Running head: CONCUSSIONS AND SPORTS

Concussions and Sports Can They be Avoided Without the Removal of Contact Ryan Freemantle Madonna University

Running head: CONCUSSIONS AND SPORTS

Abstract There are many risks when engaging in a sport or other activity that involves contact. Head injuries in the world of sports and athletics are not unheard of, but in actuality they are extremely common. Depending on the type of sport played, the rate for head injuries varies. Athletes live for competition, and as such, contact and collisions are an integral part of most games. Contact has always been a part of sports like football, hockey, and soccer, whether its head to head, head to body, head to ground, or head to ball. This contact is what makes the sport what it is, but it is also what allows for the presence of concussions. The mechanisms of injury for concussion are unique to each sport therefore each sport approaches this topic differently. Contact makes these games what they are and one could not remove that from any of these sports without dramatically changing the game. There are two sides to the concussion debate, and at the end of the day, the athletes themselves make the decision as to whether they want to play the game and take the risk. Owners and players are trying to figure out how they can present a product that both protects players from brain injuries that last a lifetime, but also attracts fans to the games. People are worrying about that meanwhile there is a bigger question to ask. That is whether achieving that balance is possible at all.

Running head: CONCUSSIONS AND SPORTS

Concussions and Sports Can They be Avoided Without the Removal of Contact For an athlete, being the center of attention for thousands of screaming fans brings nothing to mind but smiles. A touchdown, slam-dunk, goal or home run can make someone feel invincible. Sports present the athlete with many pros, but most do not stop to think about the cons. There are many risks when engaging in a sport or other activity that involves contact. Head injuries in the world of sports and athletics are not unheard of, but in actuality they are extremely common. Depending on the type of sport played, the rate for head injuries varies, and they are higher in some sports than in others. According to the University of Pittsburgh's Brain Trauma Research Center, In the United States, over 300,000 sports-related concussions occur annually, and the likelihood of suffering a concussion while playing a contact sport is estimated to be as high as 19% per year of play. More than 62,000 concussions are sustained each year in high-school contact sports (The Department of Neurological Surgerys Brain Trauma Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh, 2014). What exactly is a concussion? A concussion is defined as, a type of traumatic brain injury that is caused by a blow to the head or body, a fall, or another injury that jars or shakes the brain inside the skull (webMD, 2011).

Injuries are a part of life, especially when one is engaged in physical activity, but the most common incident throughout the world of sports are concussions. Athletes live for competition, and as such, contact and collisions are an integral part of most games, whether its head to head,

Running head: CONCUSSIONS AND SPORTS

head to ball, or head to ground. Although this is what people love to watch, there is much controversy and talk about the problem of concussions in sports. Sometimes people get hurt, that is the nature of the game. Nobody likes to see another player go down or someone not be able to play again, but that is a risk people take whenever they put on the pads or lace up the skates. Owners, players, and other authorities are attempting to decrease the rate of concussions by changing rules for player to player contact and handing out massive fines for hits to the head, but at the end of the day, the games are going to be played how they were intended to be.

Sports can be played at a very young age. Many parents sign their children up for sports such as; tee ball, soccer, football, and hockey. From the age of five to nine a contact sport is all fun and games. As children grow up they begin to love the sport and cannot wait for the season to begin. When the teenage years come along, the sport becomes faster and there is more competition to play at that top level. The dangers increase as well, because many athletes prepare themselves for numerous months to get bigger, faster, and stronger. Nowadays that is what makes contact sports a greater risk for injury.

Contact has always been a part of sports like football, hockey, and soccer, whether its person to person, person to ground, or person to ball. This contact is what makes the sport what it is, but it is also what allows for the presence of concussions. Many recent changes to rules and regulations have attempted to reduce the risk of head injuries, but one can only make so many changes to the game before it changes completely. Football has the most reported concussions. It involves constant stop and go, with that starting and ending with someone being tackled. Hockey is a fast paced sport that involves collisions with both other skaters and the ice, while soccer is a

Running head: CONCUSSIONS AND SPORTS

sport played without the hands, therefore they use their feet and their heads! All three of these sports are extremely popular, but also carry extreme risk of concussion. Contact makes these games what they are and one could not remove that from any of these sports without dramatically changing the game.

