Thesis Paper (continued)

Write a 3-5 page essay (3 pages minimum) in which you synthesis and reflect on what you have learned in your field and through the thesis process thus far.

What I've produced today:

The last major area of study I have been focusing on is legislation. This subfield has been by far the trickiest to learn about. Concussion laws enacted by each state are literally a few pages long (Mississippi’s bill, the most recent and the last state to pass legislation, is only three pages in length). My overall knowledge on this topic is not as expansive as it is in the subfields of equipment and regulations. The reasoning behind this is that I need to know more about how to make the players safer before I try to make amendments to bills that are supposed to ensure their safety. I also want to get my hands on the concussion pamphlet that is required to be given out to all athletes playing football in grade school. Surprisingly, I have not been able to find one online, so I will have to go down to a local school and ask for one. Legislation is sketchy. The way it is implemented is even more suspicious. This topic is by far the most arcane of the three I am studying, but it has the most potential to effectively save the lives of those who play the game of football.

There are many new, specific details I have learned throughout the three subtopics I have looked into. However, my mind is always set on the big picture and that photo has not changed. Dr. Bennett Omalu, the leading neuropathologist in the studies of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy), stated that he always felt as if the NFL was going against everything he said in order to maintain its pristine, civil look. I feel a similar way. Obviously not at the level Omalu felt, but similar in the sense that any glimpse of victory is marred with a pyrrhic feel. There is no cure for concussions. One argument against concussion protocols is that the players know what they are getting themselves into and that they love the game of football so much that they are willing to live with the ailments that will follow them for the rest of their lives. This argument parallels the one regarding how college athletes know what they are getting themselves into, thus needing no reason to compensate them for their work. The harsh reality is that these players have no idea what they are getting themselves into. If getting flagged for a hard hit is not worth one’s long term health, then there might just be a bigger issue with delusion in the NFL. Which makes sense when the company views its players more as objects than human beings - well, objects that are deteriorating within. But who cares? People watch what they enjoy, like Ray Rice’s beating of his wife in an elevator. What is amusing is the fact that what goes on inside an NFL player’s brain is far worse in magnitude – it just does not sell to an audience.

This concludes the rough draft of my term paper.