Football is one of the most popular sports in the United States, but developments regarding what is known about the severity of repeated head injuries cast a shadow on the sport.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is the degeneration of the brain that occurs as a result of repeated injuries to the head and brain. This condition leads to impaired cognitive ability, as well as the possibility of mood and behavioral changes.
Overall, relatively little is known about CTE and its development, according to Mayo Clinic. This lack of knowledge contributes to more precautions being taken to prevent head injuries.
CTE is not diagnosable in a living patient and is only able to be determined by an autopsy. While little is known about how it develops, the understanding of concussions allows researchers to connect the dots with symptoms.
Statesboro neurologist Dr. Spencer Paterson explained that the shape and the location of certain parts of the brain contribute to the types of symptoms that arise from head injuries. “The frontal lobes and temporal lobes are particularly prone to injury,” Paterson said. “There’s bones at the bottom of the skull called petrous ridges and they make the temporal lobes very susceptible to injury.”
Paterson explained that these areas of the brain are important for cognition, mood, reasoning and memory. When the areas are injured repeatedly, these aspects of how a person functions can be heavily impacted.
Keenan Hellesto suffered seven concussions during his time playing football through high school. He attributes his current problems with his memory to those injuries. “I struggle with major memory issues,” Hellesto said. “Short term and long term memory have both been affected.”
Even though his memory deficiencies can be a hindrance, Hellesto does not regret his time playing football, nor does he plan to prevent any future children from playing if they choose to.
As common as concussions are in football, changes had to be made to try to mitigate the frequency of these injuries occurring. The concussion prevention effort has become a polarizing topic within football as new regulations are being imposed. To the dismay of many fans, rule changes have been made across all levels of football to eliminate helmet-to-helmet contact.
The Targeting rule was implemented in college football, which makes it illegal to hit a defenseless player in the head or neck area while leading with the crown of the helmet. If this foul is committed, the player responsible is disqualified.
The issue that fans have doesn’t lie within the promotion of player safety, but rather the idea that the game of football is being stripped of its physicality with every new rule.
Former high school football player Logan Finn still enjoys watching football with the rule changes. Having suffered multiple concussions himself, he understands the benefits of the rules being in place. “Everyone loves to see those big hits, but they’re not worth someone’s health or life,” Finn said.
As more information comes to light about the dangers of repeated head injuries regarding CTE development, the debate about whether parents should allow their kids to play football has begun to intensify.
Paterson clarified a misconception regarding head injuries to children. “The young brain is much more pliable,” Paterson said. “In other words, it has a much greater capacity to heal and form new connections.”
He also noted that it was still unsettling seeing any of his own children take a hard hit, but he was able to take comfort from the fact that the speed and power possessed by children are substantially lower than those of professional athletes.
The stark differences in strength, speed and power at different levels of football contribute to the overall chance of CTE developing. “There’s no question the force of the impacts and number of impacts correlates with the likelihood of having problems later on because of damage to important areas of the brain,” Paterson said.
The higher the level of football being played, the longer those athletes will have been playing for. More time on the field means more chances of being hit, which is a major contributing factor to the National Football League becoming more vigilant in its concussion prevention in recent years.
Similar to college football, the NFL has also implemented new rules to reduce contact to the head. On top of that, the NFL has banned the use of specific models of helmets that tested poorly, according to ESPN.
The 2017 preseason and regular season produced a combined 281 concussions. That number was reduced to 187 concussions in 2021 as a result of the changes, according to the NFL. It is not feasible to expect these injuries to completely cease to exist, but taking the precautions to lower the amount that occur year-to-year will help to lessen the chances for complications to arise later in an athlete’s life.
As researchers uncover more information about CTE moving forward, the NFL, and football as a whole, will have to continue to evolve to prioritize player health while maintaining the competitive spirit and entertainment value that the game is renowned for.