Griffis 1

Benjamin Griffis

ENG. 1101

Prof. Calhoun

29 March 2020

Concussions in Sports

Growing up playing soccer, I’ve been put in many situations where I’ve witnessed

a concussion occur right in front of my eyes. Although I have not personally obtained a

concussion, I recall one instance that has stuck with me for a couple of years. When

playing the sport of soccer it is well known that there is a high risk of obtaining a

concussion. Besides football, it is probably the second most common sport to obtain a

concussion in, during a game of mine a teammate of mine jumped up for the ball and

directly collided heads with another player. Almost instantly he dropped to the floor, and

it was obvious that he had lost consciousness. Luckily enough for the other player, he

walked away completely fine. This was a very scary moment for me witnessing my

friend drop out of mid-air and suddenly become frozen to the ground not moving a hair.

While waiting for what seemed forever an ambulance finally arrived, and at that moment

I realized how dangerous the sport could be and how serious a blow to the head could

be. That moment will stick with me forever and is what is the main reason why I am

doing research on this topic today. Because of this, I believe that Rules and technology

should be created or put in place in order to reduce the number of concussions that

occur and to protect the health of all athletes.

Concussions can happen in almost any sport as well as at any time. A

concussion occurs when a force causes the brain to rapidly shake back and forth. A
 Griffis 2

common misconception when it comes to concussions is that they originate from a

direct strike to the skull, but that simply is not the case. When playing sports athletes

are at constant risk of obtaining injuries and according to multiple sources including

unitypoint.org, a concussion is one of the most common injuries among all athletics.

With concussions already being a really common injury, it’s reported in an article by

upmc.com that only 5 out of 10 concussions actually even get reported meaning it's

even more common! Concussions can surprisingly also be deadly and according to

protectthebrain.org, brain injuries are the leading injury in all sports when it comes to

deaths. A concussion could not only cause you to have short term effects such as

headaches, nausea, blurry vision, and ringing in ears, but you could also experience

long effects like memory problems, depression, sleep disturbances, and more.

This paper is organized in a manner to discuss the information found through

research of multiple sources. The body paragraphs are constructed to support the

thesis statement to make the argument stronger. After stating the research that was

personally found, a counterclaim is made to evaluate the possible outlook on the

opposite side of the research. This paper discusses different ideas on how we could

prevent concussions as soon as tomorrow. The first idea discussed is how frequent

screening and testing will help prevent athletes from playing or practicing with a

concussion without knowing, resulting in more damage being done to themselves. The

paragraph following will talk about how technology created should be mandatory in

order to reduce the number of cases. Next, the idea of rules being changed in order to

prevent as much head contact as possible is talked about all in the relevance of trying to

keep athletes protected while playing the sport they desire. After a counterclaim is
 Griffis 3

addressed challenging the ideas and followed up by a conclusion that wraps up all the

ideas and leaves the reader informed.

The NCAA or National Collegiate Athletic Association is the highest level of

intercollegiate athletics in the United States, this is where we see the elite, the best of

the best participate in their specific sport. Many of these student-athletes that we see

playing at this level are trying to extend their career even further and try to pursue a

professional career. This information is all necessary and relevant to the topic of

concussions because it demonstrates that these athletes are not there to play around,

they are giving it their 100 percent effort every game, practice, scrimmage, and so on.

When playing a sport you are always susceptible to injury, and at the highest levels with

the best athletes playing their hardest, the risk only becomes greater. According to the

CDC, 10% of all athletes in a contact sport will obtain a concussion yearly and many of

those athletes won’t report or seek help putting the athlete at great risk. For this reason,
 Griffis 4

the NCAA should impose stricter rules, such as weekly screenings or tests to safeguard

these athletes from the feasible effects.

With many of these concussions going unreported like stated before, these

screenings need to be conducted so no one is put in even more danger. For the health

and protection of all athletes, these are very capable by universities to do and

completely necessary. It’s not even just universities and the NCAA that need to test

athletes to make sure they are healthy, it’s high schools as well. Though schools may

not have the budget or a large amount of money that colleges have, if you were to

analyze and watch the athletes closely you would be able to notice differences in their

activity to see if something may have happened. Using strategies like this could possibly

reduce the number of unreported concussions and keep athletes safe.

Technology in sports equipment needs improvement in order for us to see a

drastic change in the total count of head injuries we see each year. There has been

athletic equipment made to test to see if someone has a concussion, but nothing has

truly been made to prevent concussions. One thing that has been created to prevent

them is a protective headband in soccer. In an article by vtnews.vt.edu, Virginia Tech

students put multiple headbands to test the effectiveness each one had on reducing the

amount of impact a ball had to the head. Three of these headbands received high

praise by the students and were recommended to be worn by every player around the

world. The only problem is not many players wear them. Why people don’t wear them is

another question in itself, but they should be required and regulation should be created

because it is proved that they help. Every sport should have some equipment and if it’s
 Griffis 5

known to actually help it should be required. More money and research is needed to be

conducted to protect these players.

