Analysis of "Functionally-Detected Cognitive Impairment in High School Football Players Without Clinically-Diagnosed Concussion"

In the article "Functionally-Detected Cognitive Impairment in High School Football Players Without Clinically-Diagnosed Concussion" from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Publishers, the authors' purposes is to inform that accrual of damage to the brain may occur with repeated blows to the head in high school football players. It is clear that the authors want to inform the reader of this, because they do not use any persuasive techniques and is not advertising a product in any way.

The authors' viewpoints of the article is that there is an urgent need for improved detection and characterization of head trauma to reduce the future injury risk. This viewpoint is based on the fact that in an assessment conducted in 11 teenagers participating in J.V. and varsity football, some of the players who have had clinically-diagnosed concussions also had changes in neurological (nerves/nervous system) behavior.

The main idea of this article is that more high school football players are suffering neurological injury than are presently detected by concussion-assessment mechanisms. This article has multiple facts to prove that this is true, and it is very undebatable whether or not it is true. It is not really opinionated, so it's hard to find a bias within this article. This is a very well written article, and has really helped me on the topic of "high school football injuries".

Introduction

Welcome! Over the past couple of days, I’ve been looking at something that is very important to a lot of parents across the nation. That “something” is the overall impact that injuries, especially to the brain, in high school football have on the players’ lives. Football is my favorite sport, and high school ball is my favorite form of it. For the next four years, I’m going to be one of the players that I’ve watched and hoped to be. I never realized how big of an effect just one blow to the head or one broken bone while playing in high school can have on my life, family, and future.

            I know there are players who were incredible football players in high school. They were future Heisman Trophy winners, Super Bowl champions, NFL Hall of Famers. One of these men is in my favorite movie of all time. James “Boobie” Miles, out of Odessa, Texas, was one of the best running backs in the nation and was being scouted by the top college football programs in the nation. He was on his way to being the best, a celebrity, living the dream. That all came crashing down when in his senior year of high school, he injured his knee in a pre-season game, it was a torn ACL. He tried to return weeks later, and just worsened the injury. That was virtually the end of his career. He never made it to the big time, and he will have a limp for the rest of his life.

There are also other players who get multiple concussions, they have brain damage and can’t even move or in worse cases can’t even communicate with others. They can be completely paralyzed, the whole rest of their lives taking a turn for the worst just from playing football for as little as three-to-four months. This just proves how big of a risk playing football in high school can be.