Michael Dailey
Dr. Pallo
Focused Inquiry
4 April 2016
Annotated Bibliography: Life Threatening Injuries Changing the Game
The sources used for this paper all relate to each other and how they talk about how
receiving concussions can lead to mental disabilities throughout a lifetime and even premature
death such as suicide. These similarities will help aid the discussion about how severe
concussions have become throughout the NFL and how the health effects are becoming a well
talked about subject all throughout sports. The writers of the scientific experiment titled,
“Descriptive Epidemiology of Musculoskeletal Injuries and Concussions in the National Football
League”, do a great job of describing the amount of statistics of concussions that each generation
of football players are getting. Although it describes this data, it also shows how the NFL has
made changes to their rules to protect players and made rules harsher over the years. Each of
these arguments have a very utilitarian tone in the sense that they’re doing tests and revealing
data collected that can help the greater good be protected from life threatening injuries such as
head trauma and brain disease. The article written by Bennet Omalu, who is the leading research
on how concussions are leading to CTE and are commonly found in brains that have suffered
multiple concussions throughout a playing career, talks about how the brain disease CTE is a
leading cause of premature deaths for retired NFL players. He also talks about how players
currently in the NFL or have aspiring dreams to play in the NFL need to be more carefully
watched and monitored when any sort of head injury is sustained while playing the sport.
Research experiments and research papers are very reliable sources that will be extremely
helpful when trying to argue or support the effects concussions are causing current and former
players of professional football. Telis’ article, which is an article of trials of deceased players,
talks about how impacted the lives of the players are. In the introduction alone, the strength of
how he explains how David Duerson took his own life is breath taking. It’s strong and very
effective support for examples of people who are taking their lives as a result of brain diseases.
The similarities to each of these sources provide great examples of how the NFL needs to
be more proactive about protecting their players and their lives after football. What really sticks
out about each of these article is that they tie into the same subject of player safety and that is
brain disease causing deaths. Bringing awareness to this subject to the future generations of
football is what they’re trying to provide people so that they know the risks involved by playing
a game that has so much head to head contact whether it be intentional or unintentional.
Didehbani, Nyaz, et al. "Depressive Symptoms and Concussions in Aging Retired NFL
Players." Archives of clinical neuropsychology (2013): act028. 2 Apr. 2016. Web.
Career ending injuries throughout the NFL are becoming more and more common as
each year passes. The severity of these injuries becomes even more extreme as well. It used to be
that player’s careers were being ended because of physical injuries in the knees and legs.
Nowadays concussions are the reason players are hanging up their cleats and calling it a career.
They’re no joke and are becoming more of a focal point in the NFL now that players are quitting
due to the lack of safety. Tests have been done and proven that the more concussions these
players have received throughout their career, the more depressed they became whereas the
players that weren’t diagnosed with concussions weren’t even considered depressed in the
slightest bit.
This article provides a good outlook on how the effects of concussions can take a toll on
a person’s mental health. The depletion of the brain causes significant mental and physical
damage to people that can’t be cured. This will help provide a great outlook on how these
patients are being effected by multiple blows to the head. These people and their situations are
things that people look over and try to push the blame out to the regular excuse “we didn’t know
this was affecting this person this much.”
Throughout my paper, I will be able to use this source as a representation of how blows
to the head can impact one’s ability to think. Yes, it’s common sense that concussion will lead to
them, but no one really looks are acknowledges the severity of someone receiving a blow to the
head. This source will provide awareness to these player’s situations and help see that these
players are getting the proper safety. It’s very resourceful in how they do test to link receiving of
concussions leads to depression.
Lawrence, David W., Michael G. Hutchison, and Paul Comper. “Descriptive Epidemiology
of Musculoskeletal Injuries and Concussions in the National Football League, 20122014.” Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine 3.5 (2015): 2325967115583653. PMC.
2 Apr. 2016. Web.
This article takes into great detail about how many players per season are being
diagnosed with concussions throughout the year. Incredible data collected by Lawrence,
Hutchison, and Comper provides an actual stat on the number of injuries to the head are suffered
throughout a season. A detailed description of what the NFL is doing to protect these players in
written throughout the text as well as the factors that are causing these concussions. There is in
fact a stat shown that kickers, quarterbacks, and lineman are less susceptible to head injuries than
wide receivers and tight ends.
The whole source will be used throughout the paper to help support what the NFL is
actually doing to help protect these players. NFL owners and executives can’t change the rules of
how the game is played at the drop of a hat. Voting, discussion, as well as a lot of research has to
be done in order for rules to be changed. That’s a bit what this sources talks about the how’s and
whys of their decision making. What makes what they do very suspicious is the fact they try to
hide some injuries such as concussions from the public so that people can’t examine and ridicule
them which brings the question of if they’re really trying to protect the players into question.
This source has a lot of useful information that can both argue for and against the NFL
and the way they’re going about protecting these players. Points and statistics throughout the
article are made about the amount of concussions per age group and per year for football players.
It’s a scientific article meaning that there were tests and studies done to prove these statistics.
