All over the world, people enjoy playing and rooting for their sports teams. People come together from all over the world to watch the FIFA World Cup (soccer in America, futbol in other countries), and cheer on their teams. Millions gather in their living rooms to watch the Super Bowl, and root for a team that may not be their home team. People gather all over the world to watch sports games. They cheer for the goals and touchdowns, yell at the referees, and scream at the hard hits that bring people down, screeching “Get up!” at players who endure hard hits, not knowing what really occurred behind their television screens, or behind the player's skulls.

When players endure hard hits to the head, they receive what is medically labeled as a concussion, and all of them are just as serious as the next one. When someone sustains a concussion, their brain changes shape, which damages it’s axons and alters brain function. Concussions may occur with symptoms such as nausea, “seeing stars,” loss of memory or consciousness, and can affect memory and balance. Some players who suffer concussions may experience no symptoms at all, which can be problematic because if they are not treated right away, more serious problems can occur. Some people may go their whole lives without even knowing they have a concussion, and many others may not even know what a concussion is, or what it’s symptoms are, and some people like it that way.

In the documentary ‘Head Games: The Global Concussion Crisis’, when Chris Nowinski visited high schools to talk about concussions, and the many dangers of them, he received backlash from athletic directors, who presumably only care about the game, because during the time of the presentation, there was a mandatory training session for players so they could not have possibly gotten any of the information, and when he did get a chance to talk to students, most of them didn’t even know what a concussion was. For those that do know what they are, some feel that if they tough it out, they won’t be seen as weak for cutting out of the game after being hurt. They don’t realize just how serious their injuries are. Concussions concerning children can be more dangerous than those that occur in adults, because children under the age of 18 do not have fully developed bodies, or brains for that matter, nor do they have the proper doctors on the sidelines of their games to look for and take care of concussions like they do in the higher leagues, like the NFL. Up until the age 25, a person’s brain is still developing with the rest of their body, so for it to be damaged while it’s still developing causes damage that will affect them later in their adult lives, especially if they endure many hits in their athletic careers. Annually, in sports, there are roughly 1.6 to 3.8 million sports-related concussions. Other problems from repetitive hits besides memory loss and change in attitude include illnesses such as Dementia, Alzheimers, and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a disease that occurs from enduring numerous hits to one’s head, and can only be detected post mortem (after a person dies) when dissecting the brain. CTE is a degenerative disease, meaning parts of the brain, and sometimes the spinal cord, break down over time, which decreases a person’s movements, coordination, lack of judgement, and can cause other complications for a person’s everyday life, including death. CTE is most commonly found in people who have played professional, concussion-prone sports, such as football, boxing, soccer, or hockey. Studies have shown that professional athletes are at a higher risk of dying at a younger age due to CTE, which comes from repetitive hits to the head (i.e concussions). In a study of five football players, all died suddenly, ranging from ages 36-50, and have experienced symptoms such as mood disorder (like depression), memory loss, paranoia, and poor judgement. These symptoms caused four of five players to die from tragic deaths like suicide, an accidental gunshot to the chest, and a police chase. All of which, arguably, can occur because of symptoms caused by CTE, like depression, and poor judgement. Other problems that occur because of the brains degeneration include diseases like Parkinson’s, and Dementia (of which, professional athletes are 19 times more likely to suffer from Dementia than other men of the same age group that have not played professional concussion-prone sports).

Concussions are a serious injury, and numerous concussions during one’s life can lead to other problems such as CTE, which can in turn, cause an untimely death. Because we see concussions most often in sports like football, it is important that we pay attention to the brains of those who are still developing, in hopes of decreasing their chances for CTE. Children who play peewee sports, like little league football, have an even higher chance of getting CTE if they sustain concussions during their games than those who start playing in college because they are predisposed to getting concussions.

Children take longer to heal from concussions, so if we aren’t paying attention to them when they say they have headaches or see stars, we are putting them at a greater risk for developing complications later in life, especially if they make it to the professional leagues, who honestly don’t even offer much better protection for players in terms of preventing and protecting players from concussions. All they have is doctors to look for them, and to treat them. Kids don’t have that in the little leagues, and should be thoroughly taught about the dangers before being subjected to a possible lifetime of pain, instead of being taught that winning comes before their pain.