"Head Injuries in Football"

From the New York Times (1, 2) and NBC Sports

Review by Matthew Kaiser in SRM 334 (section 2)

For our current event, Ryan and I chose to write about how concussions have impacted sport and the media’s role in that impact. Of the articles we used as evidence for our topic, the two that apply best were the articles on Bernard Pollard’s comments on how the NFL is changing the rules to try and remove such injuries and how he subsequently feels the sport will not last much longer as a result. This article basically talks about what Bernard Pollard said during the Super Bowl Media Day and how he feels that players getting faster and stronger completely contradict the direction the league is going in regards to player safety. The other article being President Obama’s comments about not letting his son play football because these injuries are so prevalent. In the topic of the Super Bowl, President Obama chose to speak on his worries about the game, specifically college. He feels the game should gradually change to ensure the health of its players.

I feel as though concussions will always be a part of sports, particularly football. There are subtle changes that can occur in other sports, but football there cannot be much without ruining the game. The emphasis on power and speed is greater than ever, so as players only continue to get bigger so will the collisions. Taking too much of the collision factor out of the game is basically turning it into flag football. This topic is relevant because it shows how big a role the media has played in changing the different sports. New rules are being pursued constantly in just about every sport, when a few years ago the topic was practically nonexistent. As the media stepped up its coverage of concussions and the long term effects that former athletes struggle with, we suddenly saw these games being altered to try and remove such injuries. Without the media, I’m not sure this topic is ever directly confronted like is today. 

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Review by Ryan Fitzgerald in SRM 334 (section 2)

Our current event was on the impact of the media on the portrayal of concussions in sport. Recently many players have filed lawsuits against the NFL for negligent actions concerning concussions and the long-term effects. Starting in the early part of the 2000’s the media began to cover the issue and started causing rule changes in professional sports, due to the concerns expressed from players and fans. The media played a large part in speeding up the process of rule changes and how people viewed continuous blows to the head. As a result of multiple players committing suicide and realizing the long-term effects of blows to the head, the NFL has started a brain bank for players to donate their brains to be examined after they pass. This has allowed the media to pick about the findings in these situations and express their concern to the public. Without the media, the topic of concussions would not be seen as a serious threat to athletes. 

As an athlete with multiple concussions, I feel the increased media coverage on the topic and the changes being made are important. Throughout the past decade or so, the media has picked up their coverage on concussions and the health concerns associated with them. Moving forward I feel many aspects of contact sports will change in order to eliminate constant blows to the head. My hope is that parents of young athletes realize and take into account the true damage concussions place on a developing child’s brain. I hope to see changes in adolescent contact sports and more research done on ways to help monitor when an athlete suffers a concussion.

"Michael Jordan vs LeBron James: All-Time Greats Go 1-On-1 ... Verbally"

From the Huffington Post

Review by Michael Herndon in SRM 334 (section 1)

Tiger Woods is said to be the best golfer ever, Wayne Gretzky as the best hockey player ever, and Michael Jordan is considered to be the best basketball player ever. As for basketball, LeBron James has, at least, started to come into the picture when talking about best basketball players. In the article that we chose to base our presentation off of, there is some indirect conversation between LeBron James and Michael Jordan. In this paper I want to summarize the article, show how the media has talked about this topic, and describe how I feel about the scenario at hand.

There are multiple articles that try to compare Michael Jordan and LeBron James, but this article shows how they have indirectly been conversing. The main point of the article is that Michael Jordan states that he would rather take Kobe Bryant on his team over LeBron James because of the amount of championships each player has won. A couple days later Lebron James comes back in an interview stating that he doesn’t think the best basketball player should be determined by how many championships a player has won. The second half of the article then goes on to describe how LeBron James has gone on to set a record for most thirty point games, while shooting over sixty percent from the field.

This time of the year is one of the biggest times for basketball fans; Michael Jordan’s birthday week and the NBA all-star weekend. This year there has been another element added to the mix, which is the record LeBron James has now set. The media has loved the timing of this because they are talking about Michael Jordan and LeBron James at the same time for multiple different reasons. It makes it very easy to start to compare the two basketball players, and adding that the two players have made different comments about the topic makes it even better for media. It has been talked about every single day for the past two weeks on ESPN.

This is a tough subject to try and analyze when I’m on the extreme side of Michael Jordan being the best basketball player ever. The one thing that I don’t like about this article, and how the media has been comparing the two players, is that LeBron James is half way through his career, while Michael Jordan’s career is finished. In the article, the number of rings is brought up by both Michael Jordan and LeBron James in some way. I don’t think you should compare the two players until both careers are at an end. Although you could compare the two at a certain point of Michael Jordan’s career, it still doesn’t work because Michael Jordan did so well in the second half of his career, which LeBron has yet to experience for himself.

