Is Football Dangerous?

Is Football Dangerous Dangerous Football 11

Is Football as Dangerous as People Say?

Jake McKeown

Lutheran High Northeast

Is Football as Dangerous as People Say

In the last seven completed National Football League (NFL) seasons alone, there have been over 1,500 cases of players being diagnosed with a concussion alone, not including all the other kinds of injuries that a player goes through throughout a season. A full season is from the beginning of preseason to the Super Bowl (Stluka, 2017). Players also suffer 1,400-1,500 hits to the head alone per season with that number increasing for lineman and linebackers and decreasing for running and defensive backs (Sauser, 2010).

As football continues to rise in popularity in mainstream media, the chances of this number rising, along with the number of former and current that suffer from side effects from these hits will continue to go up unless something is done to reduce these numbers. This paper will talk about what Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is and the effects of it, what kinds of hits are most dangerous to a player, and some of the changes that have been, are being made or could be made to make the game safer and reduce the number of serious hits that a player could receive.

Football is as dangerous as people say, but some things can be done to make it safer.

What are CTE and What Are its Effects

Over the last twenty-five years, a new degenerative brain disease has risen in notoriety for current and former football players, and its name is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE.

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CTE is a degenerative brain disease that used to be known as “punch-drunk syndrome” as it was mostly seen as a problem in boxing. However, after the death of Mike Webster, a former center for the Pittsburgh Steelers, it was found during an autopsy that his brain was showing the tell-tale signs of CTE, which is a buildup of a protein called Tau. Since then, it has been found in 110 of the 111 former NFL players’ brains that were donated for study (Pappas, 2017). This buildup of Tau proteins will spread to different regions of the brain, killing brain cells as these clumps of Tau form (Concussion, 2018). This protein, which usually helps regulate signals passed by neurons as well as send nutrients and other materials to different parts of the cell, becomes altered after a traumatic brain injury. It instead, turns into tangles of the protein that can jam the transport system and causes different effects depending on where the tau proteins change. For CTE, the proteins begin to change in the prefrontal cortex, which is located behind the forehead and is linked with decision-making, mood, and behavior. Tau proteins were first discovered in 1975 ad have been linked to other degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease (Stevens, 2016). The early effects that a person with CTE generally shows are impulse control, depression, aggression and paranoia. As the disease progresses and affects more of the brain, more noticeable symptoms such as memory loss, impaired judgment, and eventually progressive dementia (Concussion, 2018).

While CTE is becoming more mainstream and being talked about by more and more people, there are some things that researchers are still trying to figure out about CTE. One of those things is what causes exactly causes CTE and what are different ways that it can be diagnosed, other than through autopsy. The only thing that researchers know that causes CTE is repetitive hits to the head sustained over  years. The next section of this paper will talk about what kind of hits are more dangerous and which kind is more likely to cause CTE to occur sooner. Researchers are also having a hard time diagnosing if the symptoms that a person is showing are CTE based or if they are based on one of the other degenerative brain diseases. This is because all the symptoms caused by CTE are also symptoms of other well-known degenerative brain diseases brain disease such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease. The only way to effectively diagnose whether a person had CTE is to perform an autopsy on a said person and have a neuropathologist that knows how to identify CTE slice brain tissues off and use chemicals to make the tau tangles visible (Concussion, 2018).

Some famous cases of former players being diagnosed with CTE are Aaron Hernandez, Mike Webster mentioned above, and Kevin Turner. Aaron Hernandez was found to have CTE after an autopsy on his body. This is after he committed suicide in his prison cell after being sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Odin Lloyd in 2013 and  a double homicide in 2012. He was set to appear in court for a possible acquittal of the Lloyd murder after he had been acquitted of the double homicide (Biography Editors, 2018). Mike Webster was the anchor of the offensive line for the Pittsburgh Steelers during the 1970s when they won 4 Super Bowls. He was known as Iron Mike for hardly ever missing a game during his 17-year career. After retiring, he acted erratically according to his family, and lived in his truck. After he died of a heart attack at the age of fifty, his family donated his brain to be studied and  he was the first former NFL player to be diagnosed with CTE (Gordon, 2017). Kevin Turner was a fullback for the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks during the 1990s. He died in 2016 after battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s disease, which had been triggered by his CTE. When he died, it was discovered that he had the most advanced stage of CTE ever seen for a person his age (qtd. Kounang, 2018)

