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Dino Muminovic

Gathof

English 102

April 13th, 2017

Concussions Just a Minor Injury?

There has been a major uproar about a certain issue in the athletic community. Now this

has been an issue that has been around for years and has now only gained its popularity because

awareness has been raised about its effects. The issue is concussions; Well now you might be

wondering what exactly is a concussion? A concussion is a head injury that can leave damaging

effects on athletes of all sports and ages. Concussions are regularly caused by a hard hit to the

head or body that causes the brain to shake inside of the skull. While there is fluid within the

skull to protect the brain, when an athlete is hit hard enough, the brain moves to the point of

hitting the skull, causing a head injury otherwise known as a concussion. Symptoms can include

headache, nausea, dizziness, loss of consciousness, and vomiting, but each of these symptoms do

not necessarily happen with every concussion. While many athletes are fine after receiving one

concussion, it is the second concussion that can be very unfavorable and even deadly. Now the

discovery of the harm concussions cause lead to CTE which stands for Chronic Traumatic

Encephalopathy is an effect from sustaining so many concussions. Now we ask the question is

enough being done to prevent concussions from occurring in contact sports? I think not. One

reason is football helmets are not built to prevent concussions from occurring, second not enough

treatment is being given to people who suffer from CTE which is a disease caused by recurring
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concussions, and third coaches are just now receiving sufficient instructions on how to prevent

concussions from occurring and what to do if an athlete suffers one.

First, about the use of helmets in football, per Stella Rick an author from digital trends.

He believes that a new style of helmets will prevent concussions altogether (Stella, np) This kind

of news would be outstanding since football is the leading sport of the number of concussions it

has in collegiate level athletics per research done by the NCAA. (NCAA, np) According to Mark

Wilson from Co. Design, he believes that helmets are about as 85% good as they will get at this

point (Wilson, np) While we see two opposing viewpoints one claiming concussions can be

prevented with new helmets while we see an opposing view that states there is nothing that can

be done to prevent concussions from occurring if you improve football helmets due to them

being almost as good as they can be. So now we compare each source and we look at more data

and we ask the question well if this new helmet can prevent a concussion why is more research

not put into this, and if we compare the two authors of these articles and look at statistics then we

can draw the conclusion whether or not helmets will ever be able to prevent a concussion from

occurring. For an example, lets take a look at a car and how an airbag functions. An airbag in a

car cant save you from a hit to your head because you are taking a hit to your head either way.

Im not saying football is a bad thing and should be diminished as a contact sport but players

should be taught how to hit properly and appropriately and if a player goes for a hit to the head

on purpose to injure the other player he should be penalized for it. If there are no ways to

completely prevent concussions in this sport than it should be at least some way to regulate or

decrease the amount of injuries to the head each year. One scary fact is that from the 2014 NFL

season to the following 2015 season there was a 58% increase in the amount of concussions

reported in the league. (Tracy) Which this is a major increase, and the scary part about all of this
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is the number of concussions that arent even reported and are minor but could become a lot

worse if reinjured by taking another hit to the head.

Second, the further research of concussions and its cause of CTE has caused a major

uproar in the athletic community due to the fact it can cause death and most athletic associations

are doing nothing to help prevent this. These associations are not offering treatment to people

with CTE with great care since there is not much research about it. CTE is a progressive

degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of

repetitive brain trauma. Brain trauma can cause a build-up of an abnormal type of a protein

called tau, which slowly kills brain cells. This is a serious issue in the NFL after retirement due

to players losing memory and starting a process of this disease slowly killing them which is

frightening because this cannot be prevented. This disease has affected numerous NFL players

after retirement and now many of them are looking for compensation for this. Because of

lawsuits filed against the NFL recently by former players, the league is now suspending and

fining players who deliver constant blows to the head. The total number of people filing a lawsuit

are 3,356, 2,138 being former players. After this ridiculous number of lawsuits, the NFL is now

suspending and fining players for giving someone a concussion. There has been a billion-dollar

settlement lawsuit by the NFL recently, which has included many past NFL players. Most of the

players experienced losing memory and starting a process of this disease slowly killing them

which is frightening because once you get this disease this cannot be prevented. A lot of research

has not gone into the CTE research which needs to be changed considering the seriousness of

this issue. Not only is this an issue in football it is also a huge problem in boxers who receive

many hits to the head. 87 of 91 former NFL players whose brains were studied at the VA-BU-

CLF Brain bank have been diagnosed with CTE. (Concussion Legacy Foundation) That right
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there is a scary statistic it is way too high. CTE is just one of many reasons why more research

should be put into concussions even though there isnt now.

Third, coaches are just now starting to receive sufficient training for concussions. This is

a major problem due to all the past athletes who didnt get this kind of treatment and had to go

through a concussion and their coach telling them its nothing or shake it off and keep playing,

this has now been less of because concussions have become such a controversial topic. Overall,

43,884 patients were diagnosed with a concussion, with 55 percent being male. The highest

incidence was in the 15-19 age group at 16.5 concussions per 1,000 patients, followed by ages

10-14 at 10.5, 20-24 at 5.2 and 5-9 at 3.5(Maier). 55.5% of high school students participate in

high school athletics there needs to be something done to protect these kids from receiving

concussions at such a young age (Bratsis). According to Bratsis, 300,000 concussions happen

annually. These statistics are frightening imagine how many out of those 300,000 concussions

are one person having a recurring concussion which then could lead to CTE, if you think about

the high school athletes who suffer multiple concussions are harming their young brain for the

future and just a small injury to the head could cause a major issue for them. High school

football players are nearly twice as likely to sustain a concussion as are college players, yet it

remains unclear as to whether repetitive head injuries can lead to long-term brain disease,

according to a new report released Wednesday. The study, which was an analysis of peer-

reviewed studies on head trauma in a variety of high school sports, estimated that high school

football players suffered 11.2 concussions for every 10,000 games and practices. Among college

players, the rate stood at 6.3. The authors cautioned, however, that their estimates are likely

conservative because many concussions go unreported and because data on such injuries is

limited. The study, which was conducted by the Institute of Medicine and funded by the NFL,
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found that in most cases, concussions symptoms disappear within two weeks. In 10 to 20

percent of individuals, however, concussive symptoms persist for a number of weeks, months, or

even years, the authors noted(PBS).

