CTE stands for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease associated with repeated head trauma. Scientists believe repeated head trauma can cause CTE, a progressive degenerative disease of the brain. Symptoms include depression, aggression and disorientation, but scientists can definitively diagnose it only after death. Getty Images
NFL Concussions Fast Facts. (2019, August 15). Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2013/08/30/us/nfl-concussions-fast-facts/index.html
Summary: This article talks about what a concussion is and how several retired NFL players who have had a concussion are developing memory and cognitive issues. The cognitive issues that are being seen are dementia, Alzheimer’s, depression and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). “The CTE is a degenerative disease of the brain and is associated with repeated head traumas like concussions” (NFL Concussions Fast Facts). When it comes to a concussion these are the common symptoms include imbalance, headache, vision change, etc. The number of concussions that happen through the preseason and regular season can vary but in the 2018 season there was 214 concussions. The amount of concussions leads to how the NFL plans to make changes to how concussions will be looked at. There were guidelines put in place back in 2007 for players to have a place to call if they were forced to play even though they had medical advice that told them not to. In 2010, the NFL commissioner let all 32 teams know that there would be a suspension for whoever broke these playing rules that could but a player in harm’s way.
Response: I see this article not being very helpful at first because of how it was more of a timeline of the different stages through the NFL. It looked at the environment of how the players who have retired are now having this CTE problem. It is hard to detect because of how it can only be found after the player has passed. The CTE happens to players who have had repeated concussion and have been hit in the head a lot. There are a lot of concussions to players throughout the seasons, but also when they continue to play after already having a concussion. The NFL started to change rules to help make the game safer for the players. The NFL is taking a stand in that if the teams do not follow these rules, that action will be taken because of how the player was not ready to go back into the game. The article helped by having different hyperlinks along the timeline in the article to help back up the information that was being talked about. This led me to choose to write about them to have a better understanding of how the NFL is making changes in rules and research in CTE.
CTE in Football 