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Scott W. Downs Professor Steve Hall English 1010 Section #1 November 11, 2013 Capitalistic Concussion I.) Introduction:

Collision sports are defined as those which lead its participants to repeated forceful collisions with one another. Unsurprisingly, at the head of this group is American football; followed by wrestling, lacrosse and boxing. What is the greatest growing medical concern about participating in these types of forceful contact sports? Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, known as CTE. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a disease within the brain which is linked to repeated concussions. A concussion is an injury to the brain or spinal cord due to jarring from a blow. Each of the aforementioned sports has an obvious exposure to repeated head trauma in each of its respective sporting outings. There is a growing body of evidence and mounting public outcry that the most perilous collision sport of football has long repressed a link between itself and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) as well as dementia. There are extensive medical findings from brain studies on former professional football players that support the medical belief that CTE and football are connected. Yet, the highest sporting power in the United States, multi-billion dollar National Football League has long sought to contain these medical findings until the public perception was too intense to deny any longer. For a league which continues to negotiate with its

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players union to extend the sporting season in the pursuit of increased revenue streams, this seems particularly distasteful. So what? Why would any of that matter to a 34 year old man with three daughters? Well, I played football. I also played lacrosse. Two of my brothers played football and my fourth brother played lacrosse. One of my sisters played lacrosse. Five of my nephews have played football. One of my nephews has wrestled. If there is a barrier that has been constructed to impede the dissemination of information about CTE, then have I been affected? Have they?

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Works Cited

Bramley, Harry. "High School Soccer Players With Concussion Education Are More Likely to Notify Their Coach of a Suspected Concussion." Clinical Pediatrics. 51.4 (2011): 332336. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. http://cpj.sagepub.com/content/51/4/332.full.pdf html

1.) Summary: 183 High School soccer players in the Ohio Valley were surveyed for their education about the risks and signs of concussion injury. The published report was based upon a 1/3 participation rate and gender was not a criteria of the research. Their discovery was that athletes who had been previously educated about the dangers of concussions were more likely to admit symptoms to their coaches. They assert that informing younger athletes about the signs one has experienced brain trauma can prevent more severe re-injury. 2.) Rhetorical Analysis: The article is based around simultaneous appeals to ethos and logos. Being a medical study, it was entirely factual and qualified as primary source material. The greatest failing of the research is the number of athletes who participated. One-hundred and eighty-three is not a sufficient sample size, much less so with about 33% participating in the study. While the research question and methods are credible, as is the periodical it was published in, this same study would need to be repeated in multiple regions throughout the country, breaching the thousands in participation.

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3.) Reflect: (1.) How did it affect my thinking or the research questions? (2.) How its positions relates to one or more of the other sources. One of the interesting discoveries I made from this study is the position of Girls Soccer as the second highest source of concussions in American sports. Researching a sport I had mistakenly deemed a less-likely source of head-injury, reaffirmed my belief that education must be carried out at least by the High School level of athletics to inform an age-bracket which deems itself impervious to ailment. Similarly, if head trauma is becoming a documented concern in soccer and other non-collision sports, why would football, the cash cow resist this information disseminating to increase the longevity of its sport? Or, to inspire manufacturers of equipment to adapt to the bigger, stronger, faster age with better prevention methods?

Gladwell, Malcolm. "Offensive Play." New Yorker. 85.33 (2009): 50-59. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=1139bf4e-bd06-49e2-8c0e347a2988ed1f@sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=126&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ == 1.) Summary: Gladwell compares the callous nature which those who lead dog-fighting circuits with the callous nature NFL owners treat their athletes. He cites one former player having been knocked out in a game on a Sunday and being expected to play on the following Thursday. He references how that player was applauded by his Coaches for his

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resilience and toughness. Similarly, he describes the g-force of blows in football and how it would compare with car accidents. He deftly describes the macabre methods of those who have fight dogs and how quickly they destroy the animals when the suffering it has endured becomes too great, and survival unlikely. This parallel with the direction that former professional football players lives are taking, by their owners, is disturbingly real.

2.) Rhetorical Analysis: Gladwell effectively appeals to pathos with his dog-fighting comparison which is acutely mortifying. In that account, he compliments enhances the credibility by using the descriptions offered by Sociologists Rhonda Evans and Craig Forsyth. When describing the a traumatic account of former NFL Offensive Lineman Kyle Turley having been knocked unconscious during a competition, he added a humorous anecdote about his walking out of the shower and giving the female owner a naked bear hug. Further developing this appeal to our darker emotional admissions, Gladwell cited our Americana fervor for ferocity by describing how we applaud the violence of football, while being all too willing to forget the damaged fighter once the career has concluded. Making the transitions from pure violence to head-trauma, the author draws the experience of Dr. Anne McKee, renowned Neuropathologist. Dr. McKee is respected for her study on brain tissue and her discovery of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) which is the neurological disorder that appears in those who have suffered brain trauma. Dr. McKees findings that singular incident concussions are not the sole contributors to

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CTE but the repetitious sub-concussive blows which eventually leave the protein deposits known as tau as a sign of irreparable damage.

