Concussions in the NFL

Over the past years football has had an increase of awareness of the concussions within the sport. Researchers and doctors are finally diving deeper in how bad these really can be and what they have found may just make you not want to play football.

In every sport around the world there is always a risk of injury but football is obviously one of the most injury prone as all that the sport is contact and someone can get it or be the hitter. After an interview that I had with my own dad Steve Neubert, who had played for The Jets for three years and has played football basically his entire life he gave me some insight on how injuries play a big role in the sport of football. I asked him how his injuries affected his day to day lives now and Neubert said, “Well yes playing in the NFL was my dream since I was a kid…but now that I have a kid of my own I always want to play sports with him and yes I still can but not without Advil and a long time of stretching- I did however develop ticks because of football”  now my dad is probably the biggest man I have seen and the most athletic man I’ve seen throughout my entire life and yes he can still do everything with me but I catch him every now and then with his ticks and sometimes taking a little bit longer to get out of bed in the morning. He also has a lot of back problems and stuff but that is normal for all what he has done. 

The most recent uproar to have Brought a lot of attention to the subject at hand was Miami Dolphins own Tua Tagovailoa being told he needs to retire because he cannot take any more blows to the head, he was told after a Thursday night game against the Cincinnati Bengal’s that he should retire this was told by, Dr Bennet Omalu. So, knowing this I went to my doctor to ask more about concussions Dr Mino stated, “Concussion obviously can be very minor to very major and multiple concussions are very very bad… I would caution all people that want to play football to seriously take precaution before as it could seriously be a threat to your head” Obviously Dr. Mino was not going to tell people to just straight up not play football but I could just hear it in his voice when I was talking to him, he is very cautious because it could seriously injure your head. When we were talking, he said he used to play football in high school and got 3 concussions and decided to not play it any further because, “Football is not more important than life for my future kids” Mino said. 

Now, I’m not telling people to just stop playing football because there is risk of injury. I played basketball, baseball, and football all through my life and yes, I have gotten hurt it just comes along with sports. But I am trying to inform you to be more cautious when it comes to football, if you get a concussion or get hurt it is okay to sit out for as long as the doctor says. Don’t try to get cleared sooner just because you want to play, make sure your 100% good to go before trying to play again because if you’re not you will get hurt more.