Anyone who follows the sport of football has heard about the national phenomenon of concussions. According to Web MD , a concussion is a “type of traumatic brain injury that is caused by a blow to the head or body… that shakes the brain inside the skull.”  These injures can be extremely serious, causing symptoms that can range from “mild to severe”. However, there is something equally as serious as the physical injures a player can receive from concussions. This being emotional stress.

I take expressed interest in this question because of my past history with concussions. In 5 years of playing the sport of football, I reported 6 serious concussions (concussions that made me loss memory) and suffered many more non disclosed head injuries as well. Those five years were filled with head aches, nausha, and memory loss. However, what I really take away from these injuries was not the physical pain that I felt, but the emotional stress I faced every day. This ranging from not wanting to get out of bed in the morning and go to school to not wanting to go to class to see my old teammates. This day to day stress was something more painful than any head ache I could have received.

According to Nationwide Children’s, emotional symptoms of concussions can include irritability, sadness, and nervousness.  Add this to physical symptoms of head aches and nausea and you will start to see a difference in a child’s life. Specifically at school. According to Today, “88 precent of symptomatic students had trouble in school” due to concussions.  Nationwide Children believes that these symptoms “can have a significant impact on classroom learning”.   As for me, I use to take half days at school and do less work than the other students. In theory, this may sound ideal to most children, until they add the factor of physical pain and final grades. Students cannot simply be exempt from these assignments . They will have to make them up some how, usually falling behind in some way. From falling behind, children will become more and more stressed. According to Time Magazine , “77% [of students] said they had trouble taking notes and spent more time competing homework assignments”.  This time missed from school and this extra time needed to complete each assignment will impact grades for the rest of a child’s high school career. Grades in school is an area that can have a lot of emotional effect on any high school student.

High school and grades is just one example of how the emotional stress of concussions can add to the overall stress an average person goes through in their lifetime. This leads to a topic that can be very difficult to talk about, what happens when this emotion stress becomes too much. In a study published in the Washington Post, “36% [of children] experienced a new onset of psychiatric disorders”. Further more, this article also stated that “days, weeks, and months that immediately follow a traumatic brain injury can be crippling”.  This article is very accurate to what many athletes (including myself) will face after a concussion. They will find themselves in moods they normally didn’t see before. They will be more irritable, feeling down most of the time. For some this is more extreme than others, and for some, there can be one thing this emotional damage can lead to. According to Reuters.com, “people who have sustained multiple brain injuries throughout their life were more likely to report suicidal thoughts”. AJC.com has linked several suicides of former players to concussion’s, showing a true impact of what these inquires can inflict. Even if at the biological level, one cannot ignore the severity of the emotion stress concussions can cause with  links to suicides in not only former NFL players, but also recent college football players and average everyday football players.

A conclusion, though very unpopular in the world of sports, that I have drawn to the question presented in the title can help answer it. To coaches and management (those making money off players), physical effects of a concussion must be a top concern for this is what stops a player from playing  (stops money). But to everyone else, those who actually care about the lives of the athletes, the emotional damage of a concussion must be a top concern, and the question of the legitimacy of football as a practical sport (and all contact sports) but be examined.