Safety for NFL Players The National Football League founded in 1920, in Canton, Ohio is a professional American football league comprised of thirty two teams. In North America, the National Football League is one of the four major professional sport leagues. But, as a result, of the physical contact that is required, the players often encounter head injuries during or following their careers. Even though the National Football League provides equipment to prevent head injuries, players are still at a high risk, leaving many fans and viewers to question whether the National Football League should be held accountable for the head injuries player’s face, or should players be responsible for their own well-beings. Due to this resurfacing …show more content…
The National Football League should be held responsible for the head injuries caused to players, because the improvement of equipment, such as helmets is possible through the use of technology. As a consequence of the physical contact that is required in the National Football League, there are a great number of players that have come to face brain injuries during or after their careers. Many players have productive careers in the National Football League, which help lead to them developing horrific health issues. The players of the National Football League play with great effort and passion until they are physically incapable. In the book, “Slow Getting Up”, author Nate Jackson gives insight to how, “In the NFL, you are alive until you are dead” (Jackson 7). By helping readers understand the mentality of many players that play in the National Football League, Nate Jackson gives reason of how the issue of head injuries has continued to resurface over time. This issue involving player safety has been a hinder to the National Football League’s reputation, because there is actually …show more content…
With the recent advances in technology the head injuries experienced by National Football League players has been made more noticeable to the public. So the public has raised an eyebrow, questioning who will take responsibility to battle the issue of brain injuries in the National Football League. This subject involving player safety isn’t anything new, “In fact, a quick search of historical press reports shows that football related concussions have been associated with deaths and debilitating injuries since the late 1800s”(Lange 178). In football one of the most important parts are player safety. In fact, players wear equipment such as helmets, to help prevent head injuries. Although the National Football League provides players with equipment to lower the possibility of current or future health issues, the chances are still high. As a result, of these circumstances players are faced with many fans and onlookers feel as if the National Football League has acted irresponsible to the issue of caring of players. But, should the National Football League be held at fault for the brain complications helmets don’t prevent? As Donald Lange explains to readers in his article, “How do we come to the conclusion that an organization has acted socially irresponsibly? Some considerations on the process of attribution and the
Football is the most watched sport in America (Paulsen, 2016). Football is also a very dangerous sport and a large number of injuries occur in the National Football League each year. Will Shields, a former National Football League player once said, “Football is a violent game. We are violent men” (“Will Shields Quotes”, n.d.). More than two hundred concussions alone occurred in the National Football League last year (Mukherjee, 2017).
The essays The NFL’s Head Cases and Do Sports Helmets help or hurt have different point of views of how helmets in sports help head injuries. In Nate Jackson’s essay he had so many questions about why the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was suspending players for hits with the head. He played in the NFL for six years; and was for reducing
The diction used in this source is passionate while still being academic. The tone that presents this article is persuasive. Some facts that are presented include, 1.6 to 3.8 million traumatic brain injuries occur each year, more than 75 percent of these are sports related. A study that was conducted by researchers at Mayo Clinic to demonstrate the accuracy of this when determining if a player should be pulled from play. The claims made are fact-based because it is backed up by research findings.
An open letter to Roger S. Goodell, Commissioner of the National Football League, from Lester Grinspoon M.D. I am among the millions of people who enjoy football as a spectator sport. However, I am becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the growing specter that many of these athletes will pay the price of developing Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) to a greater or lesser extent as they grow older. I believe that any change in the rules of the game which would accommodate these concerns would also diminish its popularity. I also believe that attempts to improve protective equipment can only go so far without seriously diminishing the skills and capacities of the player.
