Football and Concussions
Football is the most popular sport in the United States. The most popular form of the game is professional and college football. Other significant levels of sport are high school and youth football. The sport is aggressive since all teams try to score while preventing the opposing team from scoring. Although football is famous and attracts many players as well as audiences, football players suffer from concussions because of the aggressiveness in the sport. This essay will discuss how concussions from football impacted me and my decision not to play college ball.
A concussion is a brain injury caused by a blow to the head or by a violent shaking of the head and body. Traumatic brain injury affects normal brain functioning. In football, concussions can occur with a blow to the head through the helmet to helmet contact, and if undiagnosed and left untreated can lead to permanent brain damage. Many football players face repeated head injuries, and many ignore them since they are mild and do not cause concussions. However, apart from causing concussions, repetitive head blows scan cause other long-term brain damages. s
As stated by Hepler, despite its popularity, there is increasing concern and controversy about the long-term safety of playing football, which has resulted in many parents deciding not to allow their kids to participate in the game. I played football in high school, and although I never suffered from a concussion, most of my teammates did. During the time I played, concussions got treated as a common injury and players did not fully understand the short-term and long-term effects of the head injuries.
In line with, Alex and Daniel, researchers observed 9-12-year-old players and found that about 8% of head impacts were high-magnitude, defined as greater than 40 times the force of gravity. Furthermore, teenagers faced a greater danger of suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a severe brain disorder that results from repeated head injuries. When one starts playing football from a young age as I did, they face a higher risk of suffering from concussions and CTE as compared to a person who started the sport at a much later period.
When I got hold of the information about the short-term and long-term effects of head injuries, I decided to discontinue from playing the sport in college. Although I had never suffered any concussion in high school, I had experienced several minor head injuries, and that increased my motivation to quit the game. In line with Alex et al., one famous example of CTE is former National Football league (NFL) star, Aaron Hernandez. Hernandez committed suicide in prison where he was serving time for murder. The autopsy results revealed that he had a severe case of CTE – the worst example ever reported on such a young man (Hernandez was only 27 years old). From the above report, it is clear that Hernandez had suffered repetitive brain injuries that resulted in CTE. Therefore, I did not want to increase my chances of getting CTE by continuing with college football.
In summation, teenagers play high school football with the hopes of playing in college on joining the NFL. However, most of the players are not fully informed about concussions and the danger of repetitive concussions. Although I never suffered from a concussion, I decided not to play college ball after learning about the risk of repeated head injuries.
Works Cited
Alex Pew and Daniel Shapiro. Football Brain Injuries: What you need to know. 2019. 28 April 2019 http://www.center4research.org/football-brain-injuries-need-know/
Hepler, Linda. Football & Concussion: Worth the Risk? 2018. 28 April 2019 <https://www.choc.org/news/football-concussion-worth-risk/>.