Concussions have always been a major part of the National Football League.  Ever since concussions were discovered the NFL has been trying to figure out ways to keep players from getting them.  Concussions cause a deadly brain disease called Chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE.  In 5th grade I suffered from a concussion playing football.  It was not a severe one but it also was not very fun either.

Concussions can be very dangerous to the human brain.  If a player suffers to many hits to the head they can get a brain disease known as CTE.  CTE can cause loss of memory, difficulty controlling behavior such as aggression and depression, and judgment.  It also causes balance issues and a gradual case of dementia.  Many former NFL players have suffered or still suffer from CTE.  Most of those players are people who played on the offensive or defensive line.  Those players are the ones who take on the most head to head contact.  Mostly every play for a lineman is head to head contact.  Some of the players that have died from CTE are Aaron Hernandez, Junior Seau, Mike Webster, and John Mackey.  These players that I mentioned mostly died from suicide.

The NFL has been using new technologies for helmets to try and prevent players from getting concussions.  Most of the helmets players wear today are made out of stiff polycarbonate shells lined with dense foam padding.  Some other helmets have pneumatic padding with suspension liners.  The main manufacturers of these helmets are Riddell, Schutt, Adams, and Xenith.  The Xenith X1 helmet uses air filled shock absorbers that kind of work like an airbag used in cars.  Riddell made a new helmet called the Riddell SpeedFlex.  It uses what they call the Flex System.  That system increases the flexibility in the helmet’s, shell, facemask and attachment system with hinge clips to reduce the impact force transferred to the athlete.  These technologies that these manufactures are using will continue to progress and become more advanced to protect players from getting concussions.

My personal experience with a concussion happened in 5th grade.  That was my first year playing tackle football.  It was during one of our football practices.  I was running the ball and I got tackled and hit my head on the ground pretty hard.  I was a little dizzy at first and my eyes were watery but I felt fine.  I started practicing and a couple of minutes later I started throwing up.  So I went to the hospital and got looked at for a concussion, and sure enough I had one.  For about the next three days I was throwing up non-stop.  It was not a fun time at all.  I think on the second day I tried going home.  I made it all the way home then I threw up again, so I had to go back to the hospital.  Even though throwing up constantly for 3 days isn’t very fun my concussion could have been a lot worse.  But now that I know what concussions can do to a person I’m glad mine wasn’t that bad.
Concussions are a very important issue in the NFL right now.  The NFL is doing everything they can to prevent players from getting them.  The research on CTE is continuing and people are finally starting to understand it more to find out how it happens and ways to prevent from getting it.