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John Brawley

Uwrt 1102

Thomas

4/18/2016

Self assessment: I believe that my thesis paper was pretty well written, I believe all of the
necessary components i have in the paper. I would give myself an overall grade of a 90, I
have everything included in the paper along with the sources. Possibly the organization is
not as strong as it could be and some of the citations might not be fully correct, but I
believe this is a well written thesis.

Reflection: This final draft finally allowed for all of my work and information to be on
paper. It has been a long process and I have learned a lot information on a topic that I did
not know much about. It was a long and tough process with some bumps in the process. I
finally believe that i have a strong thesis paper that includes all the necessary information
and research, while also allowing my voice to come through in the paper.

Concussions in the NFL

When it comes to the topic of concussions in football, most of us will agree that
concussions happen frequently in football. Where this agreement ends, is on the question
of what are the real dangers associated with concussions. Some are convinced that

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concussions are just a minor injury with no later effects, others believe that concussions
are leaving players suffering from lifelong dangers from concussions.

Throughout my history in football, I have always believed that head injuries were
dangerous and possibly had more effects. I have had my bell rung numerous times and
I thought nothing else of it. On one fall day of my senior year football season was the
first time I experienced a concussion. During a normal practice, I was going through all
the normal drills and a bunch of contact was happening. The next thing that I remember
was being with our medical trainer. She was asking me a bunch of questions that I could
not answer, and I had a pounding headache. This was the first time I ever had a
concussion. I could not remember what i had done that day, or even what led to me
getting the concussion. Everything about that day was a blur. The effects did not end
there. For the next couple days all I could do was sit in a dark room because my headache
got worse whenever I was exposed to light. It was hard for me to even concentrate in
school, because of how bad the headache was the more activity that I was doing.
Whenever I experienced my first concussion, it led me to realize the real dangers of this
injury.

Ever since the 1920s, when the NFL was first established, their has been a lot of
contact between players. The safety has not been that good either, considering the first
football players began wearing only leather football helmets. The NFL has grown

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tremendously, and is widely known as one of Americas favorite sport. I have always
loved football whether watching it or playing it. Head injuries have been seen previously
as just something to brush under the rug, or an injury that you just have to play through.
This has led to many new findings that have shown what the real dangers are.

Along with medical issues that come from concussion, another key point in this
argument is what can be done to help prevent these injuries from happening. Along with
football evolving, so must the safety of the game. The top things on Americans mind is
to make sure the game is safe, especially since many parents have children that are
playing football.

Two major diseases that have been linked to concussions are CTE and mTBI. The
website protectthebrain.org claimed in the article What is CTE?, that chronic traumatic
encephalopathy is referred to as CTE, and is a disease that affects peoples brain. This
disease has many symptoms that include loss of memory, impaired judgement, and even a
gradual onset of dementia. MTBI is named a mild traumatic brain injury. This is what a
concussion can be classified as, and it happens if a mild if loss of consciousness occurs
and/or confusion and disorientation is shorter than 30 minutes.

In a recently aired documentary League of Denial, Dr. Bennet Omalu, a

Pittsburgh Medical Examiner, revealed his findings that after conducting an autopsy on
two former players he found CTE in their brain that could have been a leading factor in

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their death. His findings showed that he had found abnormalities on the brain of the
former players. The NFL argues that these findings are not related to any football
sustained injuries. Then league commissioners begin to discredit Dr. Omalu, and attack
his credibility. Dr. Didehbani, a research psychologist at the Center for BrainHealth,
University of Texas at Dallas, claims that, concussions were related to cognitive
symptoms of depression, and it is possible that the high endorsement of somatic
symptoms may be related to pain or other factors."(Stong 1). This information comes
from a study of 30 retired NFL players who suffered concussions. It showed that
concussions were directly related to the feeling of depression, such as sadness, feelings of
worthlessness or self-criticism, and suicidal thoughts as side effects from concussions.
This showed the more and more issues concussions are being linked to.

At the same time that I believe these abnormal findings on the brain could be a
coincidence that he was a football player, I also believe that these issues could be linked
to concussions received while playing football. With firsthand experience of a
concussion, I do believe that this could be a disease that really does affect the brain. To
me, it seems as if the NFL is possibly trying to cover up the issues of concussions and
what is going on within the league. Dr. Omalu stood by his research and facts when the
NFL discredited him. Omalu stated in an interview that An NFL doctor said to me at
some point, Bennet, do you know the implications of what youre doing? This was
coming from an NFL doctor making sure that Omalu knew that his claims could hurt
football. While I agree with the idea that football is a great sport and I would not like to

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see it end, but ultimately players health is far more important. To me it seems as if all the
NFL is trying to do is to have everything brushed under the rug to keep making their
money. Within another interview Omalu said that CTE has dragged me into politics of
science, the politics of the NFL. You cant go against the NFL. Theyll squash you. This
shows that if it is information the NFL does not want out it will not be there. All that
Omalu wanted to do was help the overall health of the players. Somehow all of his
research and claims, were discredited after the NFL discredited him publicly.

