Bang! You are a
professional football player in the NFL, you just took a hard hit to the head,
you suffered from a traumatic brain injury and can no longer play, what will
happen to you next? Will you suffer from depression, develop other disease like
Alzheimer’s or will you even commit suicide? Athletes should be told about
injuries, how they are caused and the affects of them. Also, coaches and the
owners of the teams should make sports safer.
Boston
Globe reports that Tom McHale, and All-Ivy athlete who played in 87 NFL games
form 1987 to 1995, died of an overdose in 2008 after battling depression and a
painkiller addiction. Boston Globe say a handful, including popular pro Bowler Junior
Seau, have committed suicide. It is sad to hear that pro football players who
have suffered injuries have committed suicide, rather than facing the challenge
of dealing with their injury. Football players are big and strong, but the
brain is delicate? Football players are equipped with padding and helmets that
are made to prevent injuries. However, Frontline reports that in the 2012- 2013
season that 160 players go down with a head injury.
Boston
Globe reports there’s no way to say the only hits that hurt you are the hits
from those years. The hits you might of taken years back may have could have
caused the injury not the one you just took. Frontline reports the NFL donated
$3o million to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for brain
injury research. The unrestricted gift is the single-largest donation in league
history. In the league’s press release announcing the gift, it points to
chronic traumatic encephalopathy as one possible area of research. The NFL is
trying to help those who get injured.
In
conclusion, I believe that the NFL players should take more precautions when
playing football to reduce their chance of injury. Also the NFL should make
stricter rules to the game of football for anyone who wishes to play. Players
should also be aware of the injuries, the affects of them, how they are caused,
the long –term affect of the injury, and most importantly how to prevent them.
Good job. It stayed interesting throughout the paper and the facts in the intro about the after effects of a concussion made me want to read more, as an athlete I thought of what might happen if I had a concussion. I feel that the NFL is doing a lot by constantly donating large amounts of money is a good thing and I agree with the author that some rules need to be changed. Bu the NFL faces the problem of keeping the game the same and keeping it safe.
ReplyDelete