Football Concussions

The National Football League has recently faced a class-action lawsuit from hundreds of ex-football players regarding the lifelong effects of football concussions. The NFL has settled its brain trauma case in September of 2013 with an agreement to pay out $765 million to 4500 football retirees (Ezell). Concussions have become a major issue in not only the game of football but the business of football as well. In high contact sports, such as football concussions are going to be very prevalent. Equipment and regulations do not meet standards for players in the National Football League, college, pep warner, and many other football league across America. Of the many theories to sustain this major problem an equipment change seems to be the most
However, when a concussions is left untreated and a player goes back into the game it can become very deadly (Nordqvist). When a concussion is gone unseen the long term effects include memory problems, lack of inhibition, intense anger or aggression, personality changes, lack of concentration, language impairment, and problems organizing, planning, and problem solving. A number of deceased professional players have donated their brains to various institutions for medical analysis. These medical researchers are finding very strong evidence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative condition that is caused by repeated impacts to the brain. The brains of former players have similarities with those of elderly Alzheimer's patients and former boxers with severe dementia. These effects to the brain attribute to the suicides and deaths of former professional players that include Junior Seau, Dave Deurson, and Chris Henry (Polnero). Concussions in the game of football need to be better protected and treated in order to make the game of football a safer
“Helmets have a natural limitation,” said study contributor, Dr. Julian Bailes, former NFL and NCAA team physician and new chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at NorthShore University Health System in Evanston, Ill. “With some major collisions, the helmet—the head—stops moving. Helmets work well for preventing scalp laceration, skull fracture and bleeding in the brain, but they don’t always prevent rotation and tearing of brain fibers,” he said. Helmets do not offer full protection from concussions but there has been no alternative up until now. A group of researchers have developed a potential solution to this concussion problem that doesn't involve helmets but external protection that internally affects the players. A simple collar has been created that compresses the vessels in the neck to increase blood volume and reduce internal movement of the brain. The concept of this product was to reduce slosh. Slosh is the term researchers use to describe the movement and tearing of the brain that occurs when a player suffers a concussion. An 83 percent reduction in the amount of brain fibers torn was shown when testing the collars on rats. The collars have yet to hit the big stage and be studied on people but the wearability of these collars are being tested by our military. Bailes has also stated that these finding are preliminary and further