One specific story I found is about a young man who suffered many concussions during

his high school football career, the article talks about Zak Easter who is a young 24-year-old who

committed suicide after being discovered with CTE. CTE was destroying his brain and he felt as

if it was ruining his life and that he could not do anything because he knew it would eventually

kill him. It is a first-hand account of someone who dealt with CTE and how they kept a day by

day journal. CTE caused him to have memory loss and depression and Zak quickly realized these

signs and knew he had some kind of brain injury (Emmert). In the article, it also talked about his

coaches applauded him for big hits and all of his big hits were when he went in hard with his

head which is exactly how we suffered those numerous concussions and ended up with CTE at

such a young age. This just shows that most coaches are not worried about protecting their

players or dont know how much of such a bad effect this can cause to a young person starting at

such a young age. According to Nathan Seppa, an average of 25% of Hippocampus sizes have

decreased in high school students who play Football compared to those who dont. The function

of the Hippocampus is the provide the brain with the ability to memorize items. Players who

suffered concussions showed lower scores on tests as well. Coaches need to have training on

what to do during a concussion and how to treat and prevent which is another article I found

about a tool kit for high school coaches which gave information about what they could do to treat

and prevent in case an athletic trainer or someone who is knowledgeable about these kinds of

injuries isnt around to be able to help then the coach could step up and take care of the issue.
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Overall coaches should be doing more to help fight the battle with concussions especially trying

to prevent them from occurring at such a young age when the brain is still in a developing stage.

A counterclaim issue about concussions is what causes them and I found one that was

about soccer and how heading a soccer ball could cause injuries to the head. I picked this

because I have played soccer in my past and would want to know if when I headed a ball I could

have sustained a concussion. According to Damaris Christensen, he writes if the ball is headed

incorrectly the brain can twist from its stem and the skull can rotate. While analyzing this source,

I realized that it is crazy and that its almost 15 years old and not many statistics or academic

research is used to back up the claim. Compared to, Paul McCrory who claims that the only

cause of a concussion in soccer is a head to head collision heading a soccer ball cant cause a

concussion, this article uses other credible sources to back up its claim unlike the first one I

talked about. We can conclude that even though a soccer ball to the head wont cause a

concussion at least research has been conducted to prove this claim is real. This is a key element

showing that research at this level is not yet up to date in all sports because it took about 10 years

to disprove the theory that a concussion isnt caused by heading a ball. Although this research

was done for this and people looked into it this is just a beginning step. We need more research

into these kinds of issues altogether.

In conclusion, more needs to be done to prevent concussions from happening especially

after analyzing these sources which have provided valuable information on why this issue has

become so mainstream and the fact that nothing is being done to support this issue is appalling. I

found concussions to be somewhat dangerous. Causing depression, decrease in cognitive areas,

and causing brain disease. I found that concussions effect you as an adult because of the hard

impacts earlier in life. At the rate that they occur and how sometimes players play through them
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and dont tell the medical staff is dangerous. Rules are changing to prevent hits to the head and to

stay out of the game after a hit to the head. From bleeding in the brain permanent brain damage,

you can see why concussions are becoming such a concern not only in football but in all sports.

If more people are aware of this issue then the athletic community would be more wide scale and

could cause more controversy and have something be done about concussions. So, the next step

of this is for more research to be conducted for people who suffer from CTE and then figure out

a way to prevent CTE from occurring which means finding a way to diminish concussions

completely.

Works Cited

"SSI Task Force Explores Issues, Challenges around Concussions." NCAA.org. NCAA,

23 Dec. 2013.
Stella, Rick. "Flexible Football Helmet Absorbs Hits Like a Car Bumper, Could Put an

End To Concussions." Digitaltrends.com.13 Jan. 2016.

Problem?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 4 Feb. 2016.

Jan. 2016.
What is CTE? Concussion Legacy Foundation, 2 Feb. 2017,

concussionfoundation.org/learning-center/what-is-cte.
Bratsis, Michael E. Health Wise: Concussion ABCs. The Science Teacher, vol. 80, no.

4, 2013, pp. 6869.

348349.
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McCrory, Paul R. Brain Injury and Heading in Soccer: Head to Ball Contact Is Unlikely

to Cause Injury but Head to Head Contact Might. BMJ: British Medical Journal, vol.

327, no. 7411, 2003, pp. 351352.

the sport safer. Des Moines Register, 4 Feb. 2017

Report, vol. 54, no. 37, 2005, pp. 934934., www.jstor.org/stable/23317300.

Francisco, 17 Aug. 2016, www.ucsf.edu/news/2016/08/403921/concussion-rates-rising-

significantly-adolescents.
High School Football Players Face Bigger Concussion Risk. PBS, Public Broadcasting

Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/high-school-football-players-face-bigger-

concussion-risk/.
SEPPA, NATHAN. Football Linked to Brain Changes. Science News, vol. 185, no. 12,

2014, pp. 1212., www.jstor.org/stable/24366210.