Because of all the things that CTE causes to happen to a person and the fact that the known cause for the development of CTE in football players is repetitive hits to head and the fact that hits to the head will always happen in football, means that this is a very dangerous sport just on the effects that it can have on a person’s head, not including all of the other injuries that a player could suffer that could leave a player with problems until his death. Lineman, with an offensive lineman in particular, have some of the shortest career lifespans and some of the worst after-effects of playing. They generally have knee issues, hand, wrist, and arm issues, and feet issues. Some players  have suffered career-ending injuries and in some cases are left partially paralyzed, fully paralyzed or must have limbs amputated. Because of all these things, participation rates in youth football have steadily gone down the last few years as parents don’t want to risk their children getting hurt (Westman, 2018).

What is the Most Dangerous Kind of Hit That a Football Player Can Receive?

There are many kinds of hits that a football player can receive while playing. He can get hit in the chest, arms, hips, legs, etc., but the worst and most dangerous hit a player can receive is one to the head or neck. While getting hit in one of the other areas could result in a serious injury, most times, a player will be able to rehab and come back from it. However, if a player gets hit in the head or neck, there are a lot of more serious things that can happen to a player. Then there are two different kinds of hits to the head and neck area that a player can receive and they are concussive and sub-concussive hits (Lawrence, 2018).

While there are many kinds of hits that a player can receive  throughout  the game, shots to the head or neck are the worst and most dangerous. They can cause the most pain right when it happens, and it can only get worse after. What makes them so dangerous is all the important things that are in this region of the body. You have the most important being the brain, but you also have the spine, the skull, the throat, etc. and these can all be seriously damaged or injured if a player takes even one wrong hit. The brain sits in the skull in a fluid-like substance called cerebrospinal fluid. This means that the brain kind of floats inside the brain and is only anchored by the brain stem, which connects to the spinal cord. So, when a player gets hit in the head or neck area, it causes the brain the move and shifts around in the cranium because it isn’t firmly anchored in place. When this happens, it bounces around the cranium, hitting the sides of it. This is what leads to concussions. When the brain hits a part of the cranium too hard, it gets bruised like any other part of the body and becomes sensitive to certain things, such as light or noise (Menon, 2015).

But a lot of people think that the most dangerous kind of hit to this area is concussive ones, which are ones that cause concussions, but research has led to the revelation that it is not concussive hots that are the most dangerous but that subconcussive hits, or hits that don’t give the symptoms of or cause a concussion, are the most dangerous hit a football player can receive. The reason behind this is that when a player receives a concussive hit, he is required to sit out until he has completely healed and shows no sign of a concussion and then he is slowly brought back into everyday practice, but subconcussive hits don’t give a player a concussion so they keep on playing and receiving these types of hits constantly is worse for a player as the brain is not given time to completely heal before it receives another type of hit. When the head is hit again and again, it doesn’t give the brain time to get rid of all the toxic proteins and chemicals. Because of this, it causes the tau proteins to begin to act abnormally and clump up. This causes the tau proteins to  choke and kill brain cells as it can’t be removed fast enough (Lawrence, 2018).

