Thousands of fans are cheering as
they watch their favorite football team take on their rivals. The quarterback
passes the ball to the slot receiver who is running across the middle. As soon
as the receiver catches the ball, he turns and sees a linebacker. Then, he sees
darkness. The linebacker has hit the slot receiver in the head and the receiver
suffers from a concussion. These head injuries are very serious and can lead to
a lifetime of pain and suffering. The worst part about it is that in the
football world, these concussions are one of the most common injuries. Is the
sports world doing enough to protect its athletes and is there more we can do
to prevent and help deal with concussions?
History
Concussions in football have been a problem since
the very beginning of the sport. But, doctors have only recently been paying
attention to the effects hits have on the brain. In 1994, the NFL commissioner
created the “Mild Traumatic Brain Injury” committee (Ezell). This was the NFL’s
first steps in researching the problems of concussions and protecting the
players. In March 1997, the “American Academy of Neurology” came out with a
study that stated that repeated concussions can cause brain damage (Rapaport).
This study was the first study to set guidelines on when a player should return
to football. In May of 2000, the first study of former football players and
concussions was started (Rapaport). The players were asked whether or not
they’ve had a concussion and what health problems they have today. Players that
had suffered a concussion had a higher chance of memory loss, loss of
concentration, speech or hearing problems, numbness or tingling in the hands
and feet, and major headaches (Rapaport). These studies started to raise
eyebrows on the severity of concussions and the health risks they posed. So,
teams wanted to better protect their players. In 2002, Riddell Sports designed
a helmet that was supposed to reduce the chance of concussions significantly
(Harrison). The football world is still changing and even more protocols are
being put into place to help reduce concussions. This sport still entertains
many people, but at what cost?
Effects on Society
Concussions in football have changed
the way the world looks at concussions in any aspect of life. The injury has
changed how the football world protects it’s players. In a recent study of 202
deceased football players, 177 of the players had Chronic Traumatic
Encephalopathy (Goldman). CTE is a progressive degenerative brain disease that
can lead to death (“Frequently Asked Questions about CTE”). The discovery of
CTE in football players has raised concern for all football players. The whole
football world has been altered. Football players are retiring early, deciding
not to play, and asking for more protection and compensation. This heavily
hurts football organizations. Star players have to sit out of games which hurts
viewership. The football society has taken a hard hit from the discovery of how
common CTE is in deceased players. This drives the football world to create
safer equipment so that people will not be so afraid to play and so that
players don’t have to sit out games.
Another way that concussions in
football has changed society is that doctors are now studying the effects of
concussions in more depth. Because of how common concussions are in football,
doctors are researching the effects the concussions have on the brain in a
whole new way. A new study has found that hard impacts to the head that don’t
result in concussions can still cause CTE (Goldstein). Concussion heighten the
chance of the possibility of CTE. Dr. McKee at VA Boston HealthCare System
suggests that they should follow football players for decades and see how their
brains are effected by brain trauma (Goldman). Neurological doctors have put a
new level of importance on concussions and they are striving to protect our
players. This not only helps football players, but anyone in the world who
suffers from a concussion. People who go to doctors with concussions now get
treatments that professionals do. This helps protect the brains of everyday
people.
Concussions have also changed how society as a
whole views football. Parents are more reluctant to put their kids into
football and teenagers are more reluctant to play football in high school. The
amount of youth participation in sports as a whole has increased the past few
years, but, the amount of players participating in football has decreased by
25,901 (“High School Sports Participation Increases for 28th Straight Year,
Nears 8 Million Mark”). This shows how the increase in worry about concussions
and other injuries has decreased footballs popularity. This decrease in
participation will be felt at the college level and the professional level. Athletes
that could have made the sport even more interesting and improve the game will
end up playing another sport because they’ll have less of a chance at brain
damage.
Examples
You are playing football when all of a sudden you
feel your head whip to the side and slam on the ground. You have suffered a
concussion. What should you expect to happen to your body?
If you have a minor concussion, you
can expect dizziness, headaches, and maybe sleeping problems (Post-Concussion
Syndrome). These symptoms can last a couple of days, but you should be able to
return to the field before too long (Post-Concussion Syndrome). Minor
concussions are more common than others. But, these minor concussions can add
up and still cause CTE.
If you suffer from a major
concussion, you could be knocked out completely cold. The symptoms you can
expect are the same as a minor concussions, but with more severity (Post-Concussion
Syndrome). You can also expect “psychological symptoms such as depressed mood,
irritability, and anxiety” and “cognitive problems involving memory,
concentration, and thinking” (Post-Concussion Syndrome). If you suffer from a
concussion of this severity, you should sit out for at least 30 days or until
cleared by a doctor (Mullally).