The mechanisms of injury for concussion are unique to each sport. Some common causes of concussions are head to head, head to body, head to ground contact, and ball to head. One of the sports with the highest incidence of concussion is football. Although football players are required to wear helmets, helmets cannot prevent all possible head injuries. Football helmets even carry a risk label stating that athletes wearing the helmet may be at risk for catastrophic injury or even death while using the helmet (Zeigler, 2014). Concussions and football go hand in hand. There is so much physical contact that head injuries are bound to happens, especially at the collegiate and professional levels where the athletes are big, strong and trying to make a living. Big hits are what the fans want, and more often than not when they happen someone gets injured; whether its a minor scrape or severe event. A running back goes full speed into a pack of grown men waiting to hit him as hard as they can. Some backs are quick and agile, but others are strong and solid. These solid backs are the ones that just drop their heads and bowl through the defense. There is a lot of depth at that position for a reason; they take a physical beating to both their bodies and their heads. The NFL has made a recent rule change, stating that if a back is one on one with a safety in the backfield he cannot drop his head and hit the safety with the crown (top) of his helmet. This change is supposed to help decrease the risk of injury for both the running back and the safety, but it is unfair. Some people make their money by dropping their heads and running people over and this rule takes away from that. Because specific hits in football are

Running head: CONCUSSIONS AND SPORTS

known to cause concussions and neck injuries (i.e., helmet-to-helmet hits) these hits are now illegal in the sport of football. However, one can still see these types of hits at all levels in football. Properly taught mechanics and enforcing the rules can decrease the incidence of some of these types of injuries (Zeigler, 2014). Football players play the game because they like the contact and they want the glory of making that game saving tackle or that highlight real play. As much as owners, officials, and players try to avoid concussions, they will never be gone from the sport. The NFLs senior vice president for health and safety, Jeff Miller said that, Rule changes, culture changes, the enforcement of the rules and the elimination over time of dangerous techniques is leading to a decrease in concussions (Belson, 2014). However, contact and collisions are an integral part of the game and will always be there. Chris Nowinski, the executive director of the Sports Legacy Institute states that, Im still certain that 90 to 95 percent of concussions are still not diagnosed, so in that sense the numbers are meaningless. If you can diagnose every symptomatic blow to the head, you wouldnt have enough players on the field (Belson, 2014). There are two sides to the concussion debate, and at the end of the day, the athletes themselves make the decision as to whether they want to play the game and take the risk.

Hockey is a fast paced, physical and very competitive game where sometimes people get hurt. Concussions are prevalent and caused by a bump or blow to the head. Even a ding, getting your bell rung, or what seems to be only a mild bump or knock to the head can be a serious injury. Before the beginning of the 2010 season, the National Hockey League instituted Rule 48 which banned blindside hits to another players head. Before the 2011 season, it applied the same rule to any hit to the head. The goal of these rules was simple; it was supposed to reduce the number of concussions NHL players suffered each year. According to a study from the

Running head: CONCUSSIONS AND SPORTS

University of Torontos Dr. Michael Cusimano it has not. In fact, the number of concussions in the NHL has increased since the rule went into effect, rising from 44 to 65 in the first year it was applied and from 65 to 85 the next year. The number did not rise because NHL players were not following the new rules, it rose because the majority of concussions came on hits that did not draw a penalty. In only 28% of the concussive events was there a penalty called. The most dangerous hits in the NHL are actually body checks, which caused 64.2 percent of the concussions. Body checks are legal and, aside from goals, they are the type of play to land someone on the highlight reels. Among penalties, fighting is the one most responsible for causing concussions. The sport of hockey could benefit from banning both fighting and body checking, as many junior leagues already have. Body contact in professional hockey has little to do with the outcome of the game; case in point, the All Star Game where body contact is at a minimum. Although these rule changes would likely not gain popularity from fans who enjoy the physical aspects of hockey, it would make the game safer for those who play (Waldron, 2013).

