Today, concussions and the results of concussions continue to be a huge dilemma in the sports world.  As a football player in high school, I have seen concussions and the result of concussions up close.  One of my teammates was hit in the head one practice, and did not tell coaches or the trainer and continued to play for the rest of practice.  However, the next day at school people could see that something was off with him and he was eventually sent to the trainer.  He was diagnosed with a concussion, and was sent home.  Because he kept playing, the results of the concussion was worse and he was not able to play for 3 weeks after that practice.  Treatment of concussions continues to be an ongoing problem in most major sports, but in particular, the NFL.  Concussions can result in serious head injuries, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopy- or CTE, (which is indicated by the buildup of an abnormal protein called tau, which strangles brain cells that control memory) later in life, and also makes it easier to suffer from a concussion when returning to play.  Because more medical research has come out on CTE and the effects of concussions, people have begun to take concussions more seriously in both youth sports and the NFL, but this isn’t enough.  Concussions must be treated with optimal caution, especially in youth sports, so that they don’t suffer from the results in a more substantial way in the future.  In the NFL, players should be more encouraged to report when they have concussion-like symptoms and there should be a penalty or fine if they fail to report such symptoms.  Ex-NFL have died from CTE, which is now shown to be linked directly from concussions, and the NFL doesn’t do enough as of now in preventing concussions and helping out its players when they do suffer from head injuries. Concussions are a serious problem in football, and the NFL doesn’t do enough in preventing and supporting those with concussions.  The rules the implement are not working, and the concussion rate in the NFL is only going up.  This makes the NFL partially at fault for the deaths of many of its ex-players who have suffered from CTE and other concussions brain injuries.  

To be familiar with the NFL’s concussion policy and what they are doing wrong, one needs to know the basics about concussions and the problems they can cause.  Concussions are “the most common and least serious type of traumatic brain injuries” (webmd).  So straight away, they are classified as a traumatic brain injury and even though it says they are the least serious, they still can result in serious consequences.  Concussions occur when a direct blow to the head occurs, allowing the brain to literally move inside one’s head and can result in bruised tissue, nerves, or blood vessels (webmd).  This can be serious and cause stress on the brain in the long run.  Immediate symptoms of this can be impaired vision, loss of balance, falling unconscious, and nausea.  These are often the symptoms of major concussions, as they are classified into three different categories which are mild, moderate, or severe.  In sports, mild concussions are the most common but they can be serious.  This is because athletes often take a blow to the head and feel dizziness, but they don’t tell anyone and continue playing.  This makes it easier to suffer from another concussion, and an accumulation of concussions can be harmful.  These types of concussions are the ones the NFL must look out for because they can often be the most dangerous.  

Both short and long term effects of concussions can be identified in those who have suffered from them.  Short term effects are more like the immediate affects like loss of consciousness or nausea, but the long-term effects of concussions can be identified as well.  These can include prolonged headache, difficulty concentrating and completing basic activities, and the sense that you don’t feel like yourself (Cornell Medicine).  Some of these things can be very serious, but concussions can also be treated if done correctly taking proper precautions.  The most common form of treatment is resting or staying at home.  Also, after suffering from a concussion one should stay away from bright lights or other sensitive images so that the brain can heal itself.  If the treatment isn’t cut short and the brain can heal, one can return to football.  If the proper precautions while completing treatment are not taken, it can be detrimental in the sense that one can be more susceptible to brain damage and blows to the head in the future.   

