1st story video

Ethos: I wanted to come off as trying to be personally with the person I am teaching the lesson too by telling them a story that was told to me growing up.

Pathos: Audience reflect back on their own lives and have them think about if their family comes first. Because we really do need family in our lives

Article #9: "America's Sport"

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/09/08/football-continues-to-dominate-high-school-sports-despite-concussion-risk/

 In this article the discussion is about concusssions as part of the game. You can not element concussions its envitable. As a former NFL lineman Brad Culpepper said in the article, "If you weren't seeing stars after a hit, it wasn't a good hit." That statement seems very brutal but its the honesty of the game. Another topic the article touched on is that dispite the health issues football still continues to dominate the professional sports in America. It is very much still "america's sport" as a matter of fact the popularity of spectors for football has increased as more people are more aware about concussions. They want to know what the future of the game will be.

Article #8: Just let the kids play

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/8297366/espn-survey-finds-news-coverage-concussions-leads-majority-parents-less-likely-allow-sons-play-youth-football-leagues

This article goes into the mindset of parents when it is related to football. Many parents are very cautious of there children health and some parents believe football puts there health in danger."Football is a sport a in which severe injuries can happen when a child is not properly coached. Most youth football coaches are concerned only with winning." This statement is very true my self have come across coaches in my years of football who are only concern with winning. Therefore missing out on the importance of good technique. The unfortunate part about concussions is that even though good technique can prevent injuries, concussions are just apart of the game. So I guess parents do have valid concerns about there children playing football. Even the most die hard football fans will not let there children play because of fear of concussions. In my opinion I'm just like let the kids play and enjoy themselves. When they get that first concussion is when you can think about restricting them from playing football.

Article #7:Football over...

http://blogs.e-rockford.com/applesauce/2012/06/07/the-end-of-football-as-we-know-it/


This article just a few sentences long is trying to get at the point of is football as we know it longer. In my opinion yes football as we know it is done with. Concussions are becoming very much apart of the game. I believe that there will come a point in which players need to be punished for violent hits to the head. I already see a little now in the NFL where referees are throwing more flags and giving more penalties to a person who hits a defenseless person head on. The NFL is really trying to better there rules on head to head hits to ensure that player safety. Unfortunately if concussions continue to be a big problem numbers in youth football could dwindle as parents become more concern for there child's health.

Article #6: Is it Really worth the risk??

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/16/ohio-state-linebacker-choosing-career-over-concussions/

This article is about former Ohio State linebacker, Andrew Sweat. He gave up an opportunity to play in the NFL because of his fear of his health. Through college he had suffered multiple concussions he of course missed some games but his production was still good enough to get him a chance to play in the NFL. His rational behind turning down an opportunity that most can only dream of was his fear of concussions. He tweeted, "Concussion symptoms didn't want to risk it.. Thanks to the browns for the opportunity. Health trumps football any day." There are so many times where injuries go unnoticed by players and if they do notice most try to play through it. What makes this story interesting is here is a player who suffered multiple concussions and is giving up his love for starting a career in law because at the end of the day your health is more important than playing football. It kinda makes me think about my self and how I have on several occasions overlooked an injury that could of been very serious just because I wanted to play. Ultimate moral is players should really think about long term consequences of playing through head injuries.

Article #5: High Risk, High Reward

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/05/health/nfl-neurodegenerative-disease/index.html


Untreated concussions can be very harmful to a person, especially a football player as they experience head on collisions almost every play. This article talks about a new study that is being conducted to exactly discover what the long term effects of concussion could be. Study finds that football players are more likely to develop neurodegenerative disease as they age. Specifically the study was conducted by following the post lives of NFL football players. What was found was that some of these players actually died from aAlzheimer's and other diseases associated with the brain. One of the most interesting quotes in this article was said by the NFL players association they claimed that the league"downplayed and misrepresented the issues and misled players concerning the risks associated with concussions." What I say to this is they are crazy. Everyone who signs up for football knows that the game is high risk- high reward. If anything professional players should really understand that message. Why should the league have to put out on the table all of the downsides of playing football. I mean they do get paid millions of dollars, why not use some of that money to get treatments for brain injuries? The players should really re-evaulate their claim as they know the risk of the game.

