“Where as baseball might be America’s pastime, football is actually America’s sport.”(Dahlberg, NFL Calls the Shots) The NFL has turned into a multi-billion dollar franchise that is known around the world, but a disturbing trend has developed. Over the past six years when the NFL started to keep track( King, the Film the NFL), the NFL’s reported number of concussions has been increasing each year. This alarming trend reached an all-time high of 281 cases in 2017; the highest ever reported(Huddleston, The Football Industrial)-. As a result of the increase in concussions, the NFL changed its concussion protocol in order to better catch concussions earlier. The NFL’s old and ineffective rules led to a severe increase in concussions, as a result
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The effects are usually temporary, but can include headaches and problems with concentration, memory, balance and coordination.’(Mayo Clinic Overview) There are two different types of concussions, symptomatic concussion and asymptomatic. A symptomatic concussion is a concussion where a player shows concussion like symptoms where an asymptomatic concussion shows no symptoms, but there is still an injury. There have been major driving forces behind these changes, after a study done by the University of Boston, after studying 110 brains of donated NFL players, the university found a direct correlation between years of playing football and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy more commonly known as CTE. CTE is a degenerative brain disease commonly found in athletes caused from symptomatic concussions, which means they show the symptoms as previously …show more content…
What there was, though, was punishment for players that could possibly induce concussions, instead of ways to help people that get hurt. After research and repeated injuries to players, the league finally added their first concussion protocol. The NFL concussion protocol, which was first implemented in 2009, when it was believed that a player could return to play as long as they stopped showing symptoms, almost like a fever, even if it was in the same game. After trial and error the protocol was adjusted in 2011 when a symptoms checklist was developed, including a minor neurological evaluation that tests balance, memory, and cognitive ability. The 2011 concussion protocol was a big step the league took to become a leader in concussion safety. The return to play actions and time it took to return to play was not as long as it is now, allowing players who’s symptoms disappear overtime while still having a concussion to reinjure themselves by returning to play earlier. Return to play guidelines are as followed: No constructive physical or cognitive activity, light aerobic exercise, Moderate aerobic physical activity and non‐contact training drills at half speed, non-contact training drills at full speed, full contact practice, return to play. This was in 2011 while this all seems like its a good system, a player could go through these phases in a matter of days to weeks, when on average a concussion heals in about a
The effects are usually temporary, but can include headaches and problems with concentration, memory, balance and coordination.’(Mayo Clinic Overview) There are two different types of concussions, symptomatic concussion and asymptomatic. A symptomatic concussion is a concussion where a player shows concussion like symptoms where an asymptomatic concussion shows no symptoms, but there is still an injury. There have been major driving forces behind these changes, after a study done by the University of Boston, after studying 110 brains of donated NFL players, the university found a direct correlation between years of playing football and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy more commonly known as CTE. CTE is a degenerative brain disease commonly found in athletes caused from symptomatic concussions, which means they show the symptoms as previously …show more content…
What there was, though, was punishment for players that could possibly induce concussions, instead of ways to help people that get hurt. After research and repeated injuries to players, the league finally added their first concussion protocol. The NFL concussion protocol, which was first implemented in 2009, when it was believed that a player could return to play as long as they stopped showing symptoms, almost like a fever, even if it was in the same game. After trial and error the protocol was adjusted in 2011 when a symptoms checklist was developed, including a minor neurological evaluation that tests balance, memory, and cognitive ability. The 2011 concussion protocol was a big step the league took to become a leader in concussion safety. The return to play actions and time it took to return to play was not as long as it is now, allowing players who’s symptoms disappear overtime while still having a concussion to reinjure themselves by returning to play earlier. Return to play guidelines are as followed: No constructive physical or cognitive activity, light aerobic exercise, Moderate aerobic physical activity and non‐contact training drills at half speed, non-contact training drills at full speed, full contact practice, return to play. This was in 2011 while this all seems like its a good system, a player could go through these phases in a matter of days to weeks, when on average a concussion heals in about a