Recently, a YouTube video was uploaded on this subjected by “HowStuffWorks”, a credible channel with over 500,000 subscribers.  The video contained information about concussions as well as interviews with athletes who may have suffered from concussions.   Tim Byerly, an ex-quarterback is quoted saying “I think NFL players after their career say, ‘yeah I’ve suffered from a million concussions, but this is my job this is my life” (HowStuffWorks).  This way of thinking stems from the perception by athletes of the NFL, which is that unless they are suffering from major injury, the are expected to play.  Most players have the mindset that they must play every game, because it’s just their way of thinking as well as many of them likely get a bonus for playing well and playing every game.  Because of this, many players try to suffer through minor injuries in order to play.  Where they go wrong is that even a minor concussion isn’t a minor injury, and playing with a minor concussion can result in both long term and short term serious injury.  This is where the NFL is partially at fault.  They expect players to be superheroes, and they encourage that everyone plays, because it helps their ratings and the NFL as a corporation.  They have the preconceived perception that you should play every game unless you are seriously injured, and you should get paid extra for accomplishing this.  Instead, the NFL should have a harsher punishment if they are caught playing with an injury and more specifically, a concussion.  One can counter this and make the point that the NFL shouldn’t have to look over its players in this way and make sure they report their injuries.  But in reality, they shouldn’t have to monitor this, but they must.  It continues to be a problem in their league and it tarnishes their image. When ex-players come out and say they are suffering from symptoms of brain trauma and are showing early signs of CTE, or that they are losing their memories and are becoming depressed it does not help the NFL.  People look at this and are turned against the NFL.  Parents do not want their children playing football is players are committing suicide and are having serious health issues because of it.  For example, an article on ESPN discusses ex-players who may be suffering from early symptoms of CTE.  Tony Dorsett, and ex-NFL star has been “diagnosed as having signs of the disease” after being tested at UCLA (Weinbaum).  Dorsett has said that he is trying to be proactive on the situation instead of reactive, and he is looking for a solution.  Also, Dorsett has said his doctors have diagnosed him as clinically depressed, he occasionally gets lost driving his daughters to school, and he has outbursts at his wife and daughters (Weinbaum). Dorsett believes he is going through this because of injuries he suffered while playing football, so this can show the severe effects of concussions and more specifically CTE that one can have even just a decade or so after finishing their football career.  This does not make the NFL look good. Whether there needs to be more rule changes to limit head injuries or taking plays out of the game that often result in grueling hits such as kickoffs, something must happen. Also, the NFL still needs to work on spreading awareness among its players of the affects concussions can have on their lives, even though many of the players are starting to realize this themselves.  

Another point from the video is that the amount of traumatic brain injuries suffered in the United States per year is pointed out, as David Wright, the director of Neuroscience at the Emory School of Medicine says “it’s a devastating problem, there are over 1.7 million traumatic brain injuries every year in the US alone” (HowStuffWorks).  Many of these are caused from sports and athletics, and it is indeed a massive problem.  However, the best way to counter this and reduce this is awareness.  As stated earlier, youth football players and their families all the way up to NFL players need to know about concussions in general in order for the brain injuries and concussions to be limited.  They must know when they most often occur during games, and even more importantly they need to know the symptoms of a concussion so they can let somebody know that they are injured.  Obviously, a doctor cannot be at every little league football game so the players need to know that they might have suffered from a mild head injury.  Knowing when a concussion has occurred can also help one go through the correct protocol so that they do not face long term damage from the head injury.

