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Annotated Bibliography

Concussions and CTE in the NFL, can it be stopped?

Cameron Weavil

Professor Malcolm Campbell

1102 UWRT

February 21, 2018

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Annotated Bibliography

Edwards, Wirt. Spradley, Brandon. Marcos, Abreu. “The War Against Concussions” 12

Feb. 2016. http://thesportjournal.org/article/the-war-against-concussions/. Accessed 10

Mar 2018.

This scholar reviewed journal was reviewed by multiple professors at the United States

Sports Academy. It is mainly about how the rate at which concussions are alarming and

how player safety has become a huge topic of conversation in the sports community.

There is not really a point of view or an argument going on, mainly they talk about

concussions and needing to do things to insure more player safety. They also go on to

talk about how researchers do not report the concussions during football at the High

School level because they are not aware of the signs and symptoms of concussions.

Concussion awareness for all coaches and knowing the basics of concussions is the first

step to helping concussions and giving the players enough time to recover before getting

injured even worse. A player is at greater risk of repeat injury in the first couple of days

after the head injury and is more likely to face complications later on in life. They say the

purpose of their study is to examine the advancements in concussion detection and

prevention, giving the leagues officials with ways to help reduce the risk of sustaining a

concussion. Not only in the pro leagues are they trying to get the basics of information to

because 50% of High School athletes and 70% of college athletes did not report a

concussion because they were not aware of the signs and symptoms. Having everyone

informed is the biggest way to help ensure the safety of our athletes on and off the field.
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The authors are biased on trying to find better ways to help players from getting a

concussion, and informing those who do not know the signs of concussions. The

audience is anyone who would like to be informed on concussions and anyone curious on

how researchers are trying to reduce concussions in sports. The quality of the source is

very well, it was reviewed by multiple different professors and it is full of great

information. Compared to my other sources I would put this one more towards the top

mainly because it is a scholar reviewed article and is produced by an organization that

has very strong facts and information.

This source was very helpful to me and gave me the information I needed to write my

paper. It helps with my argument because it even further explains that we need to do

more to help with the concussion not just in the pro league but also college and high

school levels. This source will definitely appear in my project because of all the great

information it provides.

Goldman, Tom. “CTE Found in Nearly All Donated NFL Player Brains” Football and

CTE: NPR, https://www.npr.org/2017/07/25/539198429/study-cte-found-in-nearly-all-

donated-nfl-player-brains, 25 July. 2017. Accessed 28 February 2018

In this news related article, the author Tom Goldman from NPR.com talks about the

recent study that found CTE in nearly all donated NFL player brains. The author has no

stand point of an argument, he is just giving information about the studies that link CTE

with the donated brains of retired NFL players. The only way scientists can study and see

whether you had CTE or not is after you already passed away and submitted your brain to
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them. Out of 202 deceased former football player brains that were submitted, they found

CTE in nearly 88 percent of them (177). One of the researchers said that this is by far the

largest study of people who developed CTE that has ever been described and it only

includes those who had head trauma by playing football. One of the researchers reached

out to the NFL saying they need around 100 million dollars to fully conduct research to

fully understand CTE. The NFL reached back out and said they value what they are doing

and is committed to supporting CTE research, but the researchers say they will be

surprised if they actually receive any money. Conducting all of the research and

providing information to the public about CTE would only hurt the NFL and their ratings.

They say there are big risks at playing football, and the longer or higher of level the

player reaches, the more likely it is that they will get CTE.

The author seemed objective on giving information about CTE and what the researchers

are trying to do, but also when talking about the NFL it seemed he took a different route

somewhat agreeing with what the researchers were saying about how the NFL won’t fund

them because of how it will hurt their ratings. The information is very reliable, it came

from a news source based on research conducted by professionals. The purpose of this

article is to inform those about CTE in the NFL and what the researchers are trying to do

to help stop it. The audience would be anyone who would like to be informed about CTE.

Compared to my other resources this one is very reliable with a lot of great information.

This source was very helpful and it fits into my research because it goes on about how the

NFL may not give the necessary funds to help researchers fully understand CTE, and it

also helps my argument that the NFL isn’t doing enough to help. It hasn’t changed how I

thought about my project rather giving me more solid information to use on my paper.
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This source will definitely appear on my project because of the argument of if the NFL is

doing everything they can to help ensure the safety of their players.

