A Concussion in Football Occurs When the Brain Takes on a Substantial Impact

Athletes have to break through many barriers in sports as professionals. Whether it is in soccer, football or basketball, they are all haunted by injuries. Due to the fear of a career-ending injury, the primary key for an athlete is protection. Protection on and off the field provides athletes with a chance at a longer time of playing the sports they love. Even though players learn safe ways of prevention, it is impossible to think about safety during every minute of a game. All it takes is one second for something to go wrong. In football that one second could cause a lifelong injury with devastating psychological or physical effects that have no guaranteed treatment. With advanced technological tools and knowledgeable medical staff all around the world, a big issue with football that has and continues to be studied would be concussions. A concussion occurs when the brain takes on a substantial impact, which in this case is caused by improper tackles or in unfortunate scenarios such as the head hitting the ground. With the continuous search of finding different methods of prevention, different types of treatment and the long-lasting psychological effects, a practical solution is yet to be established.

Football has many exhilarating aspects, but there are consequences with every bone-crunching hit or ground-pounding reception. Different muscle damage or head trauma can lead to a game, season or career-ending injury. Having a player on the team who is injury prone or has a record of a particular weak spot is no use to a professional team who needs money to continue winning. Because these different types of injuries will not heal if not taken care of properly, players who do not responsibly continue healing treatments will have to take long periods of rest. With the main problem in football being a concussion, the period of rest could last months, potentially even a whole year. Even with care, an investigation was done at Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Michigan, USA on National Football League players shows that 'concussed players played in significantly fewer games within the index year.' Due to the player's liability and unavailable playing status, management can release them from the team. Consequently, a heavily covered subject is protection at the learning stage of athletes, which is at the start of their careers as kids. Coaches implement different safe tackling drills and ways to protect from a tackle. While this is a fundamental role in learning how to play football, some players practice safety drills more than others; ultimately leading to athletes who are not as knowledgeable, delivering unsafe tackles causing an injury to the other player, themselves or at times both of the individuals. A study done at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA, talks about if different types of football helmets can prevent concussions when receiving or delivering a hit. The article presents studies done on the prevention of concussions through different types of helmets varies.

Some say different helmets do not have any special protection in comparison to others, but one investigation states otherwise. This study reports that the '... [utilization] [of] data from Helmet Impact Telemetry System, which uses helmet-mounted accelerometers to collect head impact data and assess the frequency and severity of those impacts, among collegiate football athletes, there was a significant difference in the rate of concussions among players wearing a Riddell VSR4 helmet compared with a Riddell Revolution helmet'. Because of changing technological equipment, new and more advanced helmets tend to cost much more than older ones. With some schools having lower funding than others, it makes equipping players with new helmets very expensive. Due to the cost of providing every player on a team with a new football helmet going into tens of thousands of dollars, programs have no other choice but to supply older models to their athletes. Some participants take this problem in their own hands and spend an extensive amount of money on a new helmet. However, with some players not being able to afford these new and advanced helmets, they are left no choice other than using an older helmet model, potentially leaving them at a higher risk of suffering concussions.