Research from Boston University and the University of North Carolina is shedding new light on the dangers of concussions and subconcussive trauma and their long-term health effects.
A concussion is a lapse in normal brain function caused by a sudden change in the acceleration of the brain, usually caused by a sudden blow to the head or other trauma. Basically, the rapid shift in acceleration shakes the brain cells and causes them to release more chemicals, or neurotransmitters, all at once.
This unorganized flood of neurotransmitters causes the characteristic symptoms of a concussion, such as short-term amnesia, fainting and even personality changes.
For years the NFL has disputed the findings of independent researchers, which showed concussions, especially multiple concussions, were far more dangerous to players than originally thought.
A study by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research found that dementia occurred 19 times more frequently in retired NFL players (on average, 60 percent suffer at least one concussion) than in the general population. These men are only in their 30s and 40s; developing dementia so early is almost unheard of.
Thankfully, the NFL has finally begun taking some responsibility for protecting its players from the dangers of concussions. As of December 2009, if a player suffers a concussion he is barred from re-entering practice or play for the rest of the day. This is an obvious improvement over the previous rule, which only barred a player until their symptoms subsided.
In 2009 the NFL created a poster to be hung in locker rooms warning of the dangers of concussions. However, the wording left something to be desired: “Repetitive brain injury, when not managed promptly and properly, may cause permanent damage to your brain.”
The NFL recently capitulated to its detractors and increased the harshness of its wording for the 2010 season. The new poster reads “[traumatic brain injury] may lead to problems with memory and communication, personality changes, as well as depression and the early onset of dementia.” The new poster is definitely a step in the right direction, but it does not go far enough.
Why not tell the players about how of the six deceased NFL players, ages 25-50, who have been autopsied, the brains of all six looked like those of 80-year-old Alzheimer’s patients?
Why not tell them about how an 18-year-old football player, who sustained multiple concussions, died and had similar brain damage to an Alzheimer’s patient four times his age?
If playing football is so dangerous, why don’t the players just stop?
Well for one, the bare minimum any NFL player can make, even if he only plays three games in the season, is $295,000, and according to the NFL Players Association the average salary in the NFL is $1.1 million annually.
Even though the figure can be misleading because of elite players’ salaries like Peyton Manning ($14 million) and Julius Peppers ($16.7 million), the worst paid players in the NFL are still in the top 1 percent of incomes in the U.S. at around $300,000 a year.
So who is to blame for this predicament?
We are.
Players only rake in these salaries because we watch them play. Just from an economics point of view, these are men who, for the most part, have been raised since the time they were in grade school to play football. It would be irrational for them to turn down these huge salaries and go work at McDonald’s.
Their education has always been given a backseat by their fans and by the people they are supposed to be able to trust — their families and coaches. What marketable skills do NFL players possess other than the game they’ve been trained to play and love since childhood?
I love watching football. I’ve been raised on LSU football my entire life, and I don’t plan on disavowing them now, but we need to be aware of the dangers these players face and our responsibility to them.
I know we’ll all cheer when Brett Favre gets the stuffing knocked out of him tomorrow night, but maybe we shouldn’t be quite so eager now that we know the consequences.
Andrew Shockey is a 19-year-old biological engineering sophomore from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_Ashockey.
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Contact Andrew Shockey at [email protected]