Jala Robinson

Professor Fran Voltz

UWRT 1102
Annotated Bibliography
Powers, Dr. Alexander, A Neurosurgeon Tackles Brain Injury in Youth Sports.
Wake Health. 13 Aug. 2014 Web. 9 Oct. 2014
<http://www.wakehealth.edu/Health-Central/A-Neurosurgeon-Tackles-Brain-Injury-in-YouthSports/>.
Dr. Alexander Powers is a pediatric neurosurgeon and he talks about how even though he loves
sports, he still watches over his two boys very closely as they play little league football. When he is not
in the operating room, he is out promoting awareness about the signs and symptoms of traumatic brain
injury. He started off with presenting figures of an estimated 135,000 children ages 5 to 18 who were
emitted to US emergency departments for sports-related brain injuries. You wouldnt think to imagine
your own child as being disabled at only a middle-aged man. No one wants to think about the long term
effects of playing football, such as dementia or Parkinson disease, while you are cheering on the
sidelines of a football games. When there is a serious brain injury, those are easy to detect because the
person will experience a headache, maybe dizziness or drowsiness. Instead of taking players out of a
game, they continue to play until after the game when they cant even remember the score or them
colliding with someone else. To recover form a concussion, they need lots of sleep and no more playing
time, watching TV, or school. Coaches and parents constantly expect the athlete to continue to play and
to toughen up. While you are a child and a teenager, your brain is still growing and developing, which
makes them very vulnerable to injury. Children and teens are more prone to concussions than adults,
therefore it takes their brains longer to recover from the injury. Some other important information is
that different players in different positions sustain different kinds of injuries and the impact of hits.
I felt that this resource was helpful to me in that it included data from a specialist who has
obviously encountered this trauma in his operating room numerous times. It provided me with factual
evidence on how concussions can lead to brain damage starting at an early age. I will be using the
numerical data that he added to his document. I will also use how he said that depending on what
position you play on the field, you may get harder or get different injuries. Although he did not go into
detail about what injuries or the impact of the hits, I can go further into research on that topic. I also
want to include where he talked about how he loved sports, but if either of his sons were to obtain a
concussion, they would no longer be allowed to play football again.
This source is credible because it is on the educational site that ends in edu. It is also on a
credible website by the Wake Forest Baptist Health. It shows numbers that you can contact specialists
for you to ask questions or even set up appointments. There is also an area at the bottom where it
shows where Dr. Powers works and who he works for.

Castillo, Michelle. Unusual Brain Activity Observed in Ex-NFL Players Who Had Head Injuries. CBS
News. CBS Interactive, 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 9 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.cbsnews.com/news/unusual-brain-activity-observed-in-ex-nfl-players-who-hadhead-injuries/>.

The new hot topic is that concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) may be
leaving long lasting effects to athletes in the NFL. Regular brain test are not catching these defects early
on until it is too late after their careers have nearly ended. According to Dr. Adam Hampshire, there is a
high possibility that damage caused by blows to the head can impact your body in later life. There was a
study performed with 13 former NFL players where they said that they were suffering from neurological
problems most likely form their time on the field and 60 healthy volunteers. They were all asked to
rearrange colored balls in a series of tubes in as few moves as possible. Throughout the trial, their
brains were being monitored by a functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) scan. The study showed that
the former NFL players did a bit worse than the healthy participants. The frontal lobe showed the most
imperfections, which is your ability to plan and organize. The death rate from Alzheimers, Parkinsons
and Lou Gehrigs disease combines was there times higher for the former players than the general
population. Former players are also more likely to have higher rates of depression and cognitive
problems. The NFL agreed upon a $765 million settlement for the concussion lawsuits that was filed by
the 4000 former NFL players. It was also presented that some players would try to hide their symptoms
of a concussion instead of just sitting out for the rest of the game, even with all of the awareness of
potential long term issues that could occur.
This source gave me a lot of work with and to include in my paper. I found out more
information about how NFL players are learning more knowledge about the long life effects of
concussions, but yet they still refuse to tell their coaches or athletic trainers that they are having
symptoms of one. They want to stay in the game because they know that if they are out for a certain
period of time, their payment may decrease or that they could be replaces. In the article it also said
how the NFL agreed on a $765 settlement, but is that really enough? I agree that more test are needed
and different ones also because apparently the ones that they have been using is not working as well as
the newer test. If players could see how retired players are doing now, they may rethink their decisions
on whether or not they tell someone if something is wrong with them.
This is a credible source because at the bottom of the article it has the year and the publication
of the article, which was in 2013 by CBS Interactive Inc. It is also by the credited site of CBS News. They
have a very good reputation in giving evident facts and providing proof to go with it. Not only do they
have a website that shows news, but they also have a TV show/radio station that also reveals new topics
on stressful disagreements around the world.

