Sports And Its Effects On Sports - 1397 Words

Concussions in Sports Sports have been a major source of entertainment since the Romans and Greek times, when the Greeks had the earliest version of the Olympic games, and the Romans had gladiator fights and chariot races. In the United States sports, still plays a significant role as one of the leading entertainment industries in the country. In 2010, the big four US professional sports leagues, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, generated $22 billion in gross revenue, with the whole US sports industry generating more than $400 billions.1 The NFL Super Bowl alone, generates more than 100 million television viewers each year. 2 The aggression and violence aspect of sports has often been attributed as one of the reasons why sports, specially contact†¦show more content†¦1 Kerr, J. H. 2005. Rethinking aggression and violence in sport. New York;London;: Routledge. 2 Miller, MC. Concussions in football. Harvard Mental Health Letter 26, no. 7 (January 2010): 8-8 1p. CINAHL Plus with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed April 11, 2016). Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) also known as a concussion, is a serous injury caused by a blow or bump to the head that disrupts the normal function of an athlete’s brain. An impact to the head causes the brain to accelerate very quickly and then stop as it hits the skull which results in disruptions in nerve cells’ connections. Symptoms of a TBI can range from mild to severe and can include changes in vision, feelings of drowsiness and confusion, headaches, vomiting, nausea, memory loss, and loss of consciousness.3 In 2012, 3,800,000 sport related concussions, with 33% of all sport concussions happening during practice, with football being the sport where athletes have the higher incidents of TBI. 4 Football athletes’ have the highest concussions rates among youth, high school, and college levels, with college being having the highest rate of incidents.5 A big concern about concussions, is the potential long-term effects of the mental health of the athlete. On the field, football players are exposed to a series of small hits to the head, that don’t always result in a significant head injury, but result in second-impact