The reoccurring issue of concussions is continuing to negatively affect the athletes and the reputation of the National Football League.  This problem is getting worse each and every year.  Players are not being sufficiently protected.  Therefore, the National Football League has been receiving a vast amount of criticism in the past few years due to this.  The League has put some money towards research to help find any sort of solution that could better this situation, but they have stopped some of it.  Many players who are currently playing professional football continue to suffer the same exact injury every year, and on top of that concussions have destroyed the lives of professional players who have retired as well.  Concussions can also have long term damages, which has caused retired players to develop severe brain damage.  The National Football League says they are working extremely hard to find a solution to this situation.  They continue to reiterate to the crowd that they can solve the issue with concussions that is going on, and that they give more importance to the safety of the players more than anything.  In reality, they need to put more effort into solving this because the NFL has already made changes, but the amount of players that suffer concussions continues to increase every year and they care more about making money rather than the safety of the players.  

The ongoing problem involving concussions in the National Football League is extremely serious.  There are hundreds of athletes who suffer concussions each and every year in football.  The amount of concussions that have occurred in the past few years in the League is concerning.  Therefore, they have donated, and put thousands of dollars into research to help solve this, but not enough of it because the more players continue to suffer concussions every year.  Additionally, the NFL has implemented new rules to help better protect the players.  There are now rules where a penalty is called when a player makes an unnecessary hit towards another player.  Also, there are times when a player is fined for making unnecessary hits.  The National Football League has mentioned that a lot of research has been done to figure out whether there are major changes that can be made to help improve the football helmet as well.  Many researchers think that if they improve the football helmet then it would help better protect many players from suffering multiple concussions each season.  However, there have already been changes made to the helmet before in the past though.  Such as in 2002, when Riddell created a new helmet (Foster).  Riddell is a sports company that makes athletic equipment.  They have done extensive work in trying to create a more sufficient helmet.  Still, there has not been a reduction in the amount of concussions suffered over the years, and the NFL has decided to stop some of their research on football helmets.  In a YouTube video Roger Goodell explained that there have been many changes made and that the amount of hits to the head in the sport have been reduced.  Even after he said this to the media, more and more concussions have continued to be suffered by players on every team (NFL's Roger Goodell on Concussions).  Roger Goodell is the commissioner of the NFL.  Therefore, most of the blame for this reoccurring concussion issue is put on him.  He has not put enough effort towards this situation.  Something needs to be done as soon as possible.  The situation has gotten worse, and it is not looking like the future is bright at all.  There are some people who believe that the NFL is actually working hard enough to help solve this problem, but they are definitely not putting enough time and effort into this situation.  Their effort needs significant improvement if players are going to be able to feel safe when they take the field.  There are also some people who believe the NFL can solve this soon, but they cannot solve this problem because they will always be happy as long as they are making money.  They care more about making money rather than protecting the professional athletes.  

Being able to determine whether a player has a concussion or not from the beginning would help make this process less painful, and it could help prevent players from having more serious concussions.  There have been issues with the diagnosis of concussions.  Therefore, the player continued to practice and play without knowing he had concussion symptoms, which is extremely dangerous (“Concussion Diagnosis and Management Best Practices”).  Medical personnel need to have more information about concussions to use at all times.  They need to have information about the player’s history of concussions, and they need to evaluate all the player’s symptoms.  Concussions need to be treated and managed carefully because this could help prevent players from getting the brain damages many of them have suffered in the future after they retired.  Sometimes concussions can cause players to develop emotional issues because they are so upset they cannot play in the game and their brain is being affected by the concussion.  The treatment for this varies with each player.  Some players need to rest to heal from a concussion, but some players need to be active to heal from a concussion (“Concussion Diagnosis and Management Best Practices”).  The medical staff needs to make sure the players are completely healed before they let them play again.  They cannot rush players back onto the field after a concussion because this is one of the ways a player can suffer brain damage in the future.

