Zac Easter's Dichotomy

“Zac Easter knew what was happening to him. He knew why, he knew that it was only going to get worse. So he decided to write it all down—to let the world know what football had done to him, what he'd done to his body and his brain for the game he loved. And then he shot himself” (Forgrave). Zac Easter was a young boy that struggled silently with CTE; a disease that ruins the brain tissue and causes memory loss, confusion, aggression, and impulse control problems along with many other unfortunate symptoms in a person's day to day life. Football is too dangerous for players and recent discoveries about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) point to the need for the rules to change drastically or for football to be outlawed. Chronic Traumatic …show more content…
Only getting so much information from the former NFL football players themselves, most of the data comes after their death. Family members send in their donations to help the foundation understand CTE. Bad head aches to worsening migraines are just the first stages of this disease, but no player of the game would ever think they'd be the one to get this life changing condition. Unlike other conditions of the brain, doctors know the root of CTE which is repetitive brain trauma. When the coach tells your son or daughter to “get back on the field, they'll be fine” you don't think much of it because it’s the game you fight hard to win and that's just how it is. Until later in life when your child starts having trouble remembering your name by that time your child has already reached stage two. Stage two can result in social instability, erratic behavior, and extreme depression(BIST). These symptoms often get misdiagnosed with Parkinson's disease. As patients get treated for Parkinson's and nothing improves it often causes full blown dementia also known as stage four of CTE, commonly resulting in …show more content…
NFL and all football athletes should be given safer and more protective pads to wear, helmets should be supported at the neck more, and there should be more effective padding in the helmets. Repetitive head trauma can impact the brain significantly. Excessive brain injury could potentially result in disruption of the blood-brain barrier, this is the barrier between the skull and the brain itself (NCBI). If this barrier is disrupted it could result in death or serious consequences. Thus making helmets that prevent this could improve concussion rates significantly. Another way to advance the safety of football is to make it mandatory for annual or even monthly brain scans for possible concussions or brain damage than fly under the radar. Every young adult from grades seventh to twelfth should be looked at more during gym classes, nurses in each school must examine kids for back issues when they should be doing brain function testing on kids, especially athletes. Imaginably athletes pro or not can use the information on CTE to make the decision whether they want to continue pushing their brains to its breaking point or to stop and realize it’s not worth it for a sport. Every sport has its don fall but there are many non-contact sports that won’t ruin your chances on living a full happy