The Concussion Penalty

 A football player works so hard to get into the NFL. They have to be really good in college in order to stand out more. They have to pray that they get selected in the draft. When they finally get drafted and are on the football field it's like a dream come true until they get a concussion. Did you know that in 2015 over 271 concussions happened in the NFL in practice and in real games source ESPN. com.

A concussion is a brain injury that can be caused by a very hard hit in the head. In this case it's happens when two players collide with each other in the head with a lot of force. Concussions are really dangerous they can cause CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). This brain disease can cause confusion it can also lead to progressive dementia. For football players concussions happen on the football field during play.

 Meg Navolio a 8th grade math teacher who has had a concussion was interviewed  and was asked the following questions how did your concussion happen? “My concussion happened when I was playing indoor co-ed soccer on a hard surface(not turf) I got my legs tangled with another player and fell and hit my head on the hard surface.”. The second question that was asked was how did the concussion feel? “I walked around sort of blacked out and confused until one of my teammates helped me realize where I was”. The third question that was asked was did the concussion have any long term effects? “I missed 3 days of work/school, but even after I went back to work the effects stuck with me. It took at least 2 weeks to feel better.”

Looking at these answers you can see that concussions are really bad and can have long term effects. These effects can stick with you longer than it did with Meg Navolio. Concussions are a big problem to the player and to the players family and the NFL. A movie was released about this topic it was called “Concussion” starring Will Smith. This movie was about him playing a doctor who is trying to raise awareness about how dangerous football can actual be and head injuries you can get from playing it. In conclusion the NFL should take this issue more seriously because it could affect the player's life and this could affect the game of football.