This is relevant to this course because it is a big social media topic. It has been talked about on ESPN for weeks straight and there has been a blowup on twitter about this topic with different hash-tags, such as: #MichaelJordanvsLebronJames or #MJvsLJ. There are more and more people every day comparing these two basketball players and it’s through multiple different channels of social media. 

This is a social media topic that I think will be talked about forever. LeBron James is only half way through his career and there will be people comparing him and Michael Jordan until someone else comes along that has a chance of being better. I’m very excited to see what happens in the future, whether Lebron James wins more championships or not.
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Review by Cecily Leahy in SRM 334 (section 1)

In this article it discusses the argument between whether or not LeBron James is better than Michael Jordan This debate comes up during the week of Michael Jordan's birthday and was quoted in the Huffington Times saying that LeBron could never complete to Kobe Bryant. The main argument for LeBron being less great was the fact that he has only one championship compared to the five of Bryant. This comparison brings up the question as to how do people compare the achievements and skills of players. The problem that arises with this is that all players have their strength and weaknesses. It is unfair to simply judge a player on championships wins and not how the player is a whole. It’s similar to the cliche of you can not judge a book by its cover.

The article is relevant to this course because it demonstrates how what you cover in the media and the way you present it impacts the viewers reactions. Athletes are never are safe with what they say, whether to press or through social media. The media will take what they say and run with it. It also gives the media the opportunity to shine what was said in the manner they want to it be portrayed. The article proves to a lesson for athletes to makes sure they are careful to what they say and how they respond to what is said about them. Media coverage is not like use how it was back in the day where reporters would not say “we would have to report that if we saw that” mentioned in class referring to Babe Ruth running naked through a train one day. Media wants coverage and are always looking for a story. In the article, Washington Post columnist John Feinstein, mentioned that LeBron should have taken the humble route and not tired to spike another heated argument.

"97% Of NFL Players With History Of Head Trauma Show Signs Of Brain Disease"

From Business Insider and the Daily Mail

Review by Josh Revitch in SRM 334 (section 3)

Head injuries have always been a concerning topic in the NFL. After Junior Seau’s death last May by committing suicide, talk about the correlation of traumatic brain injuries and death skyrocketed. After this event, many former players sued the NFL due to the lack of information given to players about the long-term effects of head injuries and concussions. In early January this year, the autopsy of Junior Seau showed that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease caused by multiple and continuous blows to the head. From this discovery, researchers examined the brains of deceased, former NFL players. Scientists discovered that 31 out of the 34 brains they looked at had stage three or four CTE including players such as Dave Duerson, Cookie Gilchrist and John Mackey.

Social media allows for people to ask questions, give advice, and speak their mind about this topic. There are signs of concern about this topic as many parents have children playing football. The NFL is going to contribute money to researchers to discover how to prevent these types of head injuries. Teams are also going to have neurological specialists on their sidelines to give evaluations of players that get concussions during games. Hopefully the rule for allowing athletes to play post-concussion gets stricter as research shows detrimental, long-term side effects of head injuries and concussions.

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Review by Matt Dumblauskas in SRM 334 (section 3)


Concussions have emerged as a major safety issue in football during the past couple of years. This article addresses some of the steps that the NFL is taking and has taken in the past to help prevent or reduce the number of concussions. Recently the NFL has partnered with Boston University and is willing to give $1 million or more to fund independent research projects to help find a solution to this concussion problem. The article also mentions that NFL alumni association is encouraging players to donate their brains to help with the research process. The NFL is also is investing in independent research that can give insight into how helmets can be more protective. This includes how the helmet is worn and used, along with the make of the helmet.

In the past the league has been cautious about concussions, but has not looked into fixing the problem to this extent. When a player used to get a concussion, the team waited for symptoms to decrease and then that player was eligible to play. Now that all of this research shows a lasting effect of head trauma, I think that the game will change. I do not think that players will necessarily play the game differently because playing the game to their top potential is number one on the list of priorities for most players. That being said I do believe that the style of play will be taught differently at a young age. I also feel that these new steps are going to cause more parents to not let their kids play the game. The media aspect of this topic allows the spread of concussion awareness and is helping to spark a change. With the recent death of Junior Seau and the fact that his brain had CTE, the public is starting to look for answers. We as viewers do love to see big hits, but we do not want to see our favorite players being severely injured or even dying due to head trauma complications. Fans are now using social media to ask questions and show concern.