By Lew Margolis
A student accompanied me to a recent football game at Kenan stadium to encourage conversations about concussions and football. Holding signs asking, “how much brain damage from football is o.k.?” we invited comments and questions from fans flowing into the game.
Our encounter with one young man expresses and reflects the ethical problem at the core of football and concussions. He walked past us, stopped after another 20 feet, and turned back towards us. The expression on his face seemed to ask, “is it o.k. to talk about this?” “What’s on your mind?” I asked. He explained that he had clearly sustained a concussion–the bright lights, the dizziness—after a collision in high school football. His coach held up three fingers, asked the young man to count them, and when he did so correctly, ordered him back into practice. Only after his symptoms persisted, including with his school work, did this young man get proper medical assistance. He does still worry about short term memory loss.
I am glad that this young man is healing and that he has the courage to share his story. His experience highlights the ethical problem. First, yes there is increasing effort to educate coaches, parents, and players about the essential steps to treat and rehabilitate concussions. Is it, however, ethical to allow, much more encourage, young men to play football, to be exposed to the leading cause of sports-related brain trauma, when programs to manage this damage are so limited in scope?
Many more kids share the troubling experience described above than the high quality care that may—and I emphasize may–lessen the long-term consequences of football-related concussions. This leads to the second and much more troubling ethical challenge. We already know that football is by far the leading cause of sports-related concussions. Research of tens of millions of dollars is underway on treatment and rehabilitation. The over one million boys who play high school football and the thousands in college, along with their parents, are, however, basically uninformed subjects in an experiment to understand treatment and rehabilitation. Long before they agree to participate in possibly rigorous studies, the damage, sadly, may have been done. Shouldn’t we direct our efforts to the prevention of this potentially life-altering brain damage?
Why do we allow our sons to play football?
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines