Written by The contact heavy aspect of football has attracted many fans over the years due to the nature of the game; hit hard, hit fast. With movies like Concussion, directed by Peter Landesman, an emphasis is placed on all of the effects of this “Hit Hard Hit Fast,” gameplay. What do the players receive from participating in the sport? Many would say fame, money, glory, achievements. Very few would begin with brain damage, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), brain disorders, physical impairments, and emotional instability.
The hard part about recognizing brain damage in your athletes is that CTE can’t be directly diagnosed. Out of sight out of mind, if you can’t see the CTE then it becomes less of an issue for people because there isn’t anything tangible to work with. Even PET scans can’t measure CTE, only brain abnormalities that you can attribute to CTE. How can coaches recognize this sort of behavior from their players? Major warning signs are:
Memory loss, visual impairment, confusion, sporadic behavior, mood swings, excessive or unwarranted aggression, depression, anxiety, trembling, impulsiveness
If your player seems to be acting out of sorts, check in on them and you could even ask them to perform balance and vision tests to further increase the accuracy of your prediction.
Players like Joshua Perry and Chris Borland who left their professional sports careers early helped pave a way for athletes to feel comfortable leaving the sport they love. These two players had left the NFL to focus on their mental and physical health, something they said was more important than the achievements and glory that comes with playing these sports.
Joshua Perry, in a tweet he posted in 2018, stated that “The last thing I want to do is put the health of my brain and my future well being in jeopardy over a game and a paycheck.” The level of maturity you must have to walk away from millions of dollars, fame, endorsements, and most of all, a hobby you enjoy doing, is quite astonishing. The point here isn’t that people should stop playing football because of some injuries, but rather recognize that with any sort of contact sport you play you are always at risk of serious brain damage. Awareness is always the first step, and the sooner coaches recognize something is off with their players, the earlier they can catch potential CTE or brain damage within their players.