irritability to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, this mild traumatic brain injury is not taken as seriously as it should by a portion of the athletic community and that is a scary thought.  Something has to be done and it has to happen fast. Playing high risks sports are not worth the possibility of concussions due to the life-threatening side effects. 

In April of 2014, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association released a position statement on the management of sports concussions. The purpose of this was to provide healthcare professionals such as athletic trainers and physicians with a list of guidelines of what to do in the event of a concussion in minor and emergency instances (Broglio et al. 245.). It clearly states what can happen as a result of this trauma in the short and long term. There has been a 62% increase in ER visits involving traumatic brain injuries between 2001 and 2009 as well as almost four million reported sports concussions in 2013 (Broglio et al. 245.). These outrageous figures prove just how out of control the competitive sporting world has become, especially in high-risk contact sports. This position statement being communicated to the public was a massive step for the sports medicine world because not only did it encourage sporting facilities to review and reassess their concussion guidelines, but it also got the sports medicine practitioners of the United States to all get on the same page in an effort to save lives. 

Concussions and Our Kids, a novel published by Dr. Robert Cantu and Mark Hyman in 2012, is a bestseller on all things concussions. The authors start off with a chapter dedicated to explaining what exactly a concussion is and then branch off into specific topics such as second impact syndrome, baseline testing and myths associated with them. In the collision sports chapter, researchers from the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University concluded that 34% of youth and adolescent hockey players in the area were returning to play during the same game of sustaining a concussion (Cantu and Hyman 21). This horrific reality paves the way to the possibility of second impact syndrome or post-concussion syndrome. Second impact syndrome is the process of disrupting autoregulation, or the need to maintain a constant blood flow to the brain as a result of another direct blow (Cantu and Hyman 82). It is very rare with less than fifty documented cases, but can turn fatal if not recognized within two to five minutes due to brain stem herniation, intracranial pressure and rapid brain swelling. On the other hand, post-concussion syndrome is when normal concussion symptoms such as headache, impaired memory, inability to concentrate and dizziness last for weeks and potentially even months following the injury. So essentially the athlete is forced to live with these symptoms each day while they affect daily activities until they subside.  According to the authors, the number of athletes that played through these conditions is inconclusive because P.C.S. could be mistaken for another illness and S.I.S. is often fatal and rarely found in an autopsy after an individual has passed (Cantu and Hyman 84). The side effects and outcomes of both supports the idea that playing high risk sports are not worth the uncertainty because they are well researched and have been proved in countless cases.

Gretchen Reynolds of the New York Times published an article educating and emphasizing the dangers of even just a single concussion. She begins this popular press article by voicing that mild traumatic brain injuries have the potential to have long lasting mental, physical and intellectual effects throughout one’s adulthood (Reynolds). The author incorporated statistics from a Blue Cross Blue Shield study to strengthen the beginning of her argument. The report concluded that the rate of concussions for people fewer than twenty years of age has skyrocketed by 71% between 2010 and 2015 with the female rate being 119% (Reynolds). Reynolds credited this to parents, coaches and officials becoming more aware of the dangers of concussions and wanting their children to receive medical care. This is an undoubtedly reason and validates just how many concussions in sports have gone undetected in the past. A research study was conducted in Sweden that resulted in finding out rather bizarre side effects that the average person would not think of. Individuals that experienced a single concussion before the age of twenty-five were prone to receiving medical disability, dying prematurely and not graduating high school or college in comparison to someone who did not suffer one (Reynolds).  When someone thinks of the aftermath of a concussion, most likely the common side effects like headache, dizziness and nausea come to mind. Who knew that even playing a recreational sport through grade school could cause such significant life-altering outcomes? Is it really worth the mental and intellectual tolls? 

At the University of Florida, Janie Cournoyer and Dr. Brady Tripp administered a survey across eleven high schools in the area in Gainesville to determine high school football player’s level of knowledge regarding concussions, their symptoms, how they learned about them and acknowledgement of risk forms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention credit football with half of the sustained concussions nationwide as well as expressing that high school football players may not be able to recognize symptoms, take care of injury properly and even reporting serious symptoms to parents, coaches and athletic trainers. After surveying 334 subjects from the various schools, the most commonly identified symptoms were: headache (97%), dizziness (93%) and confusion (90%) (Cournoyer and Tripp 654). The researchers also asked the participants if they were taught about concussions from parents, coaches, neither or both. 200 of the 334 students revealed they received education from their coaches, 180 from parents and almost 90 said they have never been schooled on the injury at all. To put all of this information into perspective, the participants did not have the appropriate level of education about concussions because only three symptoms were most common and the majority even denied signing the required acknowledgement of risk form prior to the season. It is absolutely mind-blowing to know that these adolescents were allowed on the field with little to no education. This research study helps support the debate that playing high risk sports are not worth the dangers because it serves as a model for the entire United States in showing adolescents are very susceptible to concussions from sports due to their lack of education on such a dangerous injury.