I agree that it seems as if the NFL is trying to cover the information up, a point
that needs emphasizing since so many people believe that whatever they hear from the
NFL is the complete truth. I believe personally, that the NFL will say whatever they have
to so that they can continue to make as much money as possible. They do not want any
information out in the publics view that could hurt how people view football, and even
lead down to a lot of people not continuing to play football. We need to see that the NFL
has used its power to help protect themselves.

Throughout the ongoing conversation, experts suggest many ways to help prevent
these injuries from happening. Newer technology has allowed the development of
headgear that allows for more absorption of the impact to prevent head trauma. In his
research Elliot Pellman states that The newer headgear reduces concussion risk by using
thicker and more energy-absorbing padding on the side and back of the helmets and
around the ears.(Concussion in Professional Football). Basically Pellman is showing

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the ways that the newer helmets are safer and provide more protection. The head takes a
numerous amount of contact throughout a football game. With taking this much contact,
the best way to prevent concussions is to have the best protection around the head. The
newer technology has allowed us to have helmets that absorb more of the energy from
contact to the head. The helmet is one of the leading factors in preventing these head
injuries. Further research has shown that another key factor in concussions, is the
tackling form being used by players. When leading with the head it leaves a player more
susceptible to having a concussion. In response to these findings, it has led the NFL to
change many tackling rules that now make many dangerous hits illegal, and some will
even pay fines for excessively dangerous hits.

In response to all of the information showing these issues, the NFL returned by
making policies to make sure these risks are reduced and that everyone gets the proper
medical treatment after a suspected concussion. Julie Beck, writer for The Atlantic quotes
the statement, In the NFLs 2015 Health and Safety Report, the league reported that
concussions in regular season games have gone down by 35 percent since 2012, perhaps
partially thanks to the leagues 2013 ban on players tackling with a blow from the crown
of the head. This shows that with the new policies the NFL is putting in place, it is
working to help reduce the concussions. More focus is being put into concussions and
new rules such as a medical timeout have been put in, that allows for trainers to notify
a referee if they believe someone needs medical attention. This response from the NFL

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came in lieu of all the backlash coming from former players claiming the NFL has
covered up these issues.

From the policies and actions of the NFL, I believe they are taking the right steps
in making sure that everyone is safe and stays safe. I see this as showing that they are
now actually taking action on the subject instead of just ignoring it in fear that it would
hurt their business. I believe that the NFL is taking the right action in making sure that
the helmets are as safe as possible. Helmets really do have a large impact on the game,
and really keep players safe. Within my own experience of playing football, I have seen
someone hit hard enough that his helmet was split right down the middle. Although the
boy was still injured on the hit, it could have been much worse, had that helmet not been
as good as it was. This leads into showing how tackling techniques are also a big leading
issue throughout this conversation. Ive always believed that tackling techniques are what
can prevent most head injuries. With seeing many people tackle with their head in the
wrong spot it has led to numerous injuries.

While the NFL is probably wrong when they claim that these effects from
concussions have nothing to do with football, they are right in trying to make everything
safer and doing what they can to protect the players more. I agree that something had to
be done to make everyone playing the game aware of what is going on, and to improve it.
The policies that the NFL established have already proven to help reduce the number of
concussions. Some people claim that these new safer rules are causing for boring

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football. I believe some of these things do make football less interesting to an extent, but
it is necessary to make the game safer. With everyone worried about safety these rule
changes are the best things the NFL could do.

The overall ideas throughout this ongoing conversation have been what are the
real effects of concussions, and what is being done about it by the NFL. Research has
shown that a lot of side effects that have been unknown are now coming to light. The
research has proven that concussions lead to multiple other brain injuries. These issues
were brought to the NFL and people demanded something be done about it. This is what
led to the NFLs issuing of new rules to keep players safe. From my research, I have
come upon multiple ways concussions mess with peoples minds. With firsthand
experience it also allowed me to be able to relate to the topic, and a reason to find out
what actually can happen from concussions. I also came upon some of the possible safety
issues that can improve the game. I was able to also see everything that has been done by
the NFL that led to the game becoming safer. With seeing all of these findings, it has led
me to wonder just how long these effects have been known about.

Works Cited

Beck, Julie. The NFLs Continuing Concussion Nightmare. The Atlantic. The Atlantic,
21 September 2015. Web. 26 March 2016.

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Goldberg, Daniel. Concussions, Professional Sports, and Conflicts of Interest: Why the
National Football Leagues Current Policies are Bad for Its (Players) Health.
HEC Forum Volume 20 Number 4 (2008): 337.

Kirk, Michael, Mike Wiser, Steve Fainaru, Mark Fainaru-Wada, and Mark Fainaru-Wada.
League of Denial: The Nfl's Concussion Crisis. , 2013.

Pellman, Elliot. Concussion in Professional Football: Summary of the Research

Conducted by the National Football Leagues Committee on Mild Traumatic
Brain Injury. Medscape, Neurosurg Focus 2006. Web. 26 March 2016.

What is CTE?. Protectthebrain. Brain Injury Research Institute, n.d. Web. 26 March
2016.