Problem  & Solution

One of the closest things you could get to death is being a paralyzed vegetable, which could happen as a result of head injuries. In 2002, former Steelers center Mike Webster became the first person to be diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, according to What Has the NFL done to Prevent Concussions? When the NFL was questioned about the situation, they tried to deny everything said about the situation, believing that there was no way that this life-altering disease could have possibly taken over their league and that they acquired these deadly diseases from somewhere else. At the time, the disease was primarily found in former boxers’ brains. What is done in secret eventually comes to light, and in 2014, 79 of the 76 deceased NFL players had their brains examined. It was discovered that all of them had CTE, with players who had played for longer periods of time suffering worse symptoms than those who had played for a shorter period of time. After a while, players grew weary of the NFL’s denials and demanded that they accept responsibility for their actions and make amends for the harm done to their lives, which will now negatively impact them for the rest of their life. While more than 20,000 past NFL players sued the league in 2016 and prevailed with a one-billion-dollar settlement, they did come together. The publication called, We’ve Only Just Begun: Determining Who Pays After the Approval of the NFL Concussion Settlement which is within the Defense Counsel Journal 83 Def. Counsel J. (2016), explains how the payments have been made, who is receiving what, and how quickly. We all know that no one wants to lose money, and the NFL lost a lot of money with these payouts, which made them consider how they might prevent future payouts if they didn’t want to do so. As we continue to analyze this ongoing situation, we will go over the numerous trials and errors that have occurred. The NFL decided it was time to act after having to reimburse several players owing to losing these cases and losing enormous sums of money. They were really compelled by this to begin thinking about the safety of their athletes and researching ways of preventing all these neurological problems. Let’s look into a few of the initiatives the NFL has sought to implement since then to reduce the frequency of head injuries and concussions. 

A video posted on TikTok by Jeffries, E. (2022), who shed some insight on the new technology developed to avoid head injuries, it is an intriguing discovery. Jefferies goes on to talk about in the video more on the device known as “the Q collar”, he goes on to say it is intended to mildly push on your neck, which ultimately results in a concussion since there is less room for your brain to move about in. While some solutions, such as the Q collar, target the issue’s immediate surroundings, other solutions, like guardian caps, target the issue’s root cause.  Several teams in the NFL have made the investment in wearing guardian hats during practice. To further protect against head injuries, the guardian caps are an additional helmet placed on top of your existing helmet. It has a solid exterior and a soft interior that offers excellent head-on crash protection. Because wearing guardian hats during practice is required for all teams in the league, it appears that they are taking these issues seriously. To top it all off, the NFL has provided a 1.55 million dollar grant to accelerate the development of new helmets with the finest protective equipment we have ever seen. The concern is how we can entirely eliminate all of these head injuries. While all these new technical developments for greater player safety protection are beneficial, none of them are actually foolproof strategies to completely stop these brain injuries. The answer to the unanswered issue of how to entirely stop concussions is that we can’t, but there is still optimism that we can slow it down and perhaps boost prevention. According to the British Journal of Sports Medicine, sports players’ equipment significantly reduces the risk of concussions (Benson). But, as was already said in this essay, the kind of equipment you use and how well it works can affect how frequently you suffer from these injuries. As further explanation, it should be noted that this approach is just preventative and cannot be relied upon to completely Halt concussions. The tools, especially the helmets, aid in maintaining the head in position and stabilizing it to prevent the brain from moving about too much. The reason why there were so many head injuries in the past and why former players are now reporting symptoms of CTE is that their helmets were insufficiently secure or technologically advanced to protect their brains. Although there are still some terrifying head injuries in the present, they are starting to be less common because of the new and improved helmets, which provide players more leeway when it comes to bumping heads with each other and enable them to readjust, adapt, and protect themselves. We have been investigating approaches to better reduce CTE in sports, particularly football, throughout the whole article. Nothing is impossible, but as we near the conclusion of this essay, it becomes clear that avoiding CTE in football is an extremely challenging endeavor. Despite this, there are still many efforts being taken in the correct way. . We were able to reach our conclusion by conducting extensive research for the paper; the most important factor is advancing new technologies when something comes to the protective equipment our players wear, and as we can see, these guardian caps are the most important factor and one of the biggest advancements. This might be improved upon by having guardian hats worn during actual games rather than just practices in the future.