Concussions by Tanner Pugh

          

  Your child is in the middle of his football game. Then, boom, he takes a hit like no other. He is slow to get up and really doesn’t know where he is. This hit may have caused your child a concussion which might affect his life as an adult. Concussions have caused many problems for athletes after their playing days. “They found 96 percent showed signs of CTE. Many players suffering the debilitating mental effects of CTE have committed suicide”. (The Atlantic 1)People can no longer ignore the concussion epidemic and the problems it can cause athletes in their life after their sports career. People can get concussions playing any sport, from tennis to rugby. Concussions are caused by impact to the head that makes the brain shake very quickly back and forth (Kivi 2). Medical experts use to believe that concussions were not much of a problem. Now, they can’t ignore the fact that concussions can cause people to suffer from long-term effects. Athletes are at a higher risk of having problems with their mental state because of concussions.

Back in the 1930’s, the NCAA gave out their yearly handbook which actually warned that concussions were not taken seriously and should not be treated lightly (Kivi 2). The handbook suggested that if players were to fail the test given, they should rest for at least 48 hours. If they still experienced symptoms, players were not allowed to compete for at least 21 days. Even though there was little technology and knowledge about concussions in the 1930’s, medical experts still knew to take the player out of the game and make him or her sit out for an extended time period. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, medical experts started realizing the effect of a concussions on the brain. After suffering from a concussion, the brain would start to deteriorate which would cause major problems in a person’s life. In the early 1990’s, the Colorado Medical Society helped to come up with a concussion grading scale for determining the severity of a concussion suffered by an athlete.  They also used this grading scale to see if the athlete who received a concussion could return to the game. The high school and collegiate level quickly implemented this system when it was released. In the late 1990’s, the concussion epidemic was in the national spotlight when the NFL admitted to the dangers their players were facing with concussions. When this happened, people really started to become more aware of concussions and started wondering how concussions would affect the developing brains of children. It really created fear in parents around the nation. In the 2000’s, neurologist started realizing that people who suffered concussions had numbness or loss of feeling somewhere in their body. They also had experienced neck pains and had difficulty remembering things. People who had suffered severe concussions couldn’t even feed themselves. They also proved that having multiple concussions doubled the risk of an athlete having ongoing problems after their sports career ended.

            People can get a concussion in several ways.  In sports, the most common way is that an athlete takes a violent blow to the head and neck area which can cause the brain to move and hit the inner layer of a person’s skull. In sports, there is really no way to stop this from happening.  It’s the nature of the game. Athletes are bound to receive a concussion throughout their playing career; however, it’s just a matter of trying to catch them in time and get athletes the help they need. Another cause of concussions is the sudden acceleration and deceleration of the brain. This is not a common cause of concussions in sports, but it’s more common that this would happen in a car wreck. Both of these causes are very serious to a person’s well being. Receiving a concussion can cause internal bleeding to the brain which is a very serious problem. Another thing that makes an athlete more prone to getting a concussion is their diet. If an athlete is not hydrated, it puts him at a higher risk of getting a concussion. If an athlete is eating wrong, the risk of concussion goes up. There are many aspects that go into causing an athlete to get a concussion, and there is really no way to prevent people from receiving concussions. Medical experts just have to continue to gain more knowledge about concussions and how to treat them. Concussions are becoming a serious epidemic.

            Concussions are having an effect on society because they affect the brains of our nation’s youth and adults.  Studies show that an athlete who has more than one concussion baseline test are lower than athletes with one concussion (Mahercor 3). The more concussions a child has in his youth, the more at risk this child is to have problems in his or her life with memory loss and motor functioning problems.  Also, concussions can cause a person to take his or her life.  Junior Seau is an example.  Junior was a football player who played for the San Diego Chargers and the New England Patriots. Junior Seau suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy which is caused by concussions. Junior’s sickness deteriorated his brain and caused him to act out in strange ways. This disease caused Junior Seau to take his life by shooting himself in the heart. The family sent his brain to be researched by the National Institutes of Health located in Washington to see what caused Junior’s actions. This research showed that CTE causes a lot more problems then what was first expected.  It can take away a person’s ability to think and their ability to use their motor skills. The death of Junior Seau brought CTE to national attention. After this, more than 4,000 ex NFL players started suing the NFL because of their lack of effort to help their ex-players dealing with the problems that come with this disease.

            Mike Webster, a former Steeler, is another example of an athlete who was affected by concussions after his playing days. He was a standout center in the NFL. Mike played 17 seasons for the Steelers, and people who were close to him said he just wasn’t himself when his playing days were over. He had anger issues and was just confused a lot of the time which caused him to have rage problems (Tyler4). The problems he faced after his playing career broke up his marriage. Even though he died from a heart attack, Mike suffered from CTE. CTE is what caused him to be confused and angry. After his playing days, it even caused him to have outburst of rage in his life. Webster’s brain was in the state of an elderly person with Alzheimer disease. This example shows that concussions have been a social epidemic for quite some time, and that it’s not a new problem. Concussions are plaguing our nation’s athletes from little kids to adults.  As a nation, we need to find a solution to help people who have suffered from concussions.