The difference between concussive and subconcussive hits is like driving over a pothole. If you hit a particularly bad one, then you could pop your tire. This is like a concussive hit because you can see the damage (flat tire for pothole and concussion for hit). Subconcussive hits, however, are like small potholes that you don’t notice. They don’t do any immediate damage but as you continue to drive over the same pothole every day, the damage begins to add up. This is like subconcussive hits as you don’t notice anything is wrong until weeks or even

years later. It is also like a pitcher’s elbow. As time goes on and that pitcher continues to pitch, it puts more and more strain on the ligaments and causes “micro-injuries” which can have nasty effects if the injuries aren’t given time to heal. (CLF Writers, 2018). As more and more information is released and the more that people learn about CTE, the more that the opinions on the safety of football will continue to decline as people continue to say that it is a barbaric sport that should be banned as it plays only to human’s most animalistic and basic natures.

How Can the Game of Football be Made Safer for the Future?

Even though there are so many kinds of injuries that a football player could suffer from, like ACL tears, broken bones, sprains, dislocations, etc., they continue to play. This is because there have been many changes in how fundamental things are taught and in what players wear for games and practices. There have multiple rule changes in the NFL in the last five to seven years to make it safer for players, with it happening even more at lower levels so that by the time a player makes it to the NFL, he would have been exposed to these new rules for eight-plus years. Then there is all the new equipment and technology that has been developed to help players rehab and heal faster and stay healthy.

When football first started, there wasn’t nearly as much strategy involved as there is in today’s game. Offenses tried to get the ball in the endzone by going right up the middle and defenses tried to stop the said ball carrier by any means necessary. That is completely different from today’s game where offenses run certain plays to set up other plays and the defense has a whole strategy developed on how to tackle certain players. The biggest impact has been in how defenses are taught to tackle. From the 1960s until the late 1990s and early 2000s, defenders took ball carriers down however they could. But then there started to be a rise in injuries so something had to change. Rule boards began passing new rules to try and deter players from doing things like grabbing and yanking on the back of a players collar (although grabbing and yanking the hair was still legal) to players leading with their heads on tackles and blocks and connecting with an opposing players head or neck. These were implemented in the hopes that it would deter players from committing these penalties and hurting their teams’ chances and success during a game. While it did limit the number of these kinds of hits that a player received, they were still happening, and something had to be done about it. So, coaches started looking at different ways to teach their players how to tackle so that the ball carrier would still be downed, but the defender would not receive a penalty. Then in the late 2000s and early 2010s, when the football concussion crisis was at its peak, Pete Carroll, the former University of Southern California football coach and current Seattle Seahawks coach, began teaching his players a new way to tackle that would keep their heads out of the way so there was less chance of them getting hurt. As the Seahawks defense started rising in fame, other coaches began looking at what the Seahawk defenders were doing differently and started implementing it into their  coaching methods. And then it started to trickle its way down into the college ranks and then high school and youth football. It was a new way to tackle that coaches were finding was giving them the safe if not better tackling success, while also resulting in less head and neck injuries for players.

Also, along with the way that teams were being taught to tackle safer, there was new equipment that was being released to try and help the number of concussive and subconcussive hits that a player receives, along with new shoes, and braces that offered more support for players. New companies like Vicis and Xenith are rising in popularity and quality as more and more players use their helmets and they receive more and more positive reviews. The Vicis Zero1 was tested last year, along with other helmets that are used by the NFL, and it scored higher than any of the other helmets tested. It is marketed as having a larger surface area with a flexible outer shell that gives during a collision. Also, the helmet’s interior is made up of a series of flexible ‘columns,’ which can twist and buckle to absorb rotational forces, instead of traditional padding normally used in helmets. Vicis CEO, Dave Marver told Live Science, “As long as there are impact forces resulting from collisions, risk of concussion remains.  Different people have different thresholds for concussion, and no helmet is foolproof enough to protect against all potential hits.” (Pappas, 2017) Another improvement in equipment has been in the shoes that players wear. In the 1970s, players wore the most basic cleats that they could find. There wasn’t a lot of thought that went into them other than that it would help them with traction on the grass. They didn’t think about ankle support or arch support. Now there is a lot more that goes into how a cleat is designed and made so that not only do the players still get the best out of their shoe so they can perform at peak performance, but that they also receive support for their ankle with all the stopping, turning and quick changes in direction that they do. This is especially true for linemen as one of their main weapons is their feet and ankles and they need to be able to trust a cleat to support their ankle and foot when blocking (Bellevue Podiatry, 2015).

