American Football is a team sport played by two teams with 11 players using an oval-shaped ball. Players try to score points by passing or carrying the ball to their opponents’ end of the field. American Football is one of the most popular sports, approximately 5.6 million people above the age of 6 participating in this sport. However, football players tend to collide with another football player when they are carrying the football and running in the field, hoping to reach the point. Such collisions would cause different kinds of football-related injuries, like severe or repetitive concussion. Rock Rashaun Cartwright, a former American Football running back in the National Football League (NFL), recalled his head “shaking like a bell” when he was walloped during a game against the New York Giants a few years ago. But he never mentioned his head pain to the medical staff of his team. Instead, he still went back out to the game playing football. Rock Cartwright is not the only case. Many of his teammates suffer concussions. Of the 160 NFL players interviewed, 50% of them said that they have suffered at least one concussion. A survey from the Associated Press (AP) shows that nearly 20 percent of NFL players hide their concussions. So why do NFL players keep the secret about concussions? What are the reasons for hiding their concussions? What are the solutions to prevent concussions? Let’s talk about this.
Football players did not reveal to the medical staff or coaching staff when suffering concussion for several reasons. Associated Press (AP) conducted an extensive series of interviews with 160 NFL players, five players on each of the NFL’s 32 teams, explaining their secrets about concussion with startling honesty. Some of the NFL players hide their head injuries because they fear to let the team or teammate down. Saints defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove said "I don't want to come out of games. So if somebody hits me during the game, I take a minute to try to re-gather myself and then go back." Other NFL players want to avoid appearing weak. According to the article Players Hide Concussions, the NFL players mentioned the importance of avoiding any sign of weakness in a sport where “warrior” and “gladiator” are viewed as compliments of the highest order. There is also the fear of losing a roster spot because the NFL does not offer guaranteed contracts to its players. When the NFL players are resting and healing from the recovery, a substitute player may temporarily take their spots. At the same time, the substitute player will do his best to show off his talent and the original NFL player might be replaced forever."If you're a 'bubble' guy, you might want to be out there," Tennessee Titans long snapper Ken Amato said, "so they don't have to bring someone else in." Plus, some players were willing to sacrifice their future well-being for the sake of a paycheck. If the NFL players report their concussions, they might be forced to stay out of the game because of the surgery or recovery. This means they would have no income to support themselves and their family. They rather sacrifice their health than losing money. Through the eyes of NFL players, they don’t want to miss any opportunity of playing football games or practices even experiencing serious concussion.
Football-related concussions would result in a variety of negative long-term consequences on their body and health. In addition to head concussion, most NFL players experience chest concussion and knee concussion during the football games. Head concussion occurs when the football player with his helmet on has head-to-head collision encountering a high degree of force. Such collisions could cause brian damage, including concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), generating long-term effects like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease related to the memory loss. In 2008, Ann McKee, a neuropathologist from CTE center at Boston University Medical Center, studied the brains of 12 former NFL players over a 2-year period, and she found that “Each brain showed apparent signs of repeated trauma, the only cause of a condition known as CTE. CTE has been found to lead to depression, loss of judgment, inability to control impulse, rages, and memory loss, and can ultimately result in dementia.” Chest concussion happens due to high-impact collisions to the chest of the NFL player, like football throwing directly hit to the chest area especially over the heart, or helmet-to-chest hit when the running back NFL player tries to catch the ball from the quarterback. Fractured ribs are the common-seen result of the chest concussion, causing the bruised or collapsed lungs due to the huge force. Direct blow to the chest area also could disrupt the heart’s regular rhythms, which is fatal, life-threatening. On January 2, 2023, 24-year-old Buffalo Bill Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field, suffering cardiac arrest due to the chest impact with huge force. His uncle claims that “Damar has lung damage and cannot breath on his own '' after the chest concussions. Knee Concussion takes place when the NFL player places his foot on the field and tries to rotate his body in relation to that placed foot during the game. When the knee cannot cope with the sudden twisting force, the knee ruptures or called Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tear, the result of knee concussion. Once the NFL player has the ACL tear, surgery is the only treatment and it takes 6 to 9 months to recover. Odell Backham Jr. suffered the ACL tear during the game with the Cleveland Browns in October 2020. This injury requires him to undergo surgery and extensive rehabilitation. All the NFL players want to help their own teams win the game with some critical football moves in the field. However, at the same time, those NFL players are risking their life and body and getting severe long-term damage that cannot be reverted back to full health.
The NFL are aware of the football players’ concussion issues and they are taking steps to prevent and reduce football-related injuries. Despite the high rate of concussions, two-thirds of the players surveyed in the Associated Press (AP) said that the likelihood of an NFL player suffering a concussion has fallen. First, the NFL provides the football players with improved equipment, particularly helmets and mouthpieces, giving more protection to the heads to prevent head concussion or CTE. KSBY news reports that “ Over the past five years, the NFL has also used data from game video and sensors from gear like mouth guards to improve helmets and protect players from head injuries.” Currently, around 300,000 wear Guardian Caps, which are padded helmet covers, to reduce head-to-head impact. Second, the NFL devotes themselves to the modifications of rules. Since 2002, the NFL has changed over 50 rules to improve player safety, including prohibiting players from lowering their heads to make contact with their helmets, stopping defenders from needlessly tackling and landing on quarterbacks and reducing big collisions on kickoff returns. In 2016, the NFL established the Field Surface Safety & Performance Committee to research and advise on injury prevention. Third, the NFL now requires each player undergoes testing in the preseason. Prior to the new season, all the NFL requires each player to take a physical check. The doctors then compare these tests to tests performed after a player sustains a possible concussion. Anthony Adams of the Chicago Bears said “The league also now takes concussion more seriously than the past. "[Doctors and trainers] are better [at] watching for symptoms of what might be a concussion," Fourth, informed by survey results conducted by Associated Press (AP)’s, the NFL wants the players to keep tabs on one another. Players should inform their team or the medical staff if they believe any teammate might have a head injury, no matter how minor the head injury they believe it would be. Fifth, The NFL pays the medical bills for the players. The NFL announces that a player is covered by Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), covering their medical expenses and giving them some medical rights. When a NFL player gets chest pain due to the hit or head-to-head collision, he is checked by the club doctor. The CBA also ensures that this NFL player has the right to seek a second opinion and the club will pay for this. Sixth, the NFL guarantees compensation during medical leave. The NFL players are concerned that they would not get their paychecks when not playing on football fields because of the surgery or recovery. The CBA makes sure that the club is obliged to pay the players while in rehab for their injury, and provide salary continuation for the year in which the injury was sustained. Since concussions cannot be fully avoided, at least the NFL is taking significant actions to decline the numbers of concussions and reduce the impacts of the concussions on the players.
Football is a high-risk sport, and players get injured, quite often and sometimes quite seriously, whenever they play, even though football is a popular sport. The most common known football-related injuries are head concussion and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) causing long-term effects like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease related to memory loss, chest concussion generating fractured ribs and irregular heart’s rhythms, and knee concussion leading Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tear. Surprisingly, most of the NFL players did not want to reveal their concussion to their coaching staff or medical staff because they don’t want to let down the team, they are afraid to be seen as a weak athlete, they want to keep their position on the team, and they fear of losing the paychecks if they don’t play the game. Players are the biggest assets of any football team. Over the past years, the NFL addresses some practical solutions, significantly decreasing the number of concussions, including improving equipments particularly helmets and mouthpieces, modifying rules and regulations, requiring each players take seasonal physical check, asking players keeping tabs on one another, providing medical rights and paying the medical bills, and guaranteeing compensation during medical leave.
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