Belson, Ken. Brain Trauma to Affect One in Three Players, N.F.L. Agrees. The New York Times. The
New York Times, 12 Sept. 2014. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/sports/football/actuarial-reports-in-nfl-concussiondeal-are-released.html?_r=0>
It has taken years for the dispute over whether or not it is true that former NFL players are
acquiring these diseases directly from playing in the NFL. The dispute is nowhere near being resolved,
but they have found a way to die down the commotion of all the drama. By the United States District
Court judge presiding over the settle between the NFL and 5,000 former players, they have reached an
estimated verdict of a $675 million claim to cover injuries and diseases linked to head trauma former
players endured during their careers. Some say that that will not be enough and others say it will. Some
say it will be enough because a lot of players dont come back trying to sue the league because they
dont want to believe that anything is wrong with them if they played the sport they loved all their life.
It will also be enough because over time the money will generate interest and become even more than
it was before. It is said that it will not be enough because they believe that more and more players will
begin to come out and fight for what is right, which is to be compensated for the diseases and longtime
trauma that they have endured.
From this article, I can take both sides in which they believe that $675 million is or isnt enough
for compensation. I can also take that about 60 percent of players will actually file claims. I found out
from this source that they are going to compensate $675 million, but from another source it is showing
that they are compensating $765 million. I have been researching around and these same two numbers
keep popping up. I will use both numbers in my paper but put that the compensation will range
between $675- $765 million. I feel that a lot of the research to finding out whether the diseases that
former NFL players have now is connected to playing NFL football. I do understand that you cant put all
the blame on the coaches or athletic trainer because most of the time it is the player who doesnt tell
someone when they are not okay or in pain.
This source is credible because it is places on the New York Times site. New York Times is a big
newspaper company and wouldnt put any false information out to the public if it wasnt true. Tens of
thousands of people still read their newspapers and would stop reading if they found out that they were
feeding them false information. I also went to other sites to make sure that the information was valid.

Sports Injuries. Childhood and Their Prevention: A Guide for Parents with Ideas for Kids. N.p. National
Institutes of Health, June 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_info/Sports_Injuries/child_sports_injuries.asp

This article stresses the injuries that kids all over the world get while playing a sport. It talks about what
types of injuries are most common, such as sprains, strain, and growth plate injuries. It is bad enough
that kids are getting so many injuries, but it is worse when they dont know how to take care of them or
how to properly recovery from a certain injury. According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, more than 2.6 million children 0 to 19 years old are treated in the emergency department
each year for sports and recreation-related injuries. The most common injuries in football is bruises,
sprains, strains, pulled muscles, tears to ligaments, broken bones, internal injuries, concussions, and
back injuries. The most common locations for injuries are the ankles and knees. A good method in
treating injuries is with RICE. It stands for rest, ice, compression, and elevation. You should also be
safe for when you are playing outside because sunburn can be dangerous and very painful when it gets
really bad. A good way to keeping kids from getting injuries is making sure they are exercising regularly
and not jumping right into a sport without training or working their bodies out first.
I found this article very helpful in that it gave me more details about what kind of injuries are sustained
during football by youth. It also gave me figures on how many kids get hurt and sent to the emergency
room for sports related injuries every year. I will include in my paper the RICE treatment method in
how it can help to make the recovery process better and insure that you are doing what you are
supposed to be doing to make the injury better. I will compare the types of injuries that occur the youth
football players to those that play in the NFL. Sometimes, depending on how hard the hits are, you can
obtain different injuries even though you are playing the same position.
This source is credible because it is on the medical site of the NIH, which is the National Institutes of
Health. It also includes facts from professionals that have studied and worked with cases in this subject
for years. It is also a credible site because it is sited by the USA government and includes the gov at the
end of the URL. There are also numbers at the bottom of the site in which you can call to receive more
information about the article.

NFL Injuries. ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.
<http://espn.go.com/nfl/injuries>

This article included a list of all of the NFL teams and the types of injuries that their players have
acquired this season or currently have right now. The chart that is presented tells in details the players
name, the status of their injury, the date in which the injury occurred, and a comment about the injury.
Most of the comments entail what will happen to the athlete with their injury. The comment states that
a player could require surgery, when they will be back in practice or attend the next game, or their exact
injury and the cause. Beside the players name, it also states what position they play. The chart is
organized by team, so if you wanted to specifically research a player on a certain team, you could type in
the team and the players with injuries will pop up.
With the help of this chart, I will be able to take information to determine which position
currently receives the most injuries. I can also determine what types of injuries are more common in
certain positions. The only thing that is not presented to me is how much that player makes and how
long they will be out. I understand that the time of them coming back to play is not dated because you
cant tell when an injury will fully recover and you dont want to rush the recovery process. I like this
chart and think that it will provide me with great assistance when writing my paper. I like how they have
separated the teams up so that it is easier to find a specific player or even a full team. Another aspect
that I will have to look for is how much that athlete makes. Once I find that piece of evidence, I can
piece together my whole paper.
This is a credible source because it is on the ESPN site. It is also credible because I have
researched on several other sites this same information about specific players that I selected to research
it about to make sure this site was credible. By this being on the ESPN site, I know it is credited because
ESPN is all about the sports and they also have a TV/radio station that shares information to the public.