In December of 2015, Columbia Pictures released a film titled “Concussion” starring the well-known Will Smith. The plot focuses on the true story of Dr. Bennet Omalu’s discovery of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in former NFL player’s brains and all of the obstacles he faced to make his findings public. CTE is caused by repetitive brain trauma. The amount of backlash he received from the league and the general public validated just how sensitive of a topic concussions are and what they would do to continue to “cover up” the issue. Omalu’s journey first started when he performed an autopsy on Mike Webster’s brain when he was found deceased in his vehicle after several years of self-harm and drug abuse (“Concussion”). Webster was a healthy individual before he essentially “fell off rock bottom” and the cause of this was unknown until the autopsy. After this, he makes the decision to share his discoveries with the world. The film features a reenactment of a NFL committee meeting where Omalu presents his findings, is not taken seriously by any of the chairmen and an executive tells him to leave America and return to Africa. The fact that this actually occurred and not just dramatized by the directors is absolutely appalling. Towards the end, the individual that told Omalu to flee the country committed suicide and exclaimed in his suicide note that the doctor was indisputably right about CTE. The reality that a prestigious forensic pathologist was not taken seriously by the NFL and public until more lives were lost proves just how arrogant and deceitful America is when it comes to altering the game of football. Although the league has adopted these changes, football is still not worth the uncertainty of sustaining concussions and developing CTE.

In a select amount of schools in Pennsylvania, a “return to learn” concussion program has been put in place to accommodate those students in the learning setting (Hoffman). This initiative allows students to have extended deadlines on assignments, only attend school for half of the day and work with these students one-on-one outside of class time after recovery if proper paperwork is provided. These Pennsylvania schools express the reason for introducing this program is due to student athletes attending school while still concussed and exacerbating their symptoms and elongating their recovery period as a result (Hoffman). Dr. Mark Halstead, doctor of pediatric medicine at Washington University, voiced his opinion that he is utterly baffled that only a few states have began policies like these Pennsylvania schools because concussions in middle and high school athletes are a significant matter nationwide. If all schools would integrate this initiative, recovery times for students would most definitely decrease. However, if more parents did not allow their children to participate in sports due to the risks, school systems would not need to adopt this program. 

When the average person thinks of a concussion’s mechanism of injury, they think of a player getting struck really hard or “trucked” into the ground. This could be due to several things but not limited to improper technique, accidental collision or complete disregard for the rules. A research study completed by a sports medicine research center in Baltimore, Maryland sought out to analyze playing technique and mechanism of injury of twenty-five high school boys’ lacrosse teams through viewing game footage. The author’s findings were that all concussions were a result of bodily contact. Out of the thirty-four concussions captured on tape 56% did not see the direct trauma coming, 79% used their striking hand to deliver the hit and 41% were due to improper ball handling (Lincoln, et al). All of the researchers agree that precautionary measures need to be put in place to reduce these percentages and ultimately protect the players. Coaches educating the players better and referees enforcing the rules could be the first steps in accomplishing this. With lacrosse growing by 55% between 2008 and 2013 amongst the male adolescent population in the United States, rules and policies to reduce concussion rates in lacrosse need to be implemented sooner rather than later. Now with that being said, if lacrosse was eliminated entirely, concussion rates would undoubtedly decrease and those students would not even have the chance to be exposed to the risks.

In 2009, a video of Roger Goodell, National Football League commissioner, was captured on film denying allegations that head injuries and later brain conditions are linked to playing football while he was sitting before Congress. The congressmen proceeded to ask Goodell to verify brain injury statistics and he responded by completely ignoring the question and ensuring that the league is in good hands. The narrator of the video expresses that “Goodell has gotten so used to lying that no one pays attention anymore” (“Roger Goodell…”). Also, this is one of the same chairmen that attempted to hide Dr. Bennet Omalu’s research discovery of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. If the entire league stood behind him when he made these comments, why would anyone want to play for the NFL? Since Goodell’s statements were captured, he still continues to fabricate all information and allegations regarding brain injuries to this day. Playing for an organization that does not care about their players’ health is absolutely horrific and disheartening, especially because so many people do not know about this and will continue to watch and support the organization. Participating in high risks sports is not worth the risks of concussions because this multibillion-dollar industry does not even have the decency to admit their faults and provide the proper concussion care.

Playing high risks sports are not worth the possibility of concussions due to the life-threatening side effects. Between the physical and mental life altering and potentially fatal side effects, no soul on this planet should have to experience a concussion due to playing sports. Although just one is not as life threatening as multiple, the side effects are significant enough that there has been a worldwide dispute. People of all ages should be able to participate in football, soccer, lacrosse, etc. and not worry about sustaining a brain injury. Sports just are not the same as they used to be. There is nothing more terrifying than not feeling like yourself or having thoughts of suicide. The concussion rates amongst all sports of all levels nationwide are extremely concerning due to all of the countless efforts attempted. From Dr. Bennet Omalu to the “return to learn” initiative, endeavors have been tried and are still failing. This is why something has to be done. The fact that 1.6 to 3.8 million individuals suffer from a concussion ever year is mind-blowing. If this nationwide issue does not get corrected soon, who knows what other detrimental things will happen to the world of sports.
