The Dangers Of Youth Football Concussions

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If you are a fan of football, no matter what competitive level you follow, more than likely you have heard about concussions. Concussions have been a known injury in the football world for decades, but the discussions on them are more prevalent than ever. A concussion is a head injury resulting in bruising of the brain. They are often caused by a blow to the head and can affect a person’s concentration, memory, balance and coordination. The results of concussions are bringing up more questions and medical concerns for all ages.
National Football League First, we are going to start with the professionals, the National Football League. Frontline, an investigative sector of PBS, started a project in 2012 called Concussion Watch. They tracked …show more content…
However, these are the youth football statistics. Concussion rates for children under the age of 19 who play in football have doubled in the last decade, even though overall sports participation has declined (3). With more studies being released about the dangers of football, parents decide to pull their child out of the sport, but the number continues to increase. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of high level impacts in youth football occur during practices (3). Kids who have had one concussion are 6 times more likely to experience a secondary concussion, another reason why parents pull their kid away from football (3). High school football accounts for 47 percent of all reported sports concussions (3). Based on numbers from 2012, there were 3.8 million sports concussions reported, out of those 3.8 million concussions approximately 1.78 million came from high school football (3). With these shocking numbers being released somewhat of a controversy has risen; should youth football be banned? There has been discussion of prohibiting organized youth football in states across the country. They believe prevention is the best way to protect the children. They will allow children to pursue football in middle school and high school when their brains are more developed. Though this movement is an unpopular one it seems to be …show more content…
The giants of the helmet making industry, Riddel and Schutt are continuing their research to make the best helmet possible. Currently, these companies are using high density vinyl nitrile foam pads inside their helmets. A startup company named Xenith is out to change the game. Started by former Harvard University quarterback Vin Ferrara, Xenith’s helmets have “a system of venting air bladders, which compress varying amounts depending on how severe the impact is (4).” Another startup company called Shockbox is going to make the detection of a concussion a lot easier. The Shockbox is a high impact sensor that goes inside of the player’s helmet and tracks the severity of impact the player takes. According to Shockbox’s website, ”When attached to a helmet, Shockbox can assess the linear and rotational acceleration magnitude and direction of a hit that may result in a concussion.* Shockbox is designed to alert at a threshold of 20g (peak G linear acceleration) to the head by using algorithms to calculate helmet and head acceleration. Based on research from Gwin et al*, it was seen that 86% of impacts in football fall below the 50 g threshold. There is also a growing body of research indicating that concussions predominantly fall in a range between 70 – 100 g (Broglio et al**) (5).” When a player gets blunt force to
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