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Grant Glennon
ENC 2135
Maddie Kahl
30 January 2018
Interesting Luke Draft
The sounds of a cannon when the buccaneers game starts is something that gets Luke excited. The only thing that brings Luke down is
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when he finds bugs in his apartment. He claims to not have bedbugs but come to class with rashes on his arms. “Florida State was my
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second choice” said the Seminole. Luke is a huge gamer, his favorite game being the new biggest thing Fortnite. The game itself starts
with 100 people in a lobby. This already puts the player at a disadvantage, but not for Luke. “Ha, Ha, are you kidding? I win all the time!”
Not only is Luke a big gamer, but he is a big health guy. “I want to go into health administration somewhere.” Originally from Lakeland
Florida, Luke has a best friend named Fergus. Fergus is an Irish terrier and is much older than the rest of the family. Fergus being 9 years
old, this would make Fergus 63 in dog years. Luke calls himself the "Best interviewer of all time" which shows the confidence that he has in
himself. From fortnite to real life Luke is a well rounded individual. Nothing is standing in the way of the 6'4 195 pound freshman.
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Draft 1:
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Annotated Bibliography
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Grant Glennon
ENC 2135
Maddie Kahl
2 February 2018
Annotated Bibliography
“What is CTE?” Concussion Legacy Foundation, 30 Aug. 2017, concussionfoundation.org/CTE-resources/what-is-CTE.
Symptoms for CTE can easily go unnoticed or even ignored since you cannot be officially diagnosed with CTE until you’re dead. People consider symptoms such as, mood changes, headaches, memory problems, to be something completely different. The first thought isn’t CTE, it is normally dementia or even early stages of Alzheimer’s. Identifying CTE is the first step in treatment, which is only guess at first. Then treating each symptom with its own care. This source specifically relates to my topic giving perfect detail about what the symptoms are and consist of. The information given on this website gives in depth detail about the symptoms and the way to treat them.
Not only is there textual information, but there is also a video attached on the website. The video shows in detail footage of brains with CTE and normal brains. This gave me another great visual idea of what the disease actually does to an infected brain. Although this website is a little brief with information, the 50:46-minute video definitely makes up for it.
“Frequently Asked Questions about CTE.” Frequently Asked Questions about CTE | CTE Center, www.bu.edu/cte/about/frequently-asked-questions/.
The BU Research Center website gives an unbelievable amount of information to its readers. Such as, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) being described in a completely different way. This source talks about the actual damage the disease does to your brain. With many pictures and examples of CTE, this source makes it not only informative to read, but also help the viewer understand it visually. Pictures of normal brains compared with infected ones, make myself and other readers more inclined to use this information. This website compared to my other sources is one of a kind. It is like an all in one source for my topic and I will be using this source as my number one place to get truthful information.
This is one of my favorite sources because with all the information given, it provides a questions and answer section for anyone who wants to know more. This helped me create some of the questions that I asked my interviewee. “Can CTE be cured? What can I do if I think I have CTE? Unfortunately, at this time there is no cure for CTE. However, the CTE center is currently conducting ongoing clinical research aimed at discovered how CTE developed and progresses.” With a frequently asked question section, this makes this website unique in its own way, providing different information with questions answered that you wouldn’t normally ask.
“What Is CTE?” What Is CTE? | Brain Injury Research Institute, www.protectthebrain.org/Brain-Injury-Research/What-is-CTE-.aspx.
This is the first source that I used while researching my topic. The perfect website for people who aren’t quite sure what CTE is. It gives brief detail on the subject which was a great start me into this project. This source focuses primarily on preventing athletes from getting it and a safe place to go if you think that you have symptoms.
This website gives the reader a phone number for more information. On top of CTE this source gives information about other brain damage diseases such as concussions and MTBI which are all somewhat similar in a way. It is important to note that this website most likely does this because it can be easy to diagnose yourself with the wrong disease. This website also gives the background of the disease, by talking about the first people to diagnose the disease which was with a post-mortem brain. “We are working tirelessly to discover further information which will make it possible to diagnose CTE amount the living.” Giving information on studies and future plans to come up with a cure. As of now, this source is least on my list as it is too brief for my research question.
McKee, Ann C., et al. Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, July 2009, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2945234/.
The PMC website which is known for their scholarly articles in the medical field, has given more information on CTE then I could every ask for. The minuscule details all add up to be this complete diagnostic on CTE. Written by four scholars separates this source from all my others. The people who study this disease are the ones writing and giving their own experiences to the reader.
With statistics tested by these scholars, I will be able to give accurate statistics in my paper. “Concussion is a frequent occurrence in contact sports: 1.6 to 3.8 million sports-related concussions occur annually in the United States.”
I will now be able to give scientific evidence into my research paper with this scholarly paper. This read separates itself from my other sources because of the amount of detail compared to the briefness of the other articles.
List, W. 5. (Writer). (2016). 10 NFL Players Tragically Affected by CTE [Motion Picture]. United States.
This source is a video on YouTube giving examples of past athletes who have been tragically affected by CTE. This source is very unique in the way they portray each athlete and their individual stories. This video helped me understand and emotionally attach me to this topic. Being able to see someone who had been affect by this disease is much more impactful than reading about the effects and symptoms. Seeing someone’s life change because of CTE has a much more real feeling to it.
This video has helped motivate me to write this research paper. This video is much more different than any of my other sources. All of my other sources give detail and describe what CTE is, when this is all about people being effected every day. I was surprised to see some of the people who had been diagnosed. This truly shows that it can happen to anyone who is in the military or who plays sports.
Although I only have one, this video gives my sources some diversity. Instead of having all articles and scholarly papers, it was nice to learn from a video as it still relates to my topic perfectly.
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Draft 2:
Contact Sports
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With the love for sports growing nonstop, and constant sellout crowds, the realization of the actual event the fans are watching, can be misperceived. The realistic and frightening truth that today’s sports can shorten athlete’s lives, has been brought to light. With the increasing level of technology going into contact sports, it makes people believe that these sports are becoming safer. Despite what you hear, “A government study found a lower death rate among former NFL players than among men in the general population. Former players also had a lower rate of cancer-related deaths. And the rate of deaths from heart disease was lower, too.” (NFL Player Fact vs. Fiction) Could this all just be a myth? More in-depth research has shown that it is not necessarily shortening lifespans, but rather destroying the quality of life for these athletes. With research and interviews, these questions have resulted in answers I certainly never thought I would discover.
With contact sports there is always the risk of a head or neck injury. With technology doing its best to prevent this, there is still a huge concern, “One study estimates that the likelihood of an athlete in a contact sport experiencing a concussion is as high as 20% per season.” (Vanlandingham) But the topic of how serious concussions are, and further questions as to what is causing them, has also been proven. A concussion is caused by a blow to the head or neck area, bouncing the brain and smashing it to one side of the skull. This will cause obvious
symptoms such as, “amnesia, disorientation, mental fogginess, confusion, nausea or vomiting, blurred vision or loss of consciousness” (Vanlandingham). Any head injury is a very sensitive