Football Concussions

The leaves are changing to exuberant and exotic colors and the temperature is beginning to drop. It is that time of year once again. Football is back and in full swing. Your weekends are consumed with the game, from Friday night high school rivalry games to NFL on Sunday afternoons. Football is a large part of American lives across the country. As we sit back and enjoy our favorite teams perform on the biggest of stages, we critique and yell at the TV as though these athletes can acknowledge us. We pretend to put ourselves in their shoes, but in reality of today’s game, is that a good idea? Is it really worth the health risk? Football, over the years, has become an extremely violent sport. The hard hits that we crave to see, are not something …show more content…
This results in the brain functioning in a different matter. Concentration, memory, and balance are usually effected by this injury and in result, causes a headache and other similar symptoms (Staff, by Mayo Clinic). Concussions, if treated the right way, are short-term injuries that heal themselves with time and rest. One concussion may not have any effect on your future health, but when you start talking about suffering 3 or 4 concussions, the risk of long-term damages become more realistic. Football players have this label put on them that they are the “tough” guys and that they should just shrug these types of injuries off and return back to play as soon as possible. While this may be realistic for a jammed finger or strained muscle, concussions are not an injury to just put aside. This is where long-term effects and damages occur. The issue at hand is not particularly that these blows to the head are causing concussions, but rather what these multiple blows to the head have on our health, later on in life. As a result of multiple concussions, or blows to head that were not registered with a medical professional, research has shown many cases of depression, poor motivation and concentration, problems with learning and memory, and sometimes thoughts of suicide (Miller, Concussions in Football). This is where …show more content…
Rules have been established in the NFL and carried over to lower levels in the past few years. For example, it is illegal for targeting a defenseless player. Also, there was a new rule change that came into effect this past year dealing with kickoffs. It was shown that most concussions occurred on this specific play. This rule, which moved the ball up to the 35-yard line, increased the likelihood of a touchback and rewarded the player 5 extra yards if they decided to take a knee instead of returning the kick into a hell zone of vicious hits (Associate Press). Though these rules are helping decrease the likelihood of these head injuries to occur, they are not completely solving the problem. The main reasons these injuries are still occurring, is not because of the equipment these athletes are using. The truth lies in the hands of educators, coaches, and parents. Education is our biggest solution to this problem and that starts with the youth leagues and high school