Football and Long Term Head Injuries
As many of us know American Football is a very violent sport that puts extremely athletic men against each other. Whether you like football or not there is no denying that injuries are a common place in the sport. The problems that arise from this can be clear to anyone but taking a look at just the high school level, concussions are a huge problem considering the impact that they have on the brain. A study made by the Journal of Athletic Training shows that concussions represent 8.9% of all high school injuries and of course these are only reported injuries. This is where the long lasting effects of concussions and injuries in football start to arise. Many football players, especially at the highest level, will experience more than one head injury throughout their lifetime. If it was something like an ankle injury or even a broken arm that would be something that could heal over time and would not have long lasting effects. However repeated head injuries are not the same. Many of these long lasting NFL and even college level players are diagnosed later in their lives with CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy), which is a brain disorder that is caused by constant traumatic blows to the head of an individual. The side effects of CTE include memory loss, impaired judgement, aggression, and depression (National Center for Health Research). Some may argue that these head injuries happen in other sports and that is true, but you cannot argue that running head first into each other over and over won’t lead to multiple head injuries throughout your time playing football.
Taking a look at an NFL star who suffered from CTE we can look at the case of Aaron Hernandez. He played in the NFL for 2 years from 2010–2012 and was found guilty of murder in 2013. Some may look at this and chalk it up to be just a crazy who killed someone but later investigations found that Hernandez had CTE. Some doctors theorize that CTE is what caused his rage and damaged thinking, causing him to murder the man in 2013. Of course this is an extreme case but this is just to show how bad something like CTE can effect someone and can devastate others outside of the NFL players that may develop it. In a study published by the Journal of American Medical Association they found that among 202 deceased football players, 177 of them were diagnosed with CTE, (Alex Pew, Danielle Shapiro). The NFL is trying to change their rules to make head injuries less of a common place but this has made some fans upset as they think that the new NFL has become “too soft”. CTE is a long term problem that really cannot be fixed. It can be treated with therapy but is something that these players have to deal with for the long term and is not something that just goes away. One day I hope that football can be enjoyed as a spectator sport without the fear that the players we love to watch will have life long injuries.
Articles used for research:
Pew, Alex, and Danielle Shapiro. “Football and Brain Injuries: What You Need to Know.” National Center for Health Research, 23 Jan. 2018, https://www.center4research.org/football-brain-injuries-need-know/#:~:text=CTE%20is%20a%20brain%20disorder,judgment%2C%20aggression%2C%20and%20depression.
Gessel, Luke M, et al. “Concussions among United States High School and Collegiate Athletes.” Journal of Athletic Training, National Athletic Trainers Association, 2007, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2140075/.