Another thing the NFL has taken criticism in the past and which they are now striving to include is their concussion protocol.  Before the information on concussions and CTE linked to football players, the NFL’s concussion policy was very weak.  There weren’t as many trainers or doctors trained to recognize the concussion, so it was all down to the player whether they felt as if they could continue to play after suffering a blow to the head.  This was not good for the game of football, and once the medical studies of CTE showed links to football, even the NFL realized this and started to change their policy.  So, the policy today is much different than it was ten year ago.  First of all, a major change is that there is now a team of people called “spotters” who have the specific job of reviewing plays where there is speculation that the player might have suffered a concussion. If they deem that the player needs more testing, they will notify the trainer or doctor on the sideline to get the player out of the game and have him tested. (Seifert).  This is something that makes the risk of re-injury lower, but there are still some flaws to this.  The team of people cannot possibly see every hit or collision from every game that may result in a head injury, so it still ends up with some of the players suffering from concussions that people are not aware of and that they do not receive treatment for.  Also, not all symptoms of concussions are visible to spotters which is another flaw.  If the player is visibly dizzy or in a daze, the spotters would not be able to spot this from their position in the press box.  So, the spotter policy is a good start, but it is still flawed.  Another aspect of the NFL’s new concussion policy is that there must be 29 medical staffers at every game including team physicians, athletic trainers, the before mentioned medical spotters, and unaffiliated neurological consultants or UNCs (Seifert).  The UNCs are perhaps the most important people that work in this concussion protocol process.  These people are the ones that identify, evaluate, and diagnose the concussion after the spotters have seen something that could be a concussion.  Then, they can be the only ones that give the player explicit approval to reenter the game, and because they are unaffiliated they shouldn’t consider who the player is or the competitive aspect of the game (Seifert).  Although there are more flaws in the concussion protocol, this is a strong point and a positive of the concussion protocol.  The idea of them being unaffiliated to the team is a good idea in principle, but there is no way to really know their opinions on the sport or if they are pressured into making a decision based on the player they are evaluating.  If it is a very important player to the team, they could be pressured into letting him continue to play if the injury isn’t as serious.  Also, another important aspect to the concussion protocol is what sorts of things the spotters and doctors look for when looking for a concussion.  Some of these things include “any loss of conscience, slow to get up, contact with the playing surface, motor coordination/ balance problems, blank or vacant looks, disorientation, clutching the head after contact, and visible facial injury” (Seifert).  These are all good things to look for, however, again, one of these things has a potential to not be spotted and other things besides these can result in concussions.  To counter this, one can say that seeing everything is impossible no matter how many people they have to try and view things like this.  However, there are solutions to this problem such as checking players when they come out of the game for a switch of possession or just a substitution.  If one thinks that this concussion protocol is enough to limit the prospect of playing with a concussion, then they are of the notion that the NFL continues to put its players at risk of suffering concussions in the present and feeling the effects of it later in life because based on the numbers, the number of concussions in the NFL are rising so their protocol clearly isn’t working. 

Even though this policy is set however, there continue to be issues and countless examples of where the protocol has failed and players stay in the game after facing significant blows to the head.  The first example is from November 2015 when Rams quarterback Case Keenum was thrown to the grown and hit his head on the turf; he needed help from his teammates to get up and despite this, he stayed in the game (Farrar).  This is inexcusable from the Rams and the NFL.  Where was the concussion protocol?  Where were the spotters and UNCs that are supposed to see these types of things and pull Keenum out of the game?  As the spotter policy was initiated in 2013, they should have been able to pull Keenum out of the game.  After the play, the trainer spoke to Keenum at a timeout and because of this, the spotter didn’t feel the need to notify the doctors and other staff on the sideline, and after the game, Keenum was tested and had a concussion (Farrar).  Also, the Rams were not even punished by the NFL for failing the policy and letting a player continue to play with a concussion, even though there is a punishment set up and in place for these types of situations. This case of failed policy with Keenum shows why the league needs to implement a stronger and more feasible set of rules and policy.  This is not the only example of players continuing to play with a concussion, and the NFL is to blame for their faulty protocol.

So, as we can see, concussions are a very big problem in the sports world, and more specifically the NFL.  Whether it is past issues that result in long term problems for ex-players like Tony Dorsett, or if it is recent issues like failure of their protocol in the case of Case Keenum, the NFL is partially at fault for the on-going issues with concussions in their league.  They didn’t spread awareness of brain injuries and head trauma soon enough, and they continued to deny CTE links with football until concrete medical evidence showed that this was the case.  They say they are advancing the game to limit concussions, but it seems as if they are at a standstill with no recent rule changes to limit concussions and a flawed protocol in place.  Whether you believe the NFL is a good organization and typically runs things the right way, it is hard to argue based on the facts that the NFL has done a good job on the concussion aspect of their game, and the only thing we can hope for so that the players are safe is that rule changes and valid protocol is coming in the near future.
