Concussions are very common in sports, especially in America. About 3.8 million sport related injuries happen every year in the U.S. Long term effects of these concussions can be trouble concentrating, memory problems, irritability and personality changes. Athletes who experience repetitive concussions can end up having long-term amnesia in their future. Amnesia is the loss of memories like facts and experiences. People with amnesia tend to be able to remember who they are even when they forget who others are. There are ways to prevent amnesia such as; wearing a helmet when riding a bike or wearing your seat belt in the car. Even though you can prevent amnesia you cannot cure it so be careful out there. While amnesia is a risk in all sports it’s more of an immediate risk than sprains or strains such as knee injuries or twisting your ankle. The most dangerous sport according to studies is base jumping. Base jumping is a sport of literally jumping off a cliff. Of course this is a joke, it is much more in fact I will go into detail. In this sport base jumpers will jump off something such as a cliff, or a bridge and quickly open a parachute. Of course injuries in such sport can most definitely be death but more commonly ankle sprains or fractures, minor head concussions and as we said before knee injuries. Of course if there’s the most dangerous there’s the least dangerous. The least dangerous sport is believed to be, you guessed it, table tennis. Table tennis rarely has injuries but it does commonly result in ankle sprains or pulled muscles. These injuries might not sound so bad compared to death, concussions, or broken bones but they are still very painful. People most commonly compare pulled muscles to being stabbed and it doesn’t go away quickly. For people who have never been stabbed before a pulled muscle on the pain scale is a 2. 

One of the most common sports at this school is football. Football results in a lot of injuries such as concussions, broken bones, and knee injuries. Many things can go wrong in football, in fact some things have gone wrong recently. For example the dolphin team’s quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has recently undergone a bad head injury. Of course this is very big in the news right now being that it’s a big injury. Even though injuries happen often, when it’s an injury as serious as this it is more talked about. Sure because it’s the NFL this injury is more reported on but injuries happen close to home also. For example on average our school puts 4 kids into concussion protocol on the football team a year, and about 2 bone injuries happen a year. The most common injury in our football team is ACL and MCL which are knee injuries, these injuries can lead to trouble walking and take about a year to recover from. Our coach, Coach Scalf says that 10 years ago it was more like 19 concussion protocol kids a year. He says that over the years we have started doing the US tackle and got guardian caps which has drastically changed the amount of concussions. Coach says that we try to lift in order to prevent knee injuries happening as often. Coach says that helmet to helmet contact is the main cause of concussions in football. Coach Scalf says “Injuries are a part of the game”. Even though it is a part of the game our athletes try to lift in order to be structurally strong before a game. 

Okay now let’s talk about basketball, ankle sprains are a very common injury in basketball. Basketball of course is a very active sport being it has throwing and running it takes much skill but with that skill you still make mistakes. Minor mistakes in basketball can lead to major injuries such as; jammed fingers, knee injuries, and deep thigh bruising. Of course there are many more injuries in basketball but these are just some of the most common. 

Baseball is the game of hitting a ball and running the bases. What kind of injuries could you get from that? Well sense you’re asking, the ball can hit you when you’re at bat and that ball goes about 90 mph. I don’t know about you but I think that might hurt. I mean 90 mph can break bones. When you run bases you can trip and what if you fall too hard it can really hurt you? What if you fall and someone runs over you that will hurt because they are wearing cleats? What if you slide wrong you can cut up your thigh really badly? So many things can go wrong making this sport very dangerous. 

Lastly, soccer is the sport of kicking a ball. There is much more to this sport than kicking a ball. In this sport you can fracture, sprain, strain so many things can happen. Most commonly players get hamstring strains that sounds interesting, but what is it? A hamstring sprain is when you strain or pull the group of three muscles on the back of your thigh. The process of healing with this type of injury can take a few days to a few months depending on how serious the injury is. When you get a hamstring strain you should take care of it. If improperly managed this injury can lead to a condition called chronic hamstring tendinopathy. Chronic hamstring tendinopathy is a condition that causes a deep pain in your buttocks and upper part of the back thigh. 

I think I’ve made my point that all sports come with a cost. The cost can be anything from a minor injury like a knee injury and all the way to death. While I have talked a lot you haven’t said a thing so I ask this of you. Do you believe the sport is worth the risk?