What draws me to this scientific article is how it isn’t bias towards one side. The researchers
make claims that argue for both sides.
Miller, Greg. “A Late Hit for Pro Football Players”. Science 325.5941 (2009): 670–672. 29
Mar. 2016. Web.
CTE is a brain disease that professional athletes playing a game that involved hard blows
to the head and is causing athlete’s brains to deteriorate into basically nothing. Although
concussions aren’t 100 percent linked into guaranteeing someone who suffers multiple
concussion with develop CTE, it is an underlying factor that has recently been popping up and
has been on the rise since the early 2000s. Many former players throughout this article that are
suffering from this disease that they’re being linked to are dying or committing suicide at young
ages, some as low as early 20s. Tests and examinations were done on players who suffered one
or more concussions and they say that the more concussions you get throughout your life, that
chances of developing CTE gradually increase. The NFL has been quick to hide information
from people researching this to help bring safety and hiding behind this because they’re afraid of
the bad news that could essentially come from this research. It could hurt the business and in
turn, repel players from playing a game that could realistically cause death at an early age.
The section of the source that is being used will be helpful for supporting the effects of
getting multiple concussions will do. Many examples of formers players who have either
suffered or are suffering will provide an outlook on this these players lives and how they’re
living. The source is neither bias or objective, it is simply showing these athletes that are playing
contact intensive sports that are developing CTE. The information throughout the source is
reliable and factual. They’re trying to raise awareness of this disease so people aren’t losing or
taking their lives at such a young age.
The source was very helpful for finding information about players with CTE and how
their lives have changed and how there are now links to CTE from concussions. It helps shape
my argument in terms of how there in fact is links from concussions to CTE which would then
help me support the more intensive protocol for players who receive concussions and don’t get
rushed back to fast. I’ll use this source as both information and for supporting an argument I may
make throughout the paper. The source hasn’t really changed the way I feel about the topic. Both
players and NFL executives know that there is a risk involved in the game, but sharing the
responsibility equally and protecting player’s safety needs to be the ultimate goal in the NFL.
Omalu, Bennet I., et al. "Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in a National Football
League player: part II." Neurosurgery 59.5 (2006): 1086-1093. 1 Apr. 2016. Web.
Many players in the NFL retire just as their career is beginning to take off in the right
direction, meaning towards success. Reasons for this are these players are suffering multiple
concussions throughout their career which is essentially weakening the way their brain operates.
Player’s deaths whether it be from suicide or brain disease itself, is becoming a major concern
for players throughout the NFL. An autopsy of a former NFL player, that had suffered repeated
concussion throughout his career, is being looked at and observed for common features that
make coming to the conclusion that players can suffer from CTE, a possibility.
All of this source is very reliable and useful information for this paper because the main
researcher, Bennet Omalu, is someone who has come up recently in the news about brain disease
and CTE being traced back to NFL players that suffer many concussions as well. Omalu, whom
is very well respected in his field of study, has been a factor in the NFL so that these players can
get the right medical attention as well as the league implementing more rules and harsher
punishments for those who make illegal hits to the head. Although owners and executives
throughout the NFL are saying all of this is nonsense, his work and his findings speak for
themselves and his impact in trying to make a change for the players in the NFL is growing
tremendously.
This source was and will continue to be extremely helpful throughout the drafting of this
paper because it will provide the research done by Bennet Omalu and his findings. This evidence
will provide rich support for any claim or argument made throughout the paper. His history and
background in this field, makes this source a reliable one to use. His stance on protecting players
helps the NFLPA (player’s association) make better safety rules and regulations so that these
players aren’t at risk or in harms way.
Telis, Michael. "Playing through the Haze: The NFL Concussion Litigation and Section
301 Preemption." Georgetown Law Journal 102.6 (2013-2014): 1842-1851. 31 Mar.
2016. Web.
As written above in the two previous bibliographies, many retired players of the NFL
soon contemplate taking their life and some of them eventually follow through with that thought
one their career in the NFL is done. A former football star, David Duerson, took his own life in
February 2011. He seemed to be aware that his brain was failing him. As a result of him deciding
to take his life, he sent a message to his family prior to his death saying “Please see that my brain
is given to the NFL Brain Bank” (1842). The amount of law suits against the NFL that former
players were filing grew rapidly and became a headline in the news and still is today.
Chapter 1 or the introduction to these trials is what will be used throughout the paper as
examples of how pivotal and serious getting concussions and developing brain disease is for
these former players. Players need to feel like their safety isn’t at risk while playing this impact
sport. Yes, this technically is what they signed up for and there are risks by playing in such a
dangerous sport, but trying to hide and deny the medical history of these players to protect the
“business” is what the NFL is doing and it’s wrong.
This journal will be very resourceful for this paper because the examples of real life
accidents that happen as a result of brain disease will help support many arguments. This source
is reliable because it deals and involves many trials and legal matters for these players. Seeing
what these players are going through and how their lives are effected, as well as there families,
makes this source a great one to use. Releasing information to the public about this subject will
help spread awareness for concussions leading to brain disease.