Concussion haunts American football

Posted by Victor Dela Casa

Future NFL Hall of Famer Junior Seau

While football is a truly exciting sport, National Football League (NFL) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) players know all too well the risks involved in an aggressive sport like American football. The NFL has had its fair share of terrible and devastating injuries to its players. Yet, of all the injuries inflicted on-field, none is more enigmatic and distressing than head blows that could lead to severe brain injuries. This particular injury is putting the league into a legal tailspin and gives Commissioner Roger Goodell severe headaches.

Such is the reality of "

America

's Game." Many argue that it is just the nature of the sport, but new technology is shedding light to the realities of brain traumas like concussions and blows to the head, especially if repeated, are linked to permanent brain damage.

Last year, future NFL Hall-of-Famer, Junior Seau, committed suicide after battling depression and the reported "voices in his head." Recently, a team of scientists studying his brain tissue concluded that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy from repeated blows to the head during a career that spanned two decades. With the findings, Seau's family recently filed legal lawsuits against the NFL, the NCAA, and Riddell Athletic Gear.

The NFL has had numerous cases of retired players, many of them forgotten, whose lives after football are marred by the effects of repeated blows that resulted in perhaps hundreds of medically undocumented concussions. With the current lack of understanding, signs of the injury are hard to spot. The urge to win and the love of the game soon takes over again and the injury is ignored until it re-surfaces later.

With new technology, athletic organizations have done their best in recent years to protect players from the dangers of concussions by enforcing strict policies that prevent brain injuries. Regardless, hundreds of lawsuits from retired players are being filed all across the

United States

against the league for not doing enough to protect them from head injuries in the past.

(Originally Published Eisenberg Gilchrist and Cutt)

About The Author

Victor Dela Casa is a Filipino-Canadian who spent over a decade working as a business professional in Canada. Worked in IT, finance, marketing, international trade, public service, project management and the maritime industry. Degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines and Honours Diploma from Eastern College. Currently based in the Philippines and working as a professional writer for a multi-national business processes firm.