Assignment 16- Richie Lane

Suicide. Extreme violence. Murder. Abuse. Depression. Memory loss. Substance abuse. These things, along with countless other ailments, are often associated with severe trauma. People who have been abused, been to war, or had great hardships are typically the kind of people that are associated with these issues. But there is one thing that causes all of these, that many people are choosing to ignore, because it involves one of their favorite pastimes: Football. Although football has been "Our nation's sport" for decades, people are just starting to realize how dangerous the sport really is.

Many people feel that the NFL is prioritizing entertainment value over the health and wellbeing of its players. For instance, last year, Cam Newton suffered at least 4 hits to the head in a game. After the fourth, he laid motionless on the ground before getting up and continuing to play. He was never evaluated for a concussion. This one example showcases a much larger issue with football. Last year, there were 244 reported concussions resulting from hits in games and practices. There are 256 total games played every year, so you can probably do the math. Almost every game, a player suffered a concussion. Once these shocking numbers became more known to the public, the NFL made great strides to fix it! They implemented a concussion protocol and stricter rules on what constitutes a "clean hit", and now, players are much safer. At least, that's what they'd like you to think. In fact, since the year the league adopted these new concussion rules, concussions are at an all-time high. Of course, this doesn't mean players are all the sudden hitting harder and playing dirtier. It just means that the NFL finally decided to recognize when a player suffers a concussion, even if he's not showing severe signs of one. But how long do you think it's been since the NFL decided to start taking more responsibility? 10 years? 20? Close. The original concussion protocol was introduced in 2013. And a whole 4 years later, it's still pretty ineffective. But that's not because the technology to diagnose and properly rehab a concussion isn't there. In fact, it's been there for decades. It's because the NFL wants to keep their stars playing. They require "clear visual evidence" that a player is unable to continue playing before they will pull him off and do an evaluation, but often times, teams neglect this responsibility until after the game, unless the player isn't playing as well, and then they are suddenly very concerned with his health. Even after the diagnosis of a concussion, players only have to demonstrate little recovery before they are cleared to play again, even if they aren't fully healed. But the biggest issue with these concussions is the fact that most players will suffer multiple in their career. Troy Polamalu, for instance, suffered 9 recorded concussions in his first 10 years in the NFL, and that's not accounting for the ones the league may have missed. These repeated concussions can lead to a scary condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. This fairly new disease has very dangerous side effects, and by the end of a player's career, he will more than likely have CTE. In fact, players could suffer from this disease before they even make it to the NFL. The autopsy of a player from the University of Pennsylvania who committed suicide revealed that he was showing early signs of CTE at only 21 years old. This condition has led to many players showing extreme violence, sometimes as extreme as murder or suicide. It has also led to ADHD, memory loss, impulsive behavior, poor judgment, and in its late stages, dementia, movement disorders, speech impediments, tremors, deafness, and depression. In a study conducted by Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist, it was found that out of 111 examined brains of diseased former NFL players, 110 had CTE. And it's not just concussions that are causing CTE. All hits to the head contribute to a player eventually developing this disease. One study from researchers at Stanford showed that one college offensive linemen suffered 62 of these hits- in a single game. Each one of which came with an average force on his head equivalent to if he had driven his car into a brick wall at 30 mph. Dr. McKee said that a player can suffer over 15,000 of these hits in his career.

So how can this be fixed? You could say that the NFL should more closely monitor signs of CTE, but out of hundreds of recent cases, only one diagnosis has been made while the player was still alive. Because CTE is so hard to diagnose while the patient is still living, football leagues at all levels need to enforce much stronger regulations to help prevent severe brain injuries, even if it means something as extreme as forcing a player into early retirement. Because of the violent nature of the sport and the fact that as time moves on, players continue to get bigger and stronger, these severe head injuries will never fully vanish, and could actually increase. But the rate at which players suffer these injuries is alarmingly high, and great strides need to be taken to help lower these numbers. With much more regulations and more responsibility taken by football leagues at all levels, football could truly earn the title "our nation's sport".