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Essay by chanpo7 October 2014

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Jake Lestrange

Since the NFL has been around concussions have threatened player's careers. Seventy-five former professional football players are suing the NFL, saying the league knew as early as the 1920s of the harmful effects of concussions on players' brains but concealed the information from players, coaches, trainers and others until June 2010. In November 9th 2009, Kelly Gallagher's "Football's Wounded Gladiators" found at KellyGallagher.org, discusses how concussions are affecting the NFL.

The word concussion comes from the Latin word, concutere, which means to shake violently (Gallagher). A concussion happens when a person gets hit in the head so hard their brain crashes into the skull. When a person gets a concussion things start to shake and the person becomes dizzy. According to Gallagher, "About 300,000 concussions occur annually in the United States." High school, college, and professional football players account for about one-third of the 300,000 concussions annually (Gallagher).

Some concussions can cause people to lose consciousness. The players are concerned but the players know the risk and choose to play. A scientific study shows that former and current NFL players are at a much higher risk of memory loss diseases. According to Gallagher, "About 1.9 percent of former players ages 39 to 49 suffer diseases such as dementia, and Alzheimer's."

The University of North Carolina has found that 15 percent of nearly 3,000 retired athletes have reported that concussions had permanently affected the athletes thinking and memory (Gallagher). Although players know that concussions can permanently affect their lives the players still feel the pressure to get back on the field. Every fall, the nation's 1.2 million high school football players suffer some 67,000 concussions, although it is dangerous nearly 41 percent of those players are on the field before they are fully healthy (Gallagher). Teenagers are...