What is so Dangerous about Football
By : Maddie Malkiewicz
Over the past two decades it has become clear that repeated blows to the head can lead to permanent brain damage in multiple sports such as football and hockey. When you take a hard beating to your head your brain hits your skull causing your brain to lose neurons. Humans only have so many neurons if we loose them we can't create new ones. Neurons are specialized cells transmitting nerve impulses information to your nerve cells, muscles and gland cells. Without neurons you would not be able to do anything with out some sort of help, neurons are part of the nervous system. If a players brain has not fully recovered then even the smallest jolt of energy such as a short stop in a car can cause permanent brain damage or possibly death. Brain damage is a serious thing, if you have brain damage it could be very hard to do normal everyday things. If this was something rare in football we would not hear about all the deaths of young former football players most likely caused by brain damage.
Over the past two decades it has become clear that repeated blows to the head can lead to permanent brain damage in multiple sports such as football and hockey. When you take a hard beating to your head your brain hits your skull causing your brain to lose neurons. Humans only have so many neurons if we loose them we can't create new ones. Neurons are specialized cells transmitting nerve impulses information to your nerve cells, muscles and gland cells. Without neurons you would not be able to do anything with out some sort of help, neurons are part of the nervous system. If a players brain has not fully recovered then even the smallest jolt of energy such as a short stop in a car can cause permanent brain damage or possibly death. Brain damage is a serious thing, if you have brain damage it could be very hard to do normal everyday things. If this was something rare in football we would not hear about all the deaths of young former football players most likely caused by brain damage.
"While all sports incur risk, the risk in football is like the risk of smoking" ( Why I Don't Want My Son To Play Football. ) While smoking, your lungs most likely take the beating. A thin crust of chemicals form around your lungs causing cancer. Cancer is one of the most deadly things on this planet, so is football. One major head bump can change your course of life. In the movie "Concussion" Dr. Bennet Omalu studied the brain of Mike Webster a professional football player who died at around 50 years old. Dr. Bennet Omalu found a lot of damage to his brain which led him to think that football was the reason he died. After studying other young deaths of past football players he was able to figure out that brain trauma is most likely what is killing young retired football players. " In milder cases, athletes can be left with lifelong pain, memory lapses, aggression, depression, personality changes, and many other issues." ( Shotz ) This is all a result of head trauma / concussions. Let's say you were out playing football and you got a head injury, you would need at least two to three weeks for your brain to fully heal. Most professional teams will put you back in the game after a month. God forbid you get another head injury you have a chance of dying much earlier then you would of. Smoking kills people but football kills people faster.
Granted some might believe the benefits of football do outweigh the consequences. If you start playing football at a young age and you are good at it great keep playing you might have a chance at playing football when you grow up. Next, you make it into a football collage and from there you can go into a professional league. If you get into the professional league you have a chance at being famous and getting a lot of money just by playing something you love, it's like the best job ever if you like football. But on the other hand is fame and fortune worth risking your life? That is the question you have to ask.
Football is way to dangerous for youth and professional players due to a chance of death or serious injuries. America has used football as a form of entertainment but I just see it as a way of hurting people. If we don't do something about it how is it going to get better. Brain damage is a serious thing that is killing many retired football players, and the longer we let this happen the worse it is going to get.