essay 4.1: Sports Related Concussions

Sports related concussions

            Sports related concussions are becoming very relevant in the athletic world. Every level of age groups you start to hear about the severity of concussions and what there effect is on the game. Sports related concussions are beginning to become a problem because after a certain amount of people are getting them the sport decides to change the sports rules or modify what it uses for equipment. In baseball they have changed the metal bat rule to a BBCOR (Batted Ball Coefficient of Restitution) instead of BESR (Ball Exit Speed Ratio) to slow down the velocity of the ball of the bat to make the game safer for the infielders. In football they have changed the helmets to make them absorb the impact better with more cushions in the helmet. In the United States there are over 300,000 concussions annually that are sports related (Sports Related Concussions. pgph. 1).  Many sports are taking drastic measures to make sure everyone in the sport is well protected.

            While playing sports I have had a couple of teammates have severe head trauma because of the fact they had a mild concussion and they kept playing. I used to play football in high school and I had two teammates that had concussions so bad that both of them were hospitalized. There are more then 62,000 concussions alone just for contact sports in high school (Sports Related Concussions, pgph 1).

            The first kid named Derek White used to free safety. Free safety is a defensive position that plays in the back field and tries not to let anyone get behind him because he is the safety man. When he would tackle people he would lead with his head and constantly hit people really hard but you would never see any signs of injury or concussion come out of him until one day late after practice. One day late after practice he texted his old girlfriend and asked her when they were going to see each other or when he was allowed to come watch a movie in her basement. In the meantime she had no idea what he was talking about because nobody knew that he was concussed so severely. So she just played it off cool and told him that he was not able to come over and to stop messing around with her. But then everything got worse. Derek had begun to show up at her doorstep in the pouring rain to ask if he was allowed in. The girl meanwhile had another boyfriend and has not been with Derek for over a year or two now because they just used to date in middle school. The girl got scared and ended up calling for her mom which ended up calling the parents of Derek. After Derek returned home he kept talking to his parents about Caitlyn and why she would not talk to him and that is when his parents began to realize that something was wrong. Derek also began to stop eating because he always felt nauseous due to his concussion and every time he ate it gave him the opportunity just to throw it right back up. The parents were forced to hospitalize him and make sure that everything was alright in his head and there was severe damage to his brain. The whole football team went out of there way to go see him and make sure he was alright, but he was never the same after that. Even today when you see him it is awkward because he remembers you but he does not remember much about you. It is a strong case of how severe a sport related concussion can be.

            The next individual I am going to talk about is Willy Enslow who was a nose guard. A nose guard is the player that lines up across from the center and hits the center who snaps the ball as hard as he can every play. Most of the contact from a center and nose guard is with there heads and it is very hard to prevent them from colliding with their heads just because of where they are positioned. So during one game after a play Willy had laid down on the field and was not really moving until the trainer came out to make sure everything was alright. He was showing a small amount of having a concussion so he was benched for the game and possibly the next game depending on doctor’s orders. But this is when it took a turn for the worst. When Willy got into the locker room after the game all he was doing was throwing up and then dry-heaving because he had nothing in his system from constantly puking. His parents brought him home in full uniform just because it was too hard for him to change while he was constantly puking. While he was at his house he would not stop dry-heaving and puking anything that they made him drink or eat. So then the parents decided that they were going to have to put him into the hospital to make sure that anything was not severely messed up. It ended up just being a severe concussion. The concussion had him out of school for the rest of the year with him having to have a tutor come to his home so that it was possible for him to graduate. He still graduated, but every time you see him it still looks like he is sick because of how pale he always is. Concussions are a severe problem.

            There are many signs and rules that could be changed in the football world to make the game a lot safer. When looking for a concussion you need to look for confusion, disorientation, dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting and extreme fatigue (Staten Island Advanced Sports Desk). All of which if you do not notice, the injury to the brain will only get worse. Some changes that could be likely are to completely take the head out of blocking and hitting in football (Staten Island Advanced Sports Desk) but that could be really difficult because of how hard everyone plays the game and at how fast of a pace the game is played. Concussions are going to happen no matter what, no matter what you decide to change on the player’s equipment.

            The number of individuals who have suffered from a concussion has doubled in just a decade (Salynn Boyles, pg. 1). It can also be severely worse for a young individual to attain a concussion then an adult because a younger individual is still having their brain form and with a concussion at a young age it could effect how the brain developments for the rest of their lives. Roughly half a million ER visits for concussions occurred among 8- to 19-year-olds between 2001 and 2005. About half were sports-related, and 40% of sports-related concussions involved children between the ages of 8 and 13 (Salynn Boyles, pg 5 & 6). That just goes to show that at such a young age contact needs to be limited because a concussion at such a young age like that could ruin there entire lives for being able to play a sport or just ruin how they function period. Concussions are an issue that needs to be taken very seriously.

Works Cited

Boyles, Salynn . "Sports Related concussions on the rise of kids." WebMD. WebMD health News, 30 Aug 2011. Web. 19 Apr 2011.

"Scary Statistics about Concussions." silive.com.

 03 Oct 2010. Web. 19 Apr 2011.

"Brain Trauma Research center (Sports Related Concussions)." Department of Neurological Surgery. University of Pitsburgh , Web. 19 Apr 2011.