When most people think of sports related concussions, hockey and football tend to first come to mind, because of their rough and tumble nature. Researchers say that not enough attention has been paid to soccer, which carries its own unique risks related to brain injury. From collisions related to heading and the long-term consequences of repetitively using the head to control the ball, this sport has its challenges related to concussions. Soccer is the world's most popular and fastest-growing sport, with more than 265 million players around the globe, including 27 million in North America (Ubelacker, 2014). It is a versatile sport played with both ones feet and the head. Players kick the ball at fast speeds over great distances and then stop it or redirect it with their heads. This ball to head collision causes an internal collision with the

Running head: CONCUSSIONS AND SPORTS

athletes brain and the walls of their skull as well as a shaking motion within the head. Headers are very common within the sport and a player will do it countless times throughout their career. However, in the sport of soccer, concussions are most commonly caused from head to head collisions when two athletes are competing for the same ball as in a header. While direct collisions are one cause of concussions, an impact with a high speed implement is another common cause of concussion (Zeigler, 2014). A study conducted by McGill University in Montreal found that 60 percent of college soccer players reported symptoms of a concussion at least once during the season. The study also revealed that concussion rates in soccer players were comparable to those in football (American Association of Neurological Surgeons, 2011). Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, played around the globe. It is important to address head injuries, specifically concussions, both for current players and those to come.

Changes in the rules for athletic competition have reduced the number of sports-related concussions. After the National Collegiate Athletic Association made the use of the head when tackling illegal in 1976, the annual number of head and neck injuries in football declined by about 50%. The required use of helmets in many contact sports and advances in helmet design also has resulted in fewer head injuries. Improved conditioning of young athletes, especially strengthening of neck muscles, may also help to prevent concussions (Nationwide Childrens, 2014).

The major problem facing both football and hockey is how to eliminate head trauma from the game. Banning outright contact with the head would be an easy fix, but if they are not the major problem, or if concussions and head injuries are still occurring even when those hits are

Running head: CONCUSSIONS AND SPORTS

not, making the game safer becomes much more difficult because it involves rules that would fundamentally change the game in ways that players and fans will not like. It is also possible that in both sports the real danger is not concussions but the fact that routinely playing the game can lead to long term brain trauma. Either way, this puts leagues and fans in quite the predicament, since the aspects of the games fans enjoy most are also what makes them most dangerous. The short term question facing both the NFL and NHL is how they can present a product that both protects players from brain injuries that last a lifetime and also attracts fans to the games. The bigger question might be whether achieving that balance is it possible at all (Waldron, 2013)

Running head: CONCUSSIONS AND SPORTS

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References American Association of Neurological Surgeons. (2011). Concussion. Retrieved from https://www.aans.org/Patient%20Information/Conditions%20and%20Treatments/ Concussion.aspx Belson, K. (January, 2014). Concussions Show Decline of 13 Percent, N.F.L. Says. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/ sports/football/nflreports-concussions-dropped-13-percent-in-2013.html?ref=headinjuries Nationwide Childrens. (2014). Concussions in Sports. Retrieved from http:// www.nationwidechildrens.org/concussions-in-sports The Department of Neurological Surgerys Brain Trauma Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh. (2014). Concussions. Retrieved from http://www.neurosurgery.pitt.edu/ centers-excellence/brain-and-spine-injury/concussions Ubelacker, S. (February, 2014). Changes needed to prevent soccer concussions, especially for kids: researchers. CTV News. Retrieved from http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/healthheadlines/changes-needed-to-prevent-soccer-concussions-especially-for-kidsresearchers-1.1680293 Waldron, T. (July, 2013). NHL rule banning hits to the head hasnt reduced number of concussions. Think Progress. Retrieved from http://thinkprogress.org/sports/ 2013/07/25/2353411/nhlrule-hasnt-reduced-concussions/ WebMD. (2011, November ). Concussions - overview. Brain & nervous system health center. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/brain/tc/traumatic-brain-injury-concussionoverview Zeigler, T. (2014). Concussions in Sports. sportsMD. Retrieved from http:// www.sportsmd.com/articles/id/22.aspx#sthash.cfjiytyx.IfWrtZNv.dpbs