America’s most dangerous pastime: the dangers of brain related injuries in American football

Tackling, collions, broken ribs - you name it, it's happened. American football is a dangerous sport. Photo: WikiImages/Pixabay

Brutal tackles, head on head collisions, broken ribs, bruised abdomens, and cuts all over are just some of the risks of American football.

For years, these conditions were understood and even venerated as the foundations of a great, big, strong American man; capable of taking on the world, toughened by years of Sunday night beatings at the practice field of their local high school. This was until researchers all over the USA found out that getting your head bashed in caused severe head trauma leading to loss of cognitive features and even patches of memories in the short and long span.

Football was for years the pilar of the American identity of pride and toughness, but its side effects tend to be more often than not catastrophic for those who practice the sport regularly. A 2019 study of the brains of 223 football players with Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and 43 players without CTE found that for each additional 2.6 years of play, the risk of developing CTE doubled.

A study carried out surveying 14,000 NFL players between 2012 and 2014 found that after only 24 games played an NFL player’s likelihood of premature death increases by 16% caused by head injuries. Additionally, of 111 NFL players’ brains donated for research, 110 were found to have had CTE. Other studies found that NFL players were more likely to suffer from dementia or other brain-related degenerative diseases.

For the sake of the sport and its fans, we have to start understanding how these injuries occur; to find ways to protect all players in the future.