Mckee, Anne. Concussion Legacy Foundation “What is CTE?”

https://concussionfoundation.org/CTE-resources/what-is-CTE . Boston, Accessed 10 Mar

2018

This source produced by an organization is about how almost all of the donated brains

that have been studied have all been linked together with having CTE (Chronic

Traumatic Encephalopathy) in it. CTE is a degenerative brain disease found in athletes,

military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma. He says that 110 of

111 brains of the people who played in the NFL had CTE. It comes from the constant

blows to the head with no treatment and no resting out when having a head injury. CTE

was first diagnosed in 1928, when Dr. Harrison Martland described a group of boxers

having “punch drunk syndrome”. In 2005, a pathologist named Bennet Omalu published

the first cases of CTE in an American football player, and former Pittsburgh Steeler Mike

Webster. Shortly after the Concussion Legacy Foundation partnered with Boston

University and the Veterans Administration to form the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, led by

Dr. Anne Mckee. The Brain Bank changed completely how we understood the disease,

with more than 400 brains donated, 250 of those had CTE. Most people who have been

diagnosed with CTE suffered hundreds or thousands of head impacts over the course of

years playing contact sports. The NFL isn’t all that bad though, they implemented more
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rules and rule changes to try and better protect their players, but are they really doing

enough?

The author seemed to be neutral instead of taking sides and just gave good information

about CTE. They were more objective to giving information of CTE and what researchers

are doing to fully understand it. This source is pretty reliable considering it is a website

produced by an organization and used multiple quotes from researchers and gave good

information about CTE. The purpose for the author writing this post would be to inform

everyone reading that CTE in post NFL players is a very important issue, 110 of 111

brains donated had CTE in it. Compared to all of my other sources it doesn’t give as

much solid facts, but does give a great overview of CTE in players’ brain and how the

researchers are trying to solve this uprising problem. The purpose of the author creating

this article is to inform those on the rising issues of CTE, with the audience of anyone

who feels they might suffer from CTE or anyone wanting to be informed about CTE.

In conclusion the usefulness of this article is pretty good, I can use multiple facts and

information from this site. The author does a good job explaining how CTE is in players’

brains and what the researchers are doing in order to try and fix the problem. I feel as if

my argument has somewhat stayed the same, the NFL doing what some by changing

some rules but not doing everything they can by funding researchers. This source will

most likely show up in my paper because of how it talks about CTE and gives great

information about the symptoms and signs.

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Rapaport, Daniel. “Timeline: Six Studies of Head Trauma in Football That Helped

Establish Link to CTE” https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/07/26/nfl-concussion-head-trauma-

studies-football-timeline” July 26, 2017 Accessed 23 February, 2018

The author of this article is a well-known author for Sports Illustrated magazines and

online posts. In this article he starts talking about the number of former NFL players who

have had signs of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) found in their brain for all

of the constant concussions they endure while playing. He then begins a timeline

highlighting all of the very important dates regarding concussions in the NFL. In May,

2000 was when the first survey of head injuries in former NFL players was presented.

The study even shows that people with at least one head injury are 1.5 times more likely

to be diagnosed with depression. Also, compared to those players who have had no head

injuries, the people with at least one concussion were very likely to experience

neurological symptoms. Those symptoms include, problems with hearing, and

concentration, confusion, speech or hearing difficulties, numbness or tingling in

extremities, and headaches. Just one concussion can put you at risk of having these

symptoms after the concussion has been long gone. It somewhat depends on how you

treat the concussion, did you sit out long enough to heal? Or did you immediately try to

come back in the game, taking more hits to the head making the concussion even worse.

The author wasn’t biased toward any side, just showing the information that is there over

the history of the NFL.

The quality of the article was pretty good he gave good information but I feel as if he

could’ve went further in depth about each case and what was going on rather than giving
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a brief summary. The author wasn’t biased toward anything rather than being more

objective on the history of concussions throughout the history of the NFL. The site was

published by a very popular organization Sports Illustrated with the audience of any

sports fan who is interested in concussions and how the NFL is trying to prevent them.

Compared to my other sources I would say this one gives good solid facts about the

history of concussions I can use on my paper.

In conclusion, the author provided pretty solid information going over concussions and

providing a timeline going over important dates and issues in the NFL. There was also

good information about CTE in the brain and the post term effects of players who

suffered multiple concussions. The article was pretty useful, I got very good facts and

information from this one site. It has helped me with understanding how much

concussions affect our players today and I will definitely be using this source in my

project.