Concussions. The term is far to similar in athletics, let alone football. With the movie “Concussion” coming out this holiday season, it really got me thinking. How big of a problem is concussions in the NFL? Well in sports in general, it’s a huge problem. An estimated 1.6-3.8 million sports- and recreation-related concussions occur in the United States each year according to the BIRI (Brain Injury Research Institute). That’s a lot concussions, no matter what the sport. If you were to break it down even further, you can find out how many concussions happened in the NFL alone in 2015 using this really cool website. You can see how many players got concussions each year in the league and at what position those players were who got the concussions. You’re also able to see how many players on each team got a concussion and how may games they missed. So far, during the 2015 NFL Season, there have already been 108 concussions. In 2014, there were 123 concussions. Fortunately, each year since 2012, head injuries have gone down by at least 20 concussions each year. Still, with this year only being in week 12, it looks as if that mark set in 2014 will be passed.

The term concussion is defined as when a bump, blow, or jolt to either the head or the body that causes the brain to move rapidly inside the skull. A concussion, or a mild dramatic brain injury, changes how the brain functions normally on a daily basis. The effects of a concussion can be long term and detrimental to a person’s health. Sports is normally where conclusions happen, and it has been noted that in organized high school sports, football is responsible for 60% of all concussions. Brain injuries are also the leading cause of death among any other sports injury.

One widely known sports star that has been affected by concussions is Jim McMahon. McMahon was the quarterback for the Chicago Bears from 1982-1988. McMahon, who was a Super Bowl champion and pro bowl quarterback, had his career cut short due too many concussions. In 2011, he filed a lawsuit against the NFL, for he believed the league did a poor job in handling concussion related injuries. In 2012, McMahon, at age 53, was diagnosed with dementia. Dementia is a brain disease that causes a long term and often gradual decrease in the ability to think and remember that is great enough to affect a person’s daily functioning. McMahon would go on to discuss his dementia in an Interview with ESPN.

Another player who’s life was affected by receptive head injuries was the late great Junior Seau. The 12 time pro bowler played 20 seasons in the league and was a stand out linebacker for the San Diego Chargers. Although no concussions were reported officially during his career, Seau’s wife stated that he had more than enough head related injuries throughout his career. Seau tragically committed suicide in 2012 sparking the debate whether or not concussions had anything to do with it. It was later released by Seau’s family that he suffered brain damage due to CTE, a condition related to concussion brain damage and depression. The autopsy on Seau revealed that his brain was similar to those who were exposed to repetitive head injuries. This is a cause for concern, for the same incident happened with Dave Duerson, who shot himself and his suicide note requested that his brain should be looked at for brain trauma.

Still wanting to know more about how concussions can have long term effects on the body, I stumbled across several a articles that explained it to me. The first linked the NFL to concussion related deaths. Doug Terry, a Ph.D student in clinical psychology at the University of Georgia says that when he conducted his experiment, he based his research off of the findings of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. They revealed that NFL players are at a higher risk of dying from complications with neurodegenerative diseases than the average population. “Concussions are a probable link to deaths caused by neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis”(Terry).

Terry’s on going experiment revolves around a similar sport to football: Rugby. Terry analyzed the effects of concussions on UGA rugby players. He noted that most of the players on the team had had concussions in the past, but since they were relatively young, they recovered quickly and didn’t have any lasting effects from their previous ones. But he also went on to find out that about 40 years later, NFL and Rugby players have memory issues or Alzheimer’s at higher rates than the normal athlete. Terry combined memory tests and functional magnetic resonance imaging scans that the athletes completed to help strengthen his data. The tasks include tests of working memory most, and doing this simultaneously. ““When someone does a working memory task, their brain will use more resources. After you get a concussion, your brain uses more oxygen, more neurons are firing and more glucose is used up by the brain. Your brain has to work harder to do the same thing. There’s evidence of that in functional MRI directly after a concussion”(Terry).  To help ensure his data was correct, Terry also used NueroCom Balance Manager to help test the effects of concussions. It’s an objective measure of balance that uses two force plates to measure your center pressure. It tests all your systems of balance and can see if balance is impaired many years after a concussion occurs.” Since the experiment is on going, UGA has yet to take action of these results, but he hopes to the results can have a major effect on how UGA and schools alike manage concussions.

When deciding if the NFL should take protocol in the seriousness of a concussion, there are a few variable that must be considered. First off, how likely is one to receive a concussion during a football game? Well since football accounts for 60% of all concussions in high school sports according to the Brian Injury Research Institute, my thought is that it’s quite likely to occur. Secondly, the game is played by tackling someone to get them down, so how could they fix that?Well there are several ways the NFL can go about this. They can make stronger, and safer equipment in helmets and shoulder pads that protect the head and keep it stabilized. There are several anti concussion football helmets out there that really should be wore by the whole league if they are not wearing them already. If you don’t fix the helmets, get rid of the facemask completely. No facemask would lower the chances of huge/illegal hits. No player is going to risk running head first at another one with no facemask. They could change up the rules to if a player misses time due to a concussion, the player that hits him must sit out the same amount of games the player who got a concussion missed. This can be a affective and fair proposal to go about things. They could also have concussion monitors work the field so if any player seems to be showing signs of a concussion, they can call a timeout and have that player examined. If all else fails, shortening the schedule to 10 games a year could do it. Less games=Less concussions.

The ability to prevent concussions completely in a game that requires hitting another is impossible. They’re bound to happen during a big hit or tackle. But, as I stated before, there are ways around it. The NFL could prevent most concussions from happening if it puts more time into the concussion protocol and finds ways to not change the games completely, but protect it’s players at the same time. However, as of now, the risk of getting a concussion in this league is too high. Players are at risk of long term effects on their memory and brain while playing the sport. And with the amount of ex football players revealing that football and head injuries have affected their life for the worst, it’s only a matter of time before the league takes action.

But as of now, Yes. Concussions are a true problem in the National Football League.

Works Cited:

http://www.concussiontreatment.com/concussionfacts.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/concussion-watch/#players_2015

http://www.protectthebrain.org/Brain-Injury-Research/What-is-a-Concussion-.aspx

http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/science_health/university-student-tests-the-long-term-effects-of-concussions/article_0aa38d62-a0b5-11e2-ae8e-001a4bcf6878.html