The last concussion you could suffer
from is so violent that it is life threatening. This concussion could cause
bleeding in the brain and brain swelling (Mullally). You would have to be
hospitalized and monitored to ensure that your brain doesn’t swell too much and
cause permanent brain damage. If you suffer from a concussion this bad, do not
expect to come back to play until after six months and an MRI can indicate
there is no structural damage to your brain.
Solutions
There are currently no solutions on how to prevent
concussion indefinitely. All there is to prevent concussions is better padding
and rules that protect players from head to head collisions. Companies are
continually creating new helmets for players to wear that will better protect
them. The helmets can only help so much because the impact of a direct hit to
the head can’t be completely absorbed by a helmet. Something else must help the
helmet. The only thing people can do if diagnosed with a concussion is sit out
and wait for their brain to heal. There are many new solutions that are being
created though.
One of the most successful solutions is cannabis.
There are compounds in cannabis that are produced by the body when the brain
suffers from a concussion. Cannabinoids are produced by the body to reduce swelling, inflammation,
and damaged tissue (Hansen). “In a 2011 study, researchers found that levels of
2-AG, an endocannabinoid, were significantly increased after a head trauma in
mice” (Shohami). These studies have proven that the compounds in cannabis have
the possibility of helping with the healing of concussions. But, that’s not all
the cannabis could do. Studies have shown that cannabinoids can increase the amount
of neuroblast migration to a damaged site in the brain (Bravo-Ferrer). What
this does is the neuroblast promotes healing of the brain by creating new
neurons in the damaged site of the brain. More studies are being conducted to
see whether or not cannabis is truly an effective way to treat concussions. In
the football world, trainers could use cannabis pills to treat concussions.
Whenever a player is pulled off of the field and has been diagnosed with a
concussion, the trainers could give the player the cannabis pill. This would be
very beneficial because not only would the player be relaxed, but the brain
would start recovering immediately. The swelling would be dulled and the
damaged tissue would begin to heal.
Another solution being tested is one that would
actually heal you and prevent you from getting CTE. The idea behind this
solution is that doctors could give you a vaccine that would prevent you from
getting CTE (Molteni). Normal vaccines work by introducing the illness to your
body so that your body can learn how to fight it off. Well, doctors want to do
that with CTE. Doctors want to try to introduce patients with a small form of
CTE so that the body can learn to fight it off. The difficult part is that
doctors need to test possible antidotes for CTE can extract it. Doctors can’t
do this easily because you have to be dead to be diagnosed with CTE. Even
though this solution is in very early stages of development, it shows a lot of
promise. If we could vaccinate every football player, players wouldn’t have the
fear of suffering the consequences of hits later in their life.
Out of the possible solutions to keep players safe
while playing football, the best solution is the cannabinoids found in cannabis.
Improving helmets only goes so far because you can never completely eliminate
the force the head takes when it slams into another player. The vaccine
solution is very promising but it is very far from becoming a reality. The
cannabis is something that we can use right now, it is something we haven’t
used before, and there are multiple studies that cannabis in fact does help the
brain after a concussion.
Absurdity and Concussions
Albert Camus would have seen concussions as a
sacrifice that would be worth it. Camus was a soccer player and he said, “what I know most
surely about morality and the duty of man, I owe to football” (Camus). Camus
was grateful towards team sports because they taught him a major lesson. But,
Camus had to stop playing soccer because he contracted tuberculosis (Cruickshank).
He would’ve seen getting CTE as very absurd. Players are risking their lives
and possibly shortening them just to play a sport. The players are damaging
their brains just for the entertainment of others. Camus would’ve felt bad for
the players though. He would’ve understood the pain the players would go
through because they would be forced to stop playing once they suffered a
concussion. When Camus was forced to stop playing because of tuberculosis, it
changed him (Cruickshank). Camus said “live to the point of tears” (Camus). He
would’ve seen the football players giving their hearts to the game and he
would’ve seen it as man giving their all and rebelling against the limits of
the body. Camus believed you should rebel against life and live your life.
Camus would’ve seen CTE as absurd, but he wouldn’t see the players as absurd.
This is because of the heart and the sacrifice the players gave.
Conclusion
Of the 135,000 emergency department visits due to
concussions, 60% of them occur from football (What is a Concussion?). This
number is staggering. Concussions are one of the most common sports injuries
and it has the largest consequence of any sports injury, brain damage. The
football world maybe paying more attention to the severity of concussions, but
there has yet been anything to prove that they are successfully protecting
their players. The next thing to do now is to see what else there is to do to
protect our players during this concussion epidemic.
Works Cited
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