Sports are a way for many people to stay fit and active in their life. Playing sports is also a great way to be sociable and have something in common with other people. The people that are lucky enough to be so good at a particular sport do it professionally, which can be extremely lucrative depending on how good you are.Unfortunately, playing sports comes with certain risks. With many sports, the possibility of bruises, broken bones or torn ligaments is VERY possible. Brain injuries could also be a possibility, especially if you play a contact sport.Concerns about brain injuries plague many sports. In the United States, the big four (baseball, basketball, football and hockey) can easily cause traumatic brain injuries (i.e. concussion, contusion, hematoma) that can result in your life being forever altered.
Of the four major sports played professionally in the United States, tackle football has the highest amount of contact between players. The amount of force generated by one player tackling another is more than you would think.Size and speed matter when considering a hard tackle. For example, a 200 pound football player who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds can generate up to 1600 pounds of force upon another person. That can cause serious damage to bones and muscles. If the hit is of the helmet-to-helmet variety (which is now penalized in the NFL), the hit can easily lead to concussions or other brain injuries.Concussions are the leading brain injury in football, and there have been new steps taken to help players with post-concussion syndrome. Team physicians are more cautious when they allow players to return to the field and play. The symptoms of a concussion usually go away within one to three days, but when you play a sport like football where there is a lot of contact; symptoms could easily come back after another hard hit.
Hitting (or checking as its called in the sport) and fighting (which is more or less allowed) already make hockey a rival to football in terms of brutality. Combine that with hockey sticks that are being waved around and flying hockey pucks, and you have yourself a hub for possible brain injuries.One of the most brutal hits to happen to a player in the National Hockey League (NHL) happened back in 2004 when Todd Bertuzzi, a member of the Vancouver Canucks, punched Colorado Avalanche player Steve Moore from behind before slamming him to the ice. As a result, Moore suffered three fractured vertebrae in his neck, a grade three concussion and other vertebral ligament damage.If it isnt bad enough you have to deal with other players, but you have to worry about all kinds of objects flying towards your head. Hockey sticks are essentially large pieces of wood, and hockey pucks are made from a type of rubber that is fused with other minerals using high heat (sulfur being one of them). Its very easy to suffer from a brain injury from either of these objects as well.
If you dont think baseball players can suffer concussions and other brain injuries, search on the internet for hit by pitch or hit by line drive. Nothing will deter you from playing a sport faster than watching someone else get hit in the head by an object that is traveling over 100 mph.Another example of a baseball play that can cause brain injuries is the collision at the plate. If a runner is trying to go to home plate and the catcher has the ball ready to tag the runner out, the runner has permission to attempt to dislodge the ball from the catchers glove by running into him. This is similar to a tackle in football because of the amount of force that can be generated.Baseball may be Americas past time, but consider the possibility of brain injuries in baseball and all sports. Just because baseball doesnt have the amount of contact as football and hockey, that doesnt mean brain injuries cant happen.
Football
Of the four major sports played professionally in the United States, tackle football has the highest amount of contact between players. The amount of force generated by one player tackling another is more than you would think.Size and speed matter when considering a hard tackle. For example, a 200 pound football player who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds can generate up to 1600 pounds of force upon another person. That can cause serious damage to bones and muscles. If the hit is of the helmet-to-helmet variety (which is now penalized in the NFL), the hit can easily lead to concussions or other brain injuries.Concussions are the leading brain injury in football, and there have been new steps taken to help players with post-concussion syndrome. Team physicians are more cautious when they allow players to return to the field and play. The symptoms of a concussion usually go away within one to three days, but when you play a sport like football where there is a lot of contact; symptoms could easily come back after another hard hit.
Hockey
Hitting (or checking as its called in the sport) and fighting (which is more or less allowed) already make hockey a rival to football in terms of brutality. Combine that with hockey sticks that are being waved around and flying hockey pucks, and you have yourself a hub for possible brain injuries.One of the most brutal hits to happen to a player in the National Hockey League (NHL) happened back in 2004 when Todd Bertuzzi, a member of the Vancouver Canucks, punched Colorado Avalanche player Steve Moore from behind before slamming him to the ice. As a result, Moore suffered three fractured vertebrae in his neck, a grade three concussion and other vertebral ligament damage.If it isnt bad enough you have to deal with other players, but you have to worry about all kinds of objects flying towards your head. Hockey sticks are essentially large pieces of wood, and hockey pucks are made from a type of rubber that is fused with other minerals using high heat (sulfur being one of them). Its very easy to suffer from a brain injury from either of these objects as well.
Baseball
If you dont think baseball players can suffer concussions and other brain injuries, search on the internet for hit by pitch or hit by line drive. Nothing will deter you from playing a sport faster than watching someone else get hit in the head by an object that is traveling over 100 mph.Another example of a baseball play that can cause brain injuries is the collision at the plate. If a runner is trying to go to home plate and the catcher has the ball ready to tag the runner out, the runner has permission to attempt to dislodge the ball from the catchers glove by running into him. This is similar to a tackle in football because of the amount of force that can be generated.Baseball may be Americas past time, but consider the possibility of brain injuries in baseball and all sports. Just because baseball doesnt have the amount of contact as football and hockey, that doesnt mean brain injuries cant happen.