Book Blog #2

Concussions are not going to stop, but there are many ways to prevent them. In the book The Concussion Crisis Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic they teach you ways how to prevent it. In the last chapters we get introduced to a High School football player from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On a Friday night game under the lights, Mark Lenkiewics was playing football and the score of the game was 14-14 in the third quarter. The next thing he knew he was getting carted of the field by trainers.  Lenkiewic received a concussion while running the ball with 2:03 left in the third quarter when he was in the open field a defender came in to hit him, Lenkiewic put his head down to protect himself. The Defender for the other team was not trying to make contact with Lenkiewics head rather he was trying to hit his mid-section. By putting his head down Lenkiewich exposed himself to the chance of getting a concussion. The main point that the authors were trying to get across in the last few chapters was that concussions can easily be avoided. If athletes would use the proper technique of hitting and receiving a hit.   Lowering your head puts you at more risk of getting a concussion, and if you don’t get a concussion you are also at risk of injuring your neck. The author went on to say, “One of the biggest pushes with concussions is to educate people and athletes about the symptoms and warning signs.” By spreading the word and educating the severity of concussions, the injuries will be cut down.  

Size and Speed of Athletes

Detroit Lions linebacker Nadamukong Suh took part in a study by ESPN’s sports science lab. They discovered that within ten yards Suh could generate 3200 lbs. of force on a tackle. That much pressure directed towards an opponent’s head will more than likely end with a concussion.  We need to teach these athletes at a young age the proper way to tackle and to absorbed hits. When hitting you lead with your shoulder not your head and the point of contact needs to be at the midsection not the head. When receiving a hit you need to keep your head up and lean into the opponents with your shoulder not your head. These technics will not stop all the concussions in sports, but a significant amount of them

Playing With a Concussion

Colt McCoy was the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns and when facing the Pittsburgh Steelers he was determined to win. In the fourth quarter linebacker James Harrison slammed into to McCoy where the main point of contact was his head. After being walked off the field by the medical staff McCoy returned to the game only saying, “I’m ready to go”.  Going back out there McCoy threw an interception in the fourth and scored no points. The next morning when talking to his dad McCoy said, “Dad. I don’t know what happened”. McCoy had such a serious concussion that the next morning his memory was gone about the game.  The problem at hand is that athletes today are becoming so big and fast that the impact generated on their hits is enormous. . In an article by IllinoisState.edu the author says, “One of the biggest pushes with  concussions is to educate people, athletes have to be aware of the symptoms, they have to be aware of consequences or else, they can hide things or not even know they’ve suffered an injury.”

Jim McMahon

Jim McMahon was known as the rock star mentality and quarterback of the Chicago Bears, now he is just a retired football player with dementia. After suffering many concussions and continuing to play McMahons short term memory is gone. Within 10 minutes he forgets what he was doing. According to a documentary by ESPN McMahon will walk into a kitchen for a drink and forget what he was doing, all of this just for a game. Concussions had a huge impact on his career, but he continued to play through it, because that was what he thought was normal. After receiving a huge blow to the head against the Detroit Lions McMahon was walked off the field by trainers, at halftime he was assessed by the team doctor. When the 3rd quarter came around McMahon was back out there playing with a concussion. Not realizing the risk of what could happen McMahon took several more blows to the head. The Trainer when asked about his injury said, "He had a concussion, but it cleared by halftime" Chicago Tribune October 12, 1988. It is impossible for a concussion to clear up in less than an hour. The awareness of concussions has improved, and there are many more methods of preventing a player from continuing with a concussion, but there is a lot of room for improvement. Many people are very cautious about playing with concussions, but many kids and athletes don’t know the risk of playing with a concussion and we need to share it.  

Riddell Helmets Dont Prevent Concussions

Protection of athletes should and are the main focus of companies that manufacture equipment. Riddell a football company spent several years developing a helmet that “protects against concussions”. They said that the helmet was 31 percent more likely to prevent a concussion from happening. But the honest truth was that no matter what football helmet you had a player was 95 percent likely to get a concussion from a strong enough blow to the head. After hearing this study thousands of former NFL players sued the NFL and Riddell for marketing a product that did not prevent concussions. The jury ruled Riddell guilty and made them liable for 3.1 million dollars out of a total 11.5 million dollars that was awarded to the family of a young man who was seriously injured after a concussion in a high school football practice. Frank Azar a lawyer for the plaintiffs said, “What it proves is that Riddell knew for sure in November of 2000 that they had a problem with their resting of these helmets and they didn’t disclose it to anybody.” The real issue is that after developing the helmet and determining the problem they continued to market these helmets falsely. Chris Withnall who was the senior engineer at the Ottawa base biomechanical firm Biokinets said, “No helmet can prevent a concussion. Full stop.” Now that Riddell has been sued and convicted guilty maybe they can help design a helmet that prevents a concussion. On top of the companies not doing what they need to, I believe that especially in a sport like football we need to stop young athletes from leading with their head when tackling. We need to teach the proper technic of absorbing a hit and giving a hit. Leading with your head will only cause more brain and neck injuries.

Book Post #1

The book I have chosen for my second semester reading has to do with a topic I am very interested in. The book talks about the importance of treating concussions. It is called The Concussion Crisis Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic. The first chapter of the book talked about how often concussions go un diagnosed. If an athlete takes a blow to the head many people look at it as just a bump on the head. The athlete might not show any signs of being concussed and might feel fine only 10minutes after the blow, but they have a very slight form of a concussion. Most athletes including myself compete as soon as they feel “normal”, but what most athletes don’t realize is the danger they are putting themselves through. The book referenced a story of a college football player in the second chapter. Dave Showalter experienced only one diagnosed concussion before playing in college. Once in college Showalter never got diagnosed with a concussion but he does recall getting “bumped around a little bit”. Now as a graduated student he is suffering from dementia. The doctors accredit it to playing football. Although only being diagnosed with one prior concussion Showalter experienced so many “silent concussions” that his brain was affected. Showalter said, “I never got the feeling in college that I needed to see a trainer, because it only felt like a headache” (9. Carroll). The first few chapters of my book have taught me that we need to eliminate blows to the helmet as much as we can in sports, and that athletes need to be more concussions about what they are putting their heads through.

Senior Year

I was reminded today that we only have 16 days left of school as seniors. I can honestly say I have enjoyed my four years at Deerfield High. Having the privilege of going to a great high school with great teachers made me really appreciate our community. It made me think about "no child left behind" which I believe is very false. There are many kids that don’t have the privilege that we at Deerfield High school have. They don’t have the resources or the caliber of teachers that we do. I hope that most kids take advantage of the privileges given to them. There is a big problem in schools today, because not all kids are given the same opportunity as they should be. My aunt teaches at an under privilege school in Michigan and she told me that the kids come to school with no food and not enough money to get a lunch. People need to be reminded that what is given to them are special, and the kids at Deerfield High School need to take advantage of a great situation.