An NFL football player will endure somewhere between 900 to 1500 blows to their head over the course of a single season. With an immense amount of blows like this comes an immense amount of damage to a player’s brain. This extensive amount of brain damage has been decided, by Dr. Bennet Omalu, to result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Over the course of these discoveries and much controversy, the NFL has been targeted, denied all accusations, done very few things to lessen the risk of concussions in football, and the risks and number of concussions have steadily increased throughout the league’s
The long term effects of concussions are extremely tragic and haunts many retired athletes. D. Although concussions are almost impossible to avoid, the concussion crisis needs to be acted upon so that the future generation can stay safe while having fun. Thesis-The preventative measures put in place to protect athletes are not strong enough due to the increasing amount of concussions in contact sports. Paragraph1-
I. Introduction A. Attention Graber: For many people there is nothing better on a crisp cool Sunday afternoon, than sitting down and enjoying a good football game. The NFL, hosts usually the football games people watch. Recently, however the NFL has had a huge conflict on its hands regarding player health and safety, specifically regarding repeated head injury and concussions. Research indicates, the NFL has not done enough to protect its players from the damage of repeated head injury B. Ethos Statement:
In addition to media coverage, I believe that fans and media should encourage NFL to create a better mental health program to help ex-NFL players and NFL should accept the proposition. While immediate effects of concussion such as nausea, headache, and vomiting, the players must worry more about long-term mental health issues including depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and other traumatic brain injuries. While many current and former players acknowledge the fact about long-term effects of concussion, not many players have enough money or connections to analyze their brains to check and recover from those mental issues. If NFL and other sports organizations create a great mental health program for current and ex-players suffering from concussion, the idea of concealment and distrust of those organizations will disappear by good deeds and create a philanthropic company figure for the
Concussions themselves are a controversial topic simply because of their destructive forces on the lives of everyone, ranging from people who tripped and fell a little too hard, to people who make a career of hitting other people as hard as they possibly can. There are many people opposed to the idea of football’s inherent violence, yet advocates of the sport claim that removing the factor of colliding would make a completely different sport that cannot even be called football, which itself has become so ingrained in American society that it practically owns a day of the week from Week One of preseason to the closing seconds of the Superbowl. The fact remains though that if football were to suddenly cease existing, many people would be jobless,
The Impact of Concussions During Football Concussions have become a major problem in athletics throughout the entire world. Head injuries can impact many athletes lives in a negative way. Hard contact to the head of a player can damage the brain and the way he goes about life. The way football is played, equipment should be better equipped to prevent significant injuries such as concussions. Head injuries drive a player out of the sport earlier than normal, so the NFL has looked into the issue and has gone about bettering technology and equipment to prevent concussions in the future.
Football is the most American of all of the sports we play. We have good memories of playing catch and watching games with our friends, however, there is a darker side to this all-American sport, the damage done to the brains of the players. While the NFL has attempted to make great strides in preventing further damage to players on the field suffering from concussions, the rates of concussions continue to rise. In 2014, 206 concussions were diagnosed, while in 2015, that number rose to 271 concussions. If these new regulations truly had an effect upon the safety of the players, we would instead see little growth, if not a decline, of diagnosed concussions.
Simple implementations such as better helmets, more trainers, and more physicians could further decrease the concussion rate to make the game even safer. With the joint effort from children’s leagues, the NCAA, and the NFL to make the game more secure, yet simultaneously just as enticing, the entire sport of football would be ameliorated, with very minimal cases of concussions. More parents would be willing to let their children play this new style of football instead of holding them back, as they may have done previously due to the fear of head injury. More research and care for concussions could result in even more technological advancements. All of this could easily become a reality with the unification of all types of football, resulting in a benign, yet highly enjoyable
Every person in the world loves football! Football has the highest rates of catastrophic head injuries (16).The long term health effects of high impact sport injures can be super dangerous. “Medical researchers at Boston University recently confirmed that 88 of 92 former NFL players donated their brains for research…”(15). “... NFL players who donate their brains for research suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy( C.T.E.), a brain disease induced by repetitive head trauma and linked to depression,aggression,impulse-control problems,memory loss, and dementia”(15).
I punched in an adequately vague search term (football injury) and was directed to League of Denial, a book exploring the link between the NFL and brain damage. I expected it would feed my initial premise, and that I would use it as evidence of football’s mental toll. But, as I skimmed through the chapters, I
Head Injuries In American Football Since the beginning of American football, concussions have been a big problem with players in high school, college, and the National Football League. Concussions have led to the end of many players football careers and in some cases, their lives. People that are in college and the NFL continue, playing even though they are risking their lives just for a little fame. Today football players play the game to make money and just because of their love for the sport.