One of the biggest reasons why the National Football League is being criticized is due to the severe brain damage football players who have retired have suffered due to the concussions they went through while they played in the National Football League.  There have been multiple families who have gone through tragedies due to the severe brain damage concussions cause in the future.  Most of these players developed these brain damages after they retired, and the main one they suffered was CTE.  There are thousands of players who have gone through these difficulties due to the enormous amount of severe head injuries they suffered when they played in the League.  “Over 90% of players who play to the professional level have some degree of this disease” (Gregory).  They are doing some research to try to help solve this situation, but a lot of the changes that have been implemented have made no significant difference.  “There are families with claims ranging from negligence, fraud, and wrongful death to civil conspiracy, all related to head trauma suffered while playing professional football” (NFL Concussion: Current Situation and Policy Implications).  Many families are getting angry with the NFL because of this serious problem.  The severe brain damage these retired football players are suffering is extremely serious, and more and more retired professional players are developing these severe brain damages as the years go by.

Also, the National Football League has multiple lawsuits that have been brought against them due to the concussions many players have suffered.  There have been thousands of players who have suffered many different types of brain damage due to the concussions they suffered while they played professional football.  There many players who are extremely angry with the NFL for allowing players to come back too quickly from their injuries, and from making more and more money while the players are getting more concussions every year.  Due to this, many players have decided to sue the National Football League (“NFL, Ex-Players Agree to $765M Settlement in Concussions Suit”).  The NFL tried to fight these lawsuits, and once again tried to explain how they are working extremely hard to fix this problem.  Still, they finally came to an agreement because they did not want to lose more money (“NFL, Ex-Players Agree to $765M Settlement in Concussions Suit”).  The commissioner of the National Football League, Roger Goodell, is trying to tell people that they care about the safety of the players, and they are looking for a solution to this concussion issue.  There was an example when Roger Goodell suspended the head coach of the New Orleans Saints for the whole season for telling his players to make dirty hits.  The National Football League uses this example to try to help their case by saying they punish people when they try to make dirty hits, but this is only case when an investigation of a team has been made in terms of making dirty hits.  Roger Goodell should be investigating the other thirty-one teams in The League too because there are dirty hits by different players on every single football team (Smith).  The NFL is trying to make more money rather than help the players, and it is negatively affecting the players and their families.  “More specifically, the league will not risk the money it stands to lose by admitting that football is an inherently violent and vicious game” (Smith).  The National Football League cares more about money more than the safety of their players, and with that mentality they are not going to solve this concussion problem.  “There will always be another able body ready to step in and replace an injured teammate. But there is a finite number of fans who are willing to buy tickets, jerseys and subscriptions for NFL Sunday Ticket, and those are the precious commodity that the league is truly interested in keeping and protecting” (Smith).  They are telling everyone what they want to hear.  They are not acting quickly to solve this issue.  They are focusing on the completely wrong thing.

The National Football League does not want to admit that the concussions these retired players suffered are the main reason why they have developed severe brain damages.  The League continues to try to talk their way out of this dilemma.  “For years, the NFL has stood by the contention that there is no direct evidence proving that playing football is linked to traumatic brain injury (TBI) or the devastating brain disorder chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is increasingly being diagnosed in former players” (Park).  The opposing argument agrees with this quote, and they are in complete support of the NFL.  What they do not know is that the concussions that have been suffered by these players is one of the biggest reasons why these players who have retired from the National Football League are developing severe brain damage.  There have been claims that the severe brain damage that these players have dealt are not only caused by the severity and amount of concussions a player suffers.    “Concussions are the most obvious risk factor, but research is showing that cumulative head impacts—even non-concussive impacts—are the surest path to CTE” (DiSalvo).  This shows that even big hits to a football player’s head can still lead the player to develop CTE even if he does not suffer a concussion from the hit.  There have been sensors that have been added to some football helmets, and they are being used in some levels of football, but the NFL has decided to stop doing research on finding good sensors for the football helmet (DiSalvo).  They are starting to stop putting money towards some of the research that is trying to help solve this concussion problem.  They do not want to develop a bad reputation, so they are telling people that they are putting a ton of effort into solving this concussion problem.  They are more focused on keeping a good reputation and making money rather than making a strong effort to help better protect the players that are currently playing and those who have retired from football.  The NFL may be trying a little bit, but clearly they are telling the fans they are doing more work than they truly are.  They need to do more to help but this will not happen because The League’s primary focus is making a profit.     

