Is Football Worth The Injuries?
The Answer Is No!
By Leona Satler
Football players beware! There's a horrific chance of a brain injury occurring right now and it's running straight towards you at a high speed! Stop playing football to reassure your safety and other people's safety now while you still have a chance. The risks associated with football like brain damage, should deter adolescents from playing the game.
It's no secret that football is a very dangerous sport with risks of permanent brain damage and self harming injuries. But many still continue to play football over the course of various seasons and have sustained injuries that can accumulate to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or C.T.E. This disease has been diagnosed by Omalu, he first diagnosed it for a child in 2002 (Omalu). These risks associated with football seem very drastic and unnecessary. Why? Well, according to Omalu "The play of amateur or professional high-impact contact sports is the greatest risk factor for the development for C.T.E." Unfortunately, these diagnoses are very common in high-impact sports like football. But, why is it so common? Especially in football, obtaining a brain injury is very common because any football player, young or old, may obtain concussions or other injuries when playing football, even if there were no documented concussions or reported symptoms. The risk of manifesting symptoms of C.T.E. such as major depression, suicidal thoughts and actions, and loss of intelligence as well as Demetria later in life has also been associated to drugs and alcohol as a child enters his late 30's, and 40's (Omalu).
Did you know that "76 of 79 deceased NFL players studied by the Department of Veterans Affairs'... suffered from the degenerative brain disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (Kaufman)."? Playing football is very precarious as shown by this dreadful statistic. Personally, sustaining a permanent brain injury isn't worth the risk. If football is still making you think that the benefits outweigh the risks, then you should read this upcoming fact so it might change your mind. According to Omalu, repetitive blows to the head in football and other high-impact contact sports place athletes at a risk of permanent brain damage which has been clear for over the past two decades. Still don't seem worried about the risks about football? Maybe this will. Concussions have left football players of all levels with long lasting symptoms including memory loss, depression, confusion, impaired judgment, or dementia (Kaufman). I don't understand why anyone would knowingly risk a permanent brain injury for the rest of their life just to play football. So, as you can tell, playing football is extremely drastic and hazardous.
No sport let's young people play to intentionally harm one another. According to Marcus, he received more nicks, cuts, bruises and sprains in a year of football than a decade of baseball and basketball. A part of football requires you to frequently get hurt, or worse. Is that a chance you are willing to take for the sake of playing football? Not to me! Many other people would agree with me as well. For instance, Marcus says "if those minor injuries, or even the threat of a traumatic injury were the greatest danger in football, I wouldn't think twice before letting my son play. But they aren't." So, clearly I'm not the only one that's against playing football and letting other children play. Even Tom Brady's father; Tom Sr., told Yahoo! sports he would be "very hesitant" to let his hall of fame-bound son play football today (Kaufman).
Some people think that playing football should be encouraged regarding the risks when playing the game. However, there are several reasons to oppose this point of view. In fact, football is the source of many brain injuries and various other disabilities, such as, concussions, loss of intelligence, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, and so much more.
The threat linked with football should be unfavored by adults and children when playing the game. Many adolescents playing football will become brutally injured by high-impacts involving other players and repetitive blows to the head. We all need to stop this unnecessary nonsense now before the diseases and disabilities get out of hand. If this sport continues to be played, our future families and friends playing football, would be cursed with these permanent injuries and disease forever.