Brain Injury Argumentative Analysis

There has been much discussion and debate concerning the long-term effects of head injuries on football players. Discussion grew and rippled especially after a few former players had committed suicide. In 2012, to support research on brain injuries, the National Football League donated $30 million to the National Institutes of Health. Kevin Cook, a family man and an award-winning author, wrote an article titled “Dying to Play” where he brings to light the seriousness behind head injuries and how he believes the issue should be solved. Three years later, Tom Taylor, a reporter-researcher for Sports Illustrated who writes about sports and science/technology, also wrote a report titled “Brain and Brawn, where he addresses brain injury in football …show more content…
Cook seems to believe that the NFL announced its donation right before the Giants and Cowboys kicked off the 2012-13 football season, simply as a way to reach the largest crowd. While this is true, Taylor reveals that the NFL announced the donation in this way because they wanted to offset all of the bad press they were receiving. Cook and Taylor both realize that the NFL is being strategic but Cook fails to see the corporate strategy the NFL uses. Taylor works for this type of corporate company and understands the strategies that they use. In 2013, a year after Cook’s article was published, the NIH announced that the donation was going towards research of chronic traumatic encephalopathy and other types of traumatic brain injury. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain mostly found in athletes with a history of repetitive brain trauma. In Taylor’s article he states, “If the NFL was trying to push CTE from the front page, the strategy appeared to have worked.” Again, Taylor reveals that the NFL was concerned with the impression the press had of the league. He unintentionally helps to show the readers that the NFL’s focus as this time was directed to how people viewed them, rather than the real issue at hand; head injury leading to depression and even cases of

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