            Making better equipment to protect the athlete’s head is one solution to help prevent concussions. In the past couple of years, major strides have been made in developing equipment to help protect athletes from getting concussions. One advancement is adding an extra layer to football players’ helmets. This extra layer has helped players a lot. This layer helps to reduce the movement of the brain when a player takes a head to head hit. This advancement has helped to save tons of athletes from age 9 to the end of their playing career.

            Another solution is changing the rules of the game to help protect athletes. Targeting is one example of a change in rules. For example, if a player uses the crown of his helmet to strike another player in the head, he is ejected from the game. This player is fined and suspended from the next game. A large number of rules have changed to protect players from getting concussions. These rules protect not only the offensive players, but it also protects the defensive players who are doing the hitting.

           Changes in rules regarding practice is another solution. For example, some rules change the way people practice and limit them to playing contact football until 9th grade (7).  Not letting players do full contact during off season, spring practices, or summer practices is an example of changes in the way teams practice. This could help save a lot of athletes from suffering concussions because it lessens the number of hits to the head they take in a year. Not playing contact football until 9th grade gives the athlete’s brain a chance to develop before having trauma to the brain.

            Eating a healthy diet and being hydrated can help prevent concussions. A dehydrated athlete’s brain does not absorb a hit as well as a hydrated athlete’s brain. Just eating healthy and being hydrated lowers the chances of getting concussions a ton (8). These solutions are certainly helping in preventing concussions in athletes of all ages. Better and better solutions are being developed to help athletes.

            Best-selling author Malcom Gladwell has gone on record and has said that America should ban college football. He thinks academic universities shouldn’t allow it, and he even compares it to “dog fighting”. His ideas are very absurd. There is no way that America would even consider banning college football because it is a multimillion dollar business. America would not want to lose that type of money even if it was to protect athletes. As said, money talks. 

            Gladwell argues that it’s not about banning college football in order to prevent concussions; however, it is about preventing athletes from suffering and dying from brain damage. He argues that football is becoming a public health crisis which some people actually agree. But most people don’t agree enough to do something about it. Gladwell says “either no one is grasping how big of a crisis it is or that no one cares enough to do anything about it.” (11). He argues that the NCAA has done nothing to help protect athletes from concussions or brain trauma. Gladwell is right about how the NCAA does leave the concussion protocols up the schools.

           The NCAA needs to be more hands-on. The NCAA needs to be a part of the protocol in order to help protect athletes from getting concussions and to help them in receiving proper care after being diagnosed with a concussion.  They need to help those athletes whose careers were ended due to concussions. Gladwell says that the health organizations helping to prevent the concussions are doing a horrible job and need to rethink their ideas and rules that they have developed. He believes that all the rules, like targeting, have not helped at all and will not make a difference. Most people disagree with him.  I believe his ideas are so absurd that most people don’t even give him a chance and his absurd ideas won’t even help to contribute to the discussion of concussions and their effect on college athletes. 

            From children to adults, concussions have become a major health epidemic in our society. Age does not matter.  No one is immune to concussions. That’s why we as a society have to take the necessary steps to do as much as possible to prevent concussions. Our society will always be at risk; however, we can work to limit the amount of people who get concussions by developing preventive solutions.     

Works Cited

Can a Pill Replace Pot for Treating Concussions?" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company,n.d.Web. 13 Feb. 2017.Written by Rose Kivi and Elea CareyMedically Reviewed by. "Concussion." Healthline.N.p.,n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2017..com,

 Mahercor. "Why Are Some Athletes More Prone to Concussion Than Others?" BleacherReport. Bleacher Report, 24 Jan. 2017. Web. 05 Mar. 2017.

Mark Fainaru-Wada, Jim Avila and Steve Fainaru. "Doctors: Junior Seau's Brain Had CTE."ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 11 Jan. 2013. Web. 05 Mar. 2017.Mayo Clinic Staff Print.

"Concussion." Mayo Clinic. N.p., 10 Feb. 2017. Web. 05 Mar. 2017.Drenon, Tyler. "Webster Autopsy Significant Moment in Sports." Behind the Steel Curtain.Behind the Steel Curtain, 08 Oct. 2013. Web. 05 Mar. 201

"The Logic And Absurdity Behind Malcolm Gladwell's Desire To Ban College Football." ThinkProgress. ThinkProgress, 30 July 2013. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.

Steinberg, Leigh. "Concussion Crisis: The Race For A Solution." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 17 Dec. 2015. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.