This serious issue needs to be solved immediately because the hits to the head are getting more aggressive every season.  Reducing some of the contact that occurs in practices could definitely help make this problem better (Park).  This is an excellent idea, but the National Football League will most likely not do this.  According to Park, in the article “40% of Former NFL Players Had Brain Injuries,” he thinks everyone needs to stop and think until this situation is vastly improved (Park).  There is a lot of contact in practice because the players and teams try to do this to prepare for the games because there is so much contact in the games.  There needs to be less contact in practices and in the games to help better protect the players.  Every team only plays one game per week due to how much contact is involved in each game.  Still, the players do have practice almost every single day, and they have a ton of contact in the practices too.  Therefore, reducing contact in practices would definitely help a lot, and the National Football League should do this to help solve this because this situation is out of control.  They could do this by setting restrictions in every single practice for each team that reduces contact and hard hits in practice, but they have not made any changes to the football practices to help solve this concussion issue.  Still, after all of this people still believe that the NFL is doing enough work to fix this problem, but they are not doing enough to help solve this.  Instead of trying to find more research to be done, they are starting to stop some of the research that they put money towards to try to prevent this injury.  At this rate the NFL will never find a solution to fix this. Even after all of this, the NFL is still continuing to say that there is still a lot of research being done, and that they are putting their strongest effort towards trying to try to solve this problem.  Also, the negative effects on a ton of the professional football players are continuing to accumulate, which is going to continue to ruin the reputation of the NFL because they are not handling this well (Park).

The opposing argument is that the National Football League says they can solve this problem with concussions.  “However, for such a prevalent problem in the nation’s most popular sport, there is surprisingly little data that could lead to an effective solution” (Polnerow).  They truly do not even care that much if this reoccurring issue is solved.  The NFL has said that they have added new parts to the football helmet, but then this issue has gotten worse each and every year.  There are even some universities trying to help out the NFL with this problem.  “The Princeton team's research could aid the development of more sophisticated ways to evaluate and manage concussions” (Aronson).  Even after universities help them out there are still more and more players continuing to get head injuries every season in professional football.  Many more people, especially the families of the athletes who have been suffering, are starting to turn against the National Football League.  

The National Football League says they care about the safety of the players more than money, and they say they can solve this concussion problem.  “We’ve made important progress in health and safety. We’ve made safety-related rules changes, encouraged advancements in equipment, improved medical protocols and care and changed the way we teach the game” (NFL Commitment to Player Health and Safety).  They tell everyone they are trying to make the game safer, but this is not what is happening.  Instead, they continue to slide by and try to work their way around this situation.  By doing this people will continue to watch professional football and that way they can continue to make millions.

In conclusion, the National Football League thinks they can solve the concussion problem in professional, but they cannot.  They have already tried to make some changes, and the amount of concussions that professional football players have suffered has still continued to increase every single football season.  They have implemented new rules to try to help better protect the players.  They have also made changes to the football helmet to try to help better protect the players, but still the concussion issue has not been improved.  The NFL does not care about the safety of the football players.  Their priority is to continue to make a lot of money.  They have tried to fight many different lawsuits brought up against them by saying that they can solve this problem immediately.  The National Football League cannot find a solution to this situation.  They are not making a strong enough effort to help and the results prove that.  This problem is spiraling out of control.  As long as there is a ton of aggressive contact in practices and in the games, the concussions problem will continue to get worse every single year.
erow, Dan. "Solving Football's Concussion Problem." NU Writing. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 
