Head injuries on field an unnecessary risk most athletes take

High school athletes compete with such intensity that they are often willing to sacrifice their own well-being for the team.

Such loyalty to the team is admirable, commendable, and to many medical professionals, stupid. With concussion cases increasing every day in this accident-prone society, it brings rise to the question of how far these athletes are willing to go despite the obvious risks.

Erin Gustafson, a former soccer player who’s concussions have prevented her from continuing contact sports, commented,“I know of a few of my old teammates who’ve had the same amount of concussions as I have, but they’re still playing, and I decided that I have more to my life than just playing a contact sport like soccer, so I knew it was for the better to quit.”

To answer the question regarding why athletes push their own limits- it is due to the massive amounts of pressure placed onto said athlete to compete.This pressure is based on the idea that if the person who has the concussion is instructed to sit out the mandatory recovery week, then their team will not perform as well: costing them the “W”.

Transcending high school, athletes find themselves not wanting to be the scapegoat in terms of the team’s loss, especially due to a “small injury like a concussion”.

Former Cardinals strength coach John Lott describes the effects of concussions on the team, “When a player suffers a concussion, they can no longer play that game…so, for example, if a quarterback has a concussion …and cannot play the rest of the game or possibly the next game, that can affect the outcome of your offense therefore the outcome of a game. So in some regards that position that was a positive for you or an advantage for you now, makes the table even.”

Here is what many people do not realize: concussions actually propose serious problems and can be detrimental to a person’s life. It is more than just a headache that lasts a couple of weeks, and it could potentially have long term effects.

Dan Serrano stated, “The concussion protocol is very recent, probably within the last 10 years…it really came from the NFL with some players that were dying with concussion symptoms.” Coach Joelyn Boone added, “[In the past] I’m sure I had a concussion, but we played through it. We didn’t know better. Now we know better.”

Athletes need to be aware that their health and, in extreme cases, their lives can be at risk due to a “bump on the head.” With that risk in mind, it must be decided just how much the championship game is worth. No matter what happens, an athlete’s future is worth more than a any game.