Along with all the changes in how things are being taught, there have also been many changes in how players can rehab and keep themselves healthy. There are many ways that players can rehab after injuries and can prevent injuries. The biggest things have been in the way that players prepare for games and warm up. Players have always warmed up before games, but the level that players are making sure they are ready for games is way more intense than ever before. They get to the games earlier, they are out on the field doing light warm-up two hours before the game starts, and then having the training do a bunch of stuff in the locker room to get them ready to go back out for actual warmups. Then after the game and after practices, there are many ways that players can prehab to make sure that all their muscles, joints and tendons are rested for the next day and so they are not sore. Some of these inventions are cryotherapy chambers where players will step in and have the temperature inside lowered to well below zero temperatures. There are also electric muscle stimulators that stimulate the muscles by sending electric shocks through them, so they don’t cramp up after a workout. There are many other things that have all been invented to help players stay healthy and keep from getting injured, or at the very least if they do get injured, there are ways that can get them back from an injury way faster than twenty or thirty years ago.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a very serious disease with scary symptoms and effects that can be very difficult to diagnose. There are also many types of hits that a football player can take that are misunderstood in how serious they are because people only look at the immediate consequences. To counteract that are the many changes and improvements that have been made to fundamental teachings and the equipment that players use. There are many ways to make football -a very dangerous and violent sport in its basic nature- safer so that there are less critical injuries and long-term effects because of them. Even though this sport is a very dangerous sport, those that play it know it and accept it for what it is. And while some people will say it is because they are barbarians or Neanderthals, but the truth is that they do it because they love the game and trust in the things they are taught and the equipment they wear to keep them safe and lower the risk of injury every time the ball is snapped. Injuries will always be a part of the game, that is something that will never change, unless it is made into a non-contact sport, but the risk of acquiring a serious one can be lowered with the changes that have been made and the ones that could be made along with the technology and equipment that is available to for the players. Because of these things, the game of football will continue to made safer than the past season.

References

1. What is CTE? (2018, November 06). Retrieved January 21, 2019, from https://concussionfoundation.org/CTE-resources/what-is-CTE
2. Aaron Hernandez. (2018, January 24). Retrieved January 21, 2019, from https://www.biography.com/people/aaron-hernandez-21269741
3. Are NFL Injuries Linked To Footwear (2015). Retrieved January 22, 2019, from https://bellevuepodiatry.com/nfl-injuries-and-improper-footwear/
4. Subconcussive Impacts (2018, May 31).. Retrieved January 21, 2019, from https://concussionfoundation.org/CTE-resources/subconcussive-impacts
5. Kounang, N. (2018, March 01). Former NFLers call to end tackle football for kids. Retrieved January 21, 2019, from https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/18/health/nfl-no-tackle-football-kids/index.html
6. Gordon, M. (2017, June 07). Before ‘Concussion’: Mike Webster’s Shattered Life. Retrieved January 21, 2019, from https://www.rd.com/health/conditions/mike-webster-brain-injury/
7. Menon, D. (2015, June 11). What Happens in the Brian During and After a Concussion? Retrieved January 21, 2019 from https://www.brainfacts.org/Ask-an-Expert/What-happens-in-the-brain-during-and-after-a-concussion
8. Pappas, S. (2017, October 06). Can Football Ever Be Safe? Retrieved January 21, 2019, from https://www.livescience.com/60622-can-football-ever-be-safe.html
9. Stevens, A. P. (2016, August 19). Too many football hits can change the brain. Retrieved January 21, 2019, from https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/too-many-football-hits-can-change-brain
10. Sauser, B. (2012, October 22). Analyzing Hard Hits on the Football Field. Retrieved January 21, 2019, from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/421009/analyzing-hard-hits-on-the-football-field/