Injuries.


The bane of all professional and recreational athlete. Whether it be a twisted ankle, a torn ACL, or a shattered bone, they can be devastating. But in my view, there is one to rule them all. One that can put you out of the sport for a couple of weeks, but end your life a decade or two faster. One that affects the most important part of you. One that we know scarly little about. If you haven’t guessed, this terrible injury is a concussion. But, even with these horrific things that it does to you, pro athletes aren’t as wary as they should be. You hear stories like that of the New England Revolution’s Taylor Twellman, a Soccer player plagued with concussions, and wonder how players can get back on the field so quickly. I think that the pros should be safer, and the leagues that they play for should help them a more, both during and after their career.


Some people might be wondering, what exactly is a concussion? A concussion is known to be a head injury, (which it is) but you don’t need to be hit in the head to get one. If you are going up to get a header in Soccer, and you hit bodies with someone else hard enough, you can get a concussion. Dr. Gerard Gioia, concussion expert at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington D.C., describes a concussion as being like mayonnaise in a balloon. When you get hit in the head, your brain sloshes around. When this happens, there can be little tears in the brain tissue, or some “brain juices” can squirt out. Experts still don’t know exactly what a concussion is because there is no scanning device that we have that can see what concussions really are. The symptoms of a concussion are that you are dazed, confused, dizzy, and don’t remember what happened when you got hit, or what happened that whole day. It is also known that people with concussions sleep walk a lot more. Doctors think that kids are a little more vulnerable, and girls are even more susceptible than boys. Doctors think that both of these differences come from neck muscles. Adults are more developed, and boys just have more neck muscles than girls. Usually, the symptoms of a concussion like dizziness and headaches go away after about a day or two, but about 20% of concussions last longer. It is recommended that people that have a concussion should do nothing but rest. No videos. No books. No nothing. That’s because 20% of energy goes toward healing your brain, and doctors don’t want you siphon your energy away. Recovery time doesn’t just rely on severity. Other things like ADHD, anxiety disorders, or depression can extend the recovery time.

If you have repeated concussions, they can cause the symptoms to last longer as well, and it can even cause Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), Alzheimers or death. There is no way to get rid of CTE, people can’t see it until you're dead, and it is known to cause suicide. There have been cross-sections taken of two brains, one with CTE, and the other without. The diseased brain had shrunken to about half the size of the healthy brain, and it was covered in dark splotches, compared to the pale white of a healthy brain. Despite the terrible things that players can do to themselves if they continue to play, they jump up, and get on for the next play. Just this season, New England Patriots Wide Receiver Danny Amendola got a concussion. You would expect him to be held off the field, just to be sure that he didn’t get permanently injured. But, like usual, the team doctors were pressured by everyone to clear him for play. Without fail, he returned the next week for the game. He was lucky, and didn’t get hurt, but if he was he could have been out for a lot longer than one week.

I have three brothers, and of them, two have gotten concussions while playing sports. My oldest brother, Ian, got kicked in the head in Soccer practice when he fell down right next to the ball. My second oldest brother, Jamie got his when he was wrestling for the school team. He was lifted up, dropped on the pad, and lost all of his energy. Form those stories, you would probably think that Ian’s was the worse one because Jamie just hit his head on a pad. But Jamie’s appeared to be worse. That is where concussions can be so dangerous. You could either think that it wasn’t so bad, or think that you don’t have one.


Both of by brothers were hurt in the same way, socially and academically. They couldn’t go to school because it is recommended that they don’t think that much so their brain can heal. They were cooped up in the house for a long couple of weeks. They couldn’t do anything. They couldn’t look at screens because it hurt too much and it was bad for them. They couldn’t read because that hurt and the doctor said no reading. They could just sit around for weeks, and that was all that they were supposed to do.


Because they couldn’t do anything for schools, their grades suffered, and they had to make up a lot of work. Because of this they couldn’t go out with their friends, (or the shouldn’t have had) and because they hadn’t really seen their friends for weeks, they lost touch with them. Even though his concussion passed, my brother Ian still had a hard time remembering his French notes when he went back to school. (Jamie wasn’t very good at it to begin with) He had to work even harder than usual to make up for his lost time. Luckily for them, they healed well, and they didn’t get anymore concussions, which is good for them because otherwise they could have been seriously hurt for their entire life.

One group of sports players has been riddled with concussions. They are the football players from times when a hit to the head was a hit to the head. Because of the publicity these players have gotten, the NFL has given them compensation, and they have added rules to try and cut down on head injuries. Things like adding and refining helmets, penalising and fining hits to the head, and concussion therapy. Even so, there isn’t really anything that the league does once they retire. With a $765,000,000 settlement for more than 4500 players, it is about $170,000 for each player. That sounds like a lot, but it is only a couple of years of a comfortable, middle-class salary. They are also just coming out of a type of life where it is the norm to spend a lot of money. They might not realise that they are going to have to save their money until it is too late. That money is going to run out fast, and the NFL doesn’t have to do anything else to help them, because they already spend $765,000,000 on compensation.

Also, when the athletes are still in the league, they are not protected enough. Just this season, New England Patriots Wide Receiver Danny Amendola got a concussion. You would expect him to be held off the field for a week or two, just to be sure that he didn’t get permanently injured. But, like usual, the team doctors were pressured by everyone to clear him for play. The fans wanted to see him, and the doctors were told by the staff that the team need him. Without fail, he returned the next week for the game. He was lucky, and didn’t get hurt, but if he was he could have been out for a lot longer than one week.

Chris Nowinski.

He was a wrestler at Harvard, and was clearly quite a good one, because when he graduated, he went on to become a pro. Then, during one of his matches, he was kicked in the head, but he ignored it for 5 weeks. He was having trouble doing a lot of the regular activities he had to do as a wrestler like exercising, and simply walking. Then he fell when he was sleepwalking, and he had to stop. He waited till he felt better, and that turned out to happen more than five years later, and he was still never the same. Of course, one concussion didn’t do this to him. He figured out that he had had six concussions earlier on that he hadn’t known or cared about. He often wistfully talks about how he could have been a World Champion now. His career as a wrestler was ruined by the concussions that he got, and ignored.

Think of someone else in your family that you love, and that also plays sports. If they get a first concussion, you think, “There’s no way they could have their life taken away from them where all they have to do is sit around. They’re so lively.” You help them get better until they are cleared by a doctor. You see them go into the school varsity team, and think, “good for them.” You hear that they go into semi-pro and pro sports, and have a good career. That is until they get hit in the head. Because they are pretty good, the coach needs them to play, and is pressuring the doctor. a couple of weeks early, the team doctor says it’s O.K. for them to play. This happens a couple times, but is covered up so that the press doesn’t get to it. Finally they fall out because their performance is dropping, but it isn’t known how many concussions they have gotten. You only figure out until they can’t do things like get downstairs when they wake up, or they can’t get their own food. There is only one thing they need.

Help.

Then the league that they play in, whether it be Football, Rugby, or Soccer, compensates all the players who have trouble with concussions. You think, “Yay, they will have more money, and I won’t need to worry about them constantly.” Then you find out it is only enough for a couple of years. Suddenly the concussion treatments can’t come fast enough, and there isn’t very much you can do.

Contrary to what you might think, there are many things that you can do to help people\\\\whose lives have been ruined by concussions. You can help spread awareness by making a video, simply have a conversation, or even write your own editorial, and place it on web sites. Chris Nowinski has even co-founded an organisation called Sports Legacy Institution. This foundation is accepting donations, and it helps with funding for concussion research. With simple things like this, you can make a difference in a persons life. Wouldn’t you want someone to do that for you?