Inquiry Project

In my inquiry project I am looking into the severity of concussions on the brain. More specifically in the world of sports. Athletes who participate in contact sports are more likely to receive a concussion because they have a higher risk of taking a forceful blow to the head, neck or upper body. I am going to look into what happens to the brain after repeat concussions and what potential mental illness can surface. The NFL is a big area for this topic because the recent $765 million league concussion settlement. Many of the former NFL players who had reported having received multiple concussions ended up with mental diseases like CTE and also turned to drug use and suicide after their playing days. One aspect I also want to touch on in the project is how often athletes are likely to not report concussion symptoms so they can continue playing their sport. Not many athletes at this point especially in the NFL know the severity of what can happen to their brains after the repeated damage, and the NFL has withheld information they know about concussions from their competing players, which to many of the players seems like shady business.