Article #4 Oh My leather helmets?!?!

http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/07/in-football-leather-helmets-could-provide-a-better-defense-against-concussion/

At first reading the title of this article, “Why Leather Football Helmets Could Provide a Better Defense against Concussion” I thought this idea was kinda fuuny. How could a leather helmet possible protect against the collosions that football players enocunter? Funny right? Well after reading the article my perspective has changed alittle. Maybe this is a feasbile idea after all. To research this theory scientist placed a modern helmet vs. a leather helmet on a crash dummy. The data reading showed the scientist that leather helmets and modern helmets provide a “similar protectiveness profile.” Interestingly enough this data does make sense as the article states it could have to do with the stiffness of helmets. As modern helmets do not absorb impacts easily and leather helmets do absorb some energy therefore decreasing the impact of the hit. Of course the game of football cannot just go to leather helmets because players do need some hard forcefield on their head. But instead what the article projects is that modern helmets could possibly have a more softer shell. To me this idea of leather helmets and making modern helmets softer is weird but at the sametime it makes sense. Realistacally this plan will not be pursued because players are getting bigger, faster and stonger as years progress. Creating this softer shell to the moderen helmet could led to more serious head injuries such as a craked skull.

Article #3 Concussions in Child Athletes

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=unschooled-in-hard-knocks

This article produced just 8 months ago is very interesting in my eyes. It touches on concussions in child athletes. It is estimated that about 144,000 children are diagnosed with a concussion yearly. This number does not even account for all concussions. As many children who suffer a concussion the problem goes unnoticed. Most likely a result of the lack of education that coaches, players and athletes have about symptoms of a concussion. To make things worse the article says there are about 1.5 million kids playing on football teams around the country, therefore increasing the possibilities of being diagnosed with a concussion. Most alarming detail to me that the article touches on is that concussion research in children is far behind the research that has been conducted for collegiate and pro athletes. I would think that concussions in children would be more dangerous as their brains are still being developed and that could impede the development process. Hopefully concussion research in children can catch up in the near future.

Article # 2 Technology

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/8311371/significant-advances-being-made-concussion-research-universities-nationwide

This article and video explains the technology that researchers at universities around the country have used to detect and measure the  impact of blows to the head in real time during a game or practice.  The technology has been dubbed the "hit system" While reading this article I had an internal conflict. The medical understanding of the technology vs. the player side. The medical side of me completely agrees with the "hit system". It is a great way to monitor player shots to head. One of the best perks of this system in my opinion is if there is hit to the head of a 90g force or higher the pager of the doctor on the scene of the game or practice is alerted. The "hit system" shows the advances that are being made in concussion research. On the other hand the player side of me is skeptical of this system. Reason being is a computer is determining my ability to play the game I love. I do know that concussions, head injuries in general are very serious but it would not sit well with me if I had to leave a game because of data that a computer collected. I see a flaw in this system because the pain tolerance of a hit to the head differs from player to player. Currently I do not see how this flaw can be fixed to ensure a fail proof system.

Article #1 : Concussion help in NFL

http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2011/12/23/why-the-nfl-needs-a-concussion-ref/

Concussions are a big issue in all sports, for this article I wanted to focus specifically on football. There are many instances in which players get hit in the head and don’t say anything about it and the biggest culprit of this the NFL. Imagine putting you body through violent collisions for 60 minutes, while that’s what pro football players do. Hits to the head that lead to headaches once were not a big problem but now it’s a huge problem. The NFL are becoming more aware of the dangers of receiving a concussion as a result they have taken steps to ensure players are protecting after receiving a huge blow to the head. The regulation uses to be that every team has doctors on their sideline in the case of an injury. Now a rule has been placed that at every game an athletic trainer is placed in the press box to watch the games and specifically look for hits to the head that could be dangerous. I think this is such a great idea because it shows that NFL is worried about player safety. Also by having a person just looking for concussion type hits make the jobs of the doctors on the field a little easier as they can not see everything that happens.