It was only one year ago on this day that I had suffered my most recent and hopefully final concussion. Our football team was playing the number three-ranked team in state for our seventh and extremely important game of the season. As anyone who lives in Chicago knows, October can be a mild month for fall or an extremely cold month, which my princess girlfriend absolutely hates. Unfortunately last year was one of the coldest Octobers we have ever had, breaking the record, which was previously held in 1982.
Kickoff was minutes away and we soon began to take the field for our first offensive possession of the game, my nerves were in full attendance. The first play of the game I was thrown a pass over the middle of the field about fifteen yards …show more content…
When I was five I lived in the town where Walter had lived and my parents actually knew Walter and his family pretty well. Walter Payton was one of the best running backs to ever live and he died at the age of forty-five. This made me wonder about what caused his death. I can remember my mom telling me about him in his last few years of life and how he was extremely depressed and had some sort of dementia. My remembrance of these words led me to find that Walter Payton had a total count of five concussions in his football career, most likely many had gone under the radar. Had Walter been a victim of CTE? If you’ve ever seen Payton run you would know that at the end of his plays he punishes his opponent. While analyzing Payton I knew he had made a lot of head to head contact and was possibly sick later in life because of this. I continued my research by looking for dementia in athletes who had suffered multiple concussions. It made me upset to know that Walter could have avoided these concussions if he had just been more careful. His son and daughter now have to live their lives fatherless, which is extremely devastating.
Athletes who have a history of multiple concussions have a higher incidence of dementia and dementia-related diseases later in life. David Pellman, A neurologist at the University of Southern California, explains how athletes with multiple concussions are at a higher risk for dementia (Pellman 24). Pellman goes onto talk about athletes not taking concussions seriously and this puts them at a greater risk for Alzheimer’s. I wanted to find out what a professional athlete thought about concussions and that led me to investigating a current professional athlete, Hines
Kickoff was minutes away and we soon began to take the field for our first offensive possession of the game, my nerves were in full attendance. The first play of the game I was thrown a pass over the middle of the field about fifteen yards …show more content…
When I was five I lived in the town where Walter had lived and my parents actually knew Walter and his family pretty well. Walter Payton was one of the best running backs to ever live and he died at the age of forty-five. This made me wonder about what caused his death. I can remember my mom telling me about him in his last few years of life and how he was extremely depressed and had some sort of dementia. My remembrance of these words led me to find that Walter Payton had a total count of five concussions in his football career, most likely many had gone under the radar. Had Walter been a victim of CTE? If you’ve ever seen Payton run you would know that at the end of his plays he punishes his opponent. While analyzing Payton I knew he had made a lot of head to head contact and was possibly sick later in life because of this. I continued my research by looking for dementia in athletes who had suffered multiple concussions. It made me upset to know that Walter could have avoided these concussions if he had just been more careful. His son and daughter now have to live their lives fatherless, which is extremely devastating.
Athletes who have a history of multiple concussions have a higher incidence of dementia and dementia-related diseases later in life. David Pellman, A neurologist at the University of Southern California, explains how athletes with multiple concussions are at a higher risk for dementia (Pellman 24). Pellman goes onto talk about athletes not taking concussions seriously and this puts them at a greater risk for Alzheimer’s. I wanted to find out what a professional athlete thought about concussions and that led me to investigating a current professional athlete, Hines