Trauma In Football

Football is a tough sport. It seems as if every time a game is played there is at least one or two hard hits, sometimes even more. We, as spectators, instinctively admire these hits, but rarely think about the long term effects that the players might face from such hits. This is largely due to the fact that spectators are blinded by coaches, officials, and players from the serious side effects and repercussions. Only recently has the public population found that there are more harsh and serious long term side effects from football than we have been led to believe. What causes these more serious injuries might you ask? A big part of the increase of harsh injuries is the fact that most football players, even in high school, practice year …show more content…
One thing that concerns medical professionals is the fact that a lot of head injuries are asymptomatic to athletic trainers on the sidelines (Hartline 1). So, if a player were to sustain an injury but showed no symptom, there could a huge chance for severe brain damage. Most people would think only a select few receive head injuries, but that is wrong. Researchers and scientists have seen that somewhere between 4 and 20 percent of amateur players experience a brain injury ,severe and mild, over the course of a single season (Neporent 1). The effects of these brain injuries go further than just physical pain, there has been numerous reports of former having problems with their mental disposition (Tramel 1). CTE is a big problem for former players, and in a study of eighty-five brains that belonged to athletes and military veterans CTE was found in sixty-eight of them (Lupkin 1). Severe brain injuries may be amplified in the NFL because the players are in their peak physical condition and can do a lot more damage, but the problem is not only a professional problem. According to a Harvard neurologist, problems in the brain can begin even in high school (Neporent 1). This is important because a human brain continues changing and growing from the early to mid …show more content…
One is that if a player takes a hit to the head they should immediately be removed from the field of play and examined by a medical professional. Another option is that laws could be passed to set it in stone for an athlete to receive proper care (Neporent 2). An obvious solution is to give researchers time to keep making the necessary modifications to the required safety equipment (Locker 2).Even after all the bad talk about the NFL covering up bad effects of football they are doing their part in funding research to take steps in the right direction for research in the safety of the game of football. The NFL has donated several million dollars to research to try and make major advancements in research and maybe find a way to diagnose CTE while the patient is alive and maybe even find a cure for it (Avila, Pearle, Goldman