Contact Sports 

Contact sports, one of todays most controversial subjects. Contact sports are sports in which players make contact with each other or inanimate objects. All sports keep people healthy and fit, but little did you know, some sports can cause long lasting consequences. 

Damon James, 16 year old running back died from an on-field injury after loosing consciousness from a head to head collision while playing football. This shows that although [contact] sports are enjoyable and keep you healthy, they can cause awful things such as life lasting injuries, memory loss, or even death. The article on Damon also spoke about how his family, friends, and school were mourning him and how tragic their loss was. How not only was Damon a football player, but he was a smart and kindhearted boy who didn’t deserve to loose his life because of a sport. "We're going to be recommending that nobody under the age of 14 be involved in collision sports," said Dr. Robert Cantu, chairman of the Department of Surgery at Emerson Hospital and co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at the Boston University School of Medicine. (WCVB Boston’s News Letter) according to “Boston’s News Letter” testing has shown that teenagers who played contact sports often, have already showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

The obvious fact that contact sports are dangerous has already been stated many times, but when will people get the message? On average, twelve high school and college football players die each year. Within ten years, that would add up to about 120 students dead because of a sport. The fact that a career in football can lead to lots of success is completely true, but not worth it. Risking your limbs, senses, memory, or even your life just so you can play a sport is not a smart idea. Playing contact sports at any age is dangerous, but is the most dangerous under the age of 14. The time between birth and the age of 14 are critical to the brains development of childhood and adolescence. The development of a child’s brain should not be interfered with, if it is, it may face a traumatic brain injury. “On average, 62,000 children sustain brain injuries requiring hospitalization as a result of motor vehicle crashes, falls, sports injuries, physical abuse or other causes each year.”  Over 2,500 of them result in deaths. states “Brain Injury Association of America”

As stated before, sports can lead to careers, but they can also lead to brain injury and memory loss. Why risk that when you’re born with a brain capable of pursuing other careers? Many retired NFL and NHL players suffer memory loss. “Concussions may damage areas of the brain related to memory in National Football League players. And that damage might linger long after the players leave the sport, according to a small study.” says HealthDay News. “Many of the former football players also scored low on memory tests, particularly those used to assess verbal learning and memory. While it's a small study, the findings suggest that molecular and structural changes occur in certain brain regions of athletes who've suffered numerous hits to the head, even years after they stopped playing, the researchers said.” this shows that just hits to the head can affect the human brain. Sports are not a reason to risk brain damage, or any other type of damage.

In conclusion, children in their adolescence or still developing should not be participating in contact sports because injuries can hurt them very badly and have long term lasting effects on them of even cause death. There have been so many disastrous and tragic mishaps because of contact sports and they could of all been avoided. Avoiding contact sports is a very safe decision and can benifit more lives.