Saints72 Proposal
For my essay I will be investigating the claim that the repeated hits to the head and concussions of football players are causing Chronic Traumatic Encephalopothy, otherwise noted as CTE, and killing very notable NFL veterans. A concussion, defined by the online Merriam Dictionary, is a jarring injury of the brain resulting in disturbance of cerebral function. The Brain Injury Research Institute describes Chronic Traumatic Encephalopothy as a progressive degenerative disease which afflicts the brain of people who have suffered repeated concussions and traumatic brain injuries
I will compare football hits in the National Football League (NFL) to the head and the strikes to head during boxing matches in leagues such as the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxing Federation (IBF), World Boxing Organization (WBO), and etc. as well as the and mixed martial art matches in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Looking at the violent nature of boxing and mixed martial arts compared to the hits in football it is not the repeated concussions in football that are causing CTE, it has to be something else because boxers and mixed martial artists are not reported to have CTE.
1. Concussion in Professional Football: Comparison with Boxing Head Impacts
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16331164
The Essential Content of the Article: Scientists study the impact bio-mechanics from boxing punches causing translational and rotational head acceleration. Boxers in ranging weight classes threw punches at a dummy and the data were compared with laboratory-reconstructed NFL concussions.
What it Proves: This study proves that the hits themselves are not causing the extreme concussions, leading to CTE. Football hits seem worse because defending players’ hits have more acceleration than the boxers’ strikes. Ultimately the boxer’s strikes measure with more force than football hits.
2.What is CTE?
http://www.protectthebrain.org/Brain-Injury-Research/What-is-CTE-.aspx
The Essential Content of the Article: This article explains what CTE is, it’s symptoms, how to diagnose an athlete. The article groups CTE with Dementia Pugilistica in Mild/Traumatic Brain Injuries.
What it Proves: The articles proves that this disease can be confirmed and diagnosed. It gives us a formal definition of the disease and classifies it in a bigger class of injuries similar to it.
3. Concussion
Movie, Dec 2015
The Essential Content of the Article: Dr. Bennet Omalu, played by Will Smith, is a forensic neuropathologist. He makes the first discovery of CTE in a pro football player and the movie portrays his fight for the truth to be known against one of the most powerful businesses in the world, the National Football League.
What it Proves: This movie helps prove that CTE is a dangerous disease. The movie shows the symptoms of CTE while Dr. Omalu tries to connect the multiple concussions to CTE.
4. The N.F.L.’s Tragic C.T.E. Roll Call
The Essential Content of the Article: This article explains again what CTE is and declares dozens of former NFL players that has been diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease. includes the 12 most notable cases of NFL players having CTE and dying. Not dying from the disease, but mostly of overdose and suicide.
What it Proves: This article proves that CTE is not the deciding factor in the deaths of these NFL veterans, it is something else factoring into these deaths.
5. Dana White on concussions: UFC is safer than NFL
http://www.mmamania.com/2013/1/8/3852326/ufc-president-dana-white-mma-concussions-nfl-mma
The Essential Content of the Article: Dana White, the President of the UFC, declares that the violent sport of Mixed Martial Arts is safer than football. He believes this because how the league proceeds with concussed fighters. Their rules are there tp protect the athletes and is what he thinks makes it safer than the NFL.
What it Proves: This article proves that the rest between concussions can stop or slow down the oncoming of CTE and its symptoms.
Other Works Cited
Rowan Counterintuitive 