A source by osrpt.com states four possible mechanics that would assist in the

prevention of TBI’s and they are, developed cushioning, second skull, biomechanics,

along with better mouth guards. Though that is a large range from a rubber piece in the

mouth, to the way us humans move our bodies, they are all technologies that would

improve our safety. Advanced padding in football helmets similar to car seats is

currently being tested and developed by Shawn Springs and will make great

improvements to the physical condition of football players. Second skull, a fabric

created to be worn underneath a biker helmet is a very simple design, but helps impact

protection and is making strides to stop concussions. Biomechanics, the way we move

our body is being looked at very closely. Seeing how the strength of our neck and other

areas surrounding our heads are becoming more focused on. Lastly, another

technology being put to work is mouth guards. Although they may seem like they don’t

protect your head, they do and more study and research are being looked into them to

see how they can be used more effectively. All of these technologies are being created

and tested further in order to improve athletes' health.

Sports such as football, hockey, rugby, soccer, and basketball lead the way in

the risk of acquiring concussions and specific rules should be created to lower this risk.

In soccer, it is known that until the age of 10 you are not allowed to head the ball, it is

defined in the rules and strictly enforced. Other sports should take this example and

create rules to help prevent these injuries from happening not only with the younger

athletes like soccer but all ages. For some sports, you can’t avoid all head contact,
 Griffis 6

football and rugby are the main examples of this. In those two sports head contact is

bound to happen, so to help avert this from happening even stricter rules should be

created to punish players for using their head or hitting an opponent’s skull. In football,

traumatic brain injuries account for a large percentage of all fatalities, if rules are strictly

enforced and punishments are great enough players will avoid all head contact and this

percentage will drop severely. At this moment there are a few rules in football such as

the targeting rule and helmet rule, although the NFL and NCAA have applied these

rules to the game the punishment of these acts only results in the ejection of one game.

Players should be penalized more than a single game for putting a player’s life in

danger because of their own personal actions.

We are seeing the NFL get more attention recently relating to concussions in

regards to more people questioning targeting calls. With this new rule, concussions

have dropped 30% according to france24.com. With not only a couple of new rules in

place and medical officials screening every player that may even look like they got hit in

the head, this drop in concussions also became possible. Other larger sports

corporations can take an example and modify rules such as heading in soccer or hitting

in hockey and also see a decline in TBI. For the protection and safety of the players,

these rules changes need to be considered and possibly added.

There may be some misconceptions about the previous paragraphs and some

may argue that making athletes wear and buy certain equipment to help protect them

from these injuries is wrong, but it’s completely necessary. Just like cleats or a helmet,

it’s essential for the game. Few will argue that it’s themselves they are putting at risk for

not owning or wearing the specialized paraphernalia and that’s true, however, at the
 Griffis 7

end of the day, it’s all about safety and protecting yourself. In response why would you

not want to reduce the attainable effects of memory loss or depression from this type of

injury? Another argument that could be made following the research above is, the rules

that would be created to help stop concussions would change the originality of the

game. Sure, the game might not be the same as it was 10 years ago, but with our

technology and research each sport is evolving and that can call for some change.

In conclusion, these rules and regulations are necessary in order to help lower

the large number of concussions we see each year. New mandatory rules should be

created, the most up to date and safest technology should be used, and frequent tests

should be conducted. If all of these are done then we could see a drastic change. Some

may say doing these things will change the originality of the game, or you can’t force

people to wear certain things, but if we truly all want to stop these injuries from

happening these ideas are necessary. Lives are taken by this serious injury and we

have the ability to limit it.

Works Cited

Brain Injury Research Institute. “What Is a Concussion?” What Is a Concussion?

| Brain Injury Research Institute, 2020, www.protectthebrain.org/Brain-Injury-

Research/What-is-a-Concussion-.aspx.
 Griffis 8

“Concussion.” Working across Disciplines, Stanford Researchers Explore Causes and

Treatments for Concussions and How to Prevent Them, 19 Oct. 2018,

news.stanford.edu/2018/10/19/concussion-hometop-hed-tk/.

France 24. “NFL Concussions Show Sharp Drop after Rule Changes.” France 24,

France 24, 24 Jan. 2019, www.france24.com/en/20190124-nfl-concussions-

show-sharp-drop-after-rule-changes.

Nelsen, Eleanor. “Could Soccer Headgear Reduce Concussion Risk? First-Ever

Ratings Say Yes.” Virginia Tech Daily | Virginia Tech, 30 Apr. 2018,

vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2018/05/ictas-soccerratings.html.

"New Findings Reported from University of Glasgow Describe Advances in Brain

Injuries (Long-term health outcomes after exposure to repeated concussion in

elite level: rugby union players)." Mental Health Weekly Digest, 16 Jan. 2017, p.

167. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link-gale-

com.sinclair.ohionet.org/apps/doc/A477576748/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=a62248e6. Accessed 1 Mar. 2020.

Press, Associated. “Panel Recommends Stricter Rules.” ESPN, ESPN Internet

Ventures, 16 Dec. 2009, www.espn.com/college-sports/news/story?id=4746679.

 Griffis 9

Sports Medicine, UMPC. “Concussion Statistics and Facts: UPMC: Pittsburgh.” UPMC

Sports Medicine, 2018, www.upmc.com/services/sports-

medicine/services/concussion/facts-statistics.

“Top 10 Most Common Sports Injuries.” UnityPoint Health,

www.unitypoint.org/livewell/article.aspx?id=591d8cf1-1ee5-4cb3-b662-

a5f21f6f13bc.

“4 Technologies That Will Help Prevent Concussions.” OSR Physical Therapy, 17 Apr.

2017, www.osrpt.com/2017/04/concussion-prevention-technology/.