{"id":3155,"date":"2018-11-28T16:36:10","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T21:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=3155"},"modified":"2018-12-18T16:18:03","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T21:18:03","slug":"calling-it-like-i-see-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=3155","title":{"rendered":"Calling it Like I See It"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Sam Woiteshek
\n<\/strong>The Bucs’ Blade
\nGrand Haven HS
\n1st Place
\nDivision 1, News Writing
\nSports Columnist<\/p>\n

Before I begin, let me just say that I credit this column to my brain. My brain allows me to write this column fluently and smoothly, not misspelling words or using an incorrect one. No, my brain is the reason you are reading this.<\/p>\n

The brain is one of the utmost, important organs in our body. It allows us to react to things, feel emotions and objects, obtain memories and it allows to think. These days it is common for brains to be damaged and eventually wasted. Why?<\/p>\n

Football.<\/p>\n

I probably just ruined your weekend by telling you that the majority of your favorite team\u2019s players probably have had at least 2 concussions and are still suffering from concussion symptoms.<\/p>\n

The NFL has been sweeping these concussions under the rug. Most notably, the NFL has unconcerned themselves with the brain disease called \u201cchronic traumatic encephalopathy\u201d(CTE). CTE occurs when the brain experiences a trauma that is caused by concussions or severe hits to the head.<\/p>\n

In a recent study by Boston University researcher Ann McKee, 110 out of 111 brains of former NFL players, were found with CTE\u2026 Staggering.<\/p>\n

CTE affects the brain in many ways such as impaired judgement, dementia, aggression and depression. But the biggest impact CTE has had on the NFL is one that cannot be predicted.<\/p>\n

Death.<\/p>\n

CTE has been noted as the catalyst for the suicides of linebacker Junior Seau, wide receiver Andre Waters and most recently tight end\/murderer Aaron Hernandez.<\/p>\n

Wait, murderer? Perhaps the impacts of CTE go beyond suicide, which is hard to do.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the worst part.<\/p>\n

The league and the fans are so ignorant that all they care about is if the players generate money for them, or how their fantasy teams perform.<\/p>\n

Take Jim McMahon, former Super Bowl-winning Chicago Bears quarterback. According to Newsday, the CTE-diagnosed player \u201ccouldn\u2019t remember where he was\u201d, and he \u201chad to carry around his girlfriend\u2019s cell phone number in case he forgot\u201d, and also \u201che\u2019d plan to go to the store, but then a half an hour later he\u2019d be home wondering why he wanted to go out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scariest part was that McMahon \u201cstayed in bed for several days at a time because he couldn\u2019t get out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to point at our favorite NFL players that we idolize, but the real impact CTE and concussions have had is on our youth.<\/p>\n

We start children out with Pop Warner football and think nothing of it. They\u2019re just kids right? Let them have fun. Then they go to middle school and hits get harder as testosterone increases. Then to high school, where football is life. Each day of the year you\u2019re lifting weights, practicing, and playing. Hit after hit.<\/p>\n

I tend to think there are more important things than sports in life, and I certainly don\u2019t think a sport is worth dying for. If we as a society don\u2019t want to be rattled by suicides and concussions then we have do something about it,<\/p>\n

We have to take our kids out of football, we have to encourage ejections for helmet-to-helmet hits like college football does and we have to create new technologies for these consequential hits to the head. Primarily we have to realize the disease and not ignore it.<\/p>\n

The sport of football is a great game and I am hooked on the it.<\/p>\n

But the dangerous, life-threatening impacts of CTE aren\u2019t fantasy. They\u2019re reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Sam Woiteshek The Bucs’ Blade Grand Haven HS 1st Place Division 1, News Writing Sports Columnist Before I begin, let me just say that I credit this column to my brain. My brain allows me to write this column fluently and smoothly, not misspelling words or using an incorrect one. No, my brain is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,68],"tags":[151,20],"class_list":["post-3155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-nw","category-sportscolumnist","tag-2017-18","tag-division1","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jaimie Bozack","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=7"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-OT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}