3.) Reflect: (1.) How did it affect my thinking or the research questions? (2.) How its positions relates to one or more of the other sources. This article was particularly sobering. I am very familiar with the careers of most of the NFL football players referenced in the context of this piece. Considering their postprofessional football lives is increasingly sickening for me. The notion of a possible 18,000 sub-concussive brain blows in a lengthy career is profoundly disturbing. I find it ironic that the University of North Carolina has created a specific medical focus on tracking the effects of impact inside of helmets, yet keeps its football and lacrosse programs. This author strikes a slightly different position than the others I have referenced in that he aggressively asserts that our societal tolerance, even exuberance, for violence which is deemed unacceptable towards animals but acceptable if applied to humans. The appeal to comedy at the bizarre behavior of those who likely bear CTE is a tact not used by the other authors who treat the subject in a far more sobering fashion. Having been published in the New Yorker Magazine is a reputable, non-ESPN, type of outlet for this sort of sporting piece.

Fainaru-Wada, Mark, dir. League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis. Dir. Fainaru Steve. Frontline, 2013. Film. 11 Nov 2013. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/league-ofdenial/

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1.) Summary: The thesis of this documentary is built around what did the NFL know and when did they know it? The violence of football preyed upon our societal lust for violence. Beginning in 1970 when Monday Night Football (MNF) launched the NFL experienced ever-increasing revenues and created montage after montage of ferocious collisions to excite our passion. The actual logo of the MNF is two empty heads crashing into each other, and disintegrating! Since Paul Taglibeau, the NFL has made its Commissioner an Attorney with Class-Action law-suit experience. By 1994 Taglibeau formed a fraudulent committee, the MTBI, to investigate concussions and their relationship with football head injuries. It head? The team Doctor of the NY Jets who agreed with the leagues denial. The Doctors medical field of study was rheumatology, not neuroscience. The committee was stacked with half of its members being NFL team Doctors. This MTBI committee was able to get a Medical Journal to publish 16 different research papers containing assertions that at best were premature based on insufficient data; at worst, wildly inaccurate. All of those involved with the published papers were employed by the NFL in some fashion. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) was discovered in football players by Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born Neuropathologist who knew nothing about football who happened to be the Medical Examiner who performed the autopsy on Mike Websters brain. The NFLs response to the published work was to attack and discredit Dr. Omalu. He later investigates several other former NFL players. Later another Neuropathologist, Dr. Anne McKee, is invited to join a team of scientists to study concussions and football players. One of the founding partners is a

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former Harvard lineman, who was a WWE wrestler after college, whose job it was to locate former players brains for study. Her findings were consistent with Dr. Omalus. Dr. McKee published her CTE crisis findings publicly, at the Super Bowl in 2009, in Tampa Florida at a Press Conference. The NFL invites McKee to Park Avenue in New York to humiliate her in-person. Shortly thereafter an internal NFL study about dementia in players was leaked to a NY Times reporter, and published. Eventually, the NFL is called before Congress and humiliated itself. Shortly thereafter 4,500 former NFL players file a law-suit against the league. All signs point to demise when Commissioner Roger Goodell does an about-face in regards to CTE and begins dumping millions in funding into Medical Institutes (NIH & Boston University). Goodell names Dr. Anne McKee the head of a medical group to study CTE and provided the brains to do so. The NFL settles the former-players law suit for $785,000,000 yet never acknowledges a foreknowledge of CTE and its possible connection with football. The NFL now takes the approach of stating they are studying the issue and hope to discover if there is any link in the future. Meanwhile, the profits continue to roll.

2.) Rhetorical Analysis: We open with an appeal to pathos recounting the sad tale of patient zero, one Mike Webster. Webster was a four-time Super Bowl Champion, a Hall of Fame player, who was known as Iron Mike. We are led through his tale of tragedy in the years following his 18-year career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. In the final Disability Claim ruling the NFLs Retirement Board stated the following, His disability is a result of head injuries sustained as a football player

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We are shown the incriminating evidence that NFL films continues to perpetuate the majesty of violence within the sport. These emotional appeals are simultaneously incriminating evidence to those of us who feast upon the crushing blows exchanged by these mammoth men. The interviews of Dr. Bennett Omalu, Dr. Anne McKee, Dr. Cantu and Dr. Mark Lovell dramatically enhance the credibility. Additionally these interviews and the images of their brain-study findings provide the factual reasons behinds their claims of a link between football and CTE. To augment the validity to claims of the directors, we are offered testimony of several Hall of Fame NFL players, namely Steve Young and Harry Carson. To further the discussion, we are told of the suicide of a 21 year old Penn State Football player whose brain later showed signs of CTE. To enhance that point, we are told the story of an 18 year old High School football player who died shortly after his fourth concussion. To carry this emotional point home, Harry Carson offers a somber take about the evidence being available, and wonders, The question is, do you want it to be your child?

3.) Reflect: (1.) How did it affect my thinking or the research questions? (2.) How its positions relates to one or more of the other sources. Im not gonna lie, this one forces me into juxtaposition about the sport of football. Is a sport of known violence with expendable players, non-guaranteed contracts, callous coaches and an entity 20 years in denial of brain trauma, something I ought to enjoy as much as I do? Or is it like boxing where the gladiator sport will continue whether or not the athletes are keenly aware or not? Is participation a calculated

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risk? This was an effective video which is guiding me to attempt to dissuade my nephew from playing Linebacker for Brigham Young University next fall as hes been offered. The factually supported position of blame, denial and delay are presented in a manner different from any of my other sources. The presentation is the most effective of all of them as it synthesizes logos, pathos and ethos in a visual way that cannot be matched by mere text.

Lincoln, Andrew E. "Trends in Concussion Incidence in High School Sports A Prospective 11Year Study." American Journal of Sports Medicine. 39.5 (2011): 958-963. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/39/5/958.full

1.) Summary: This is report of an 11-year, non-gender specific study of High School athletics. Each concussion which was reported was recorded as a separate incident. The findings were ranked by sport and percentage of overall frequency. Football had the highest incident rate followed by boys lacrosse. Among girls, soccer was first with lacrosse coming in second. Startling that Girls Soccer was second only to football in the findings.

2.) Rhetorical Analysis: The 11 year span, 25 schools and 12 sports lends to credibility. Their offering of a comparative study and its result compliment the validity by affirmation, since the results were similar. They acknowledge at least one potential scientific failing which resulted from the research, namely that women are more likely to report, thus augmenting

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their reported occurrences. This study is unbiased and from a reputable medical journal, thus the research has been qualified. As they were not compensated for their efforts, the findings are not tainted by a manipulated motive.

3.) Reflect: (1.) How did it affect my thinking or the research questions? (2.) How its positions relates to one or more of the other sources. There has been an increased awareness and attention to concussions over the past 11 years. The availability of Physical Trainers and an increasing willingness to report may have contributed to increased results. The tide is slowly turning. High School athletes seem to be pressured less to tough it out. Public alarm and growing knowledge of CTE are improving how young people treat themselves, fearful of a dark future. Unlike some medical research, the time-span and similar study having been conducted, allow for confidence in the data. The rankings of head-trauma by sport will be very useful in my upcoming presentation.

Lovell, Mark R. "Grade 1 or "Ding" Concussions in High School Athletes." American Journal of Sports Medicine. 32.1 (2004): 47-54. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/32/1/47.full.pdf html

1.) Summary: 43 athletes were evaluated prior to their respective sporting seasons and then postinjury to determine if sufficient time is being allocated for recovery. One of the currently

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accepted High School practices is that an athlete may return to a sporting event if they show signs of clearing-up within 15 minutes of the incident.

2.) Rhetorical Analysis: The composition is from a credible medical periodical by a well-respected Neuropathologist, allowing for confidence in the research. It is noted that athletes might be dishonest about their well-being as they seek to re-enter a competition, which is an undeniable emotional appeal to the reality of the fearlessness of youth. The emphasis on medical evaluation being available at each sporting contest is a sensible appeal to pathos which has tremendous merit

3.) Reflect: (1.) How did it affect my thinking or the research questions? (2.) How its positions relates to one or more of the other sources. Dr. Lovell is cited in other sources as an authority on these brains studies and his research falls in harmony with other, more comprehensive studies. Similar to one of the other medical publications, his insistence on education about head trauma will be to the benefit of all student-athletes. This compliment the Clinical Pediatrics findings quite well.

II.)

Conclusion: In conclusion, the most powerful sporting entity in the United States, whose

profitability over the past three decades has been unmatched, built its empire upon a

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collision sport, American Football. As the obvious scientific deductions arose to study the effects of head trauma to long-term ailments and disease, they not only denied, but they aggressively attacked those findings might threaten their empire. The have been successfully relentless in repressing new discovery and discrediting those who researched brain trauma. Whats worse is that they conducted internal studies full of disinformation and forcefully disseminated it upon the American public to protect the integrity of The Shield. All the while exploiting athletes who willingly sacrificed knees, hips, kidneys, livers and other organs, but unknowingly their brains! What connection does this have to me? Why should I care? After all, I wear the jerseys and hats, place the window clings upon my car, have the cufflinks with matching socks, attend games and play fantasy football; who am I to judge? What if this information was released in the early 1990s, would I have continued to play football? What about lacrosse? Would my nephews have grown up like I did, still have been encouraged by me and others to aspire to play the gladiator sport? Since we know professional sports has a profound impact on American culture by way of recreational entertainment, clothing, music and commerce, if we knew football leads to brain damage, would we have so many kids trying to be like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Ray Lewis? Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a real disease and is clearly linked to collision sports. Executing this research paper has led to some serious, difficult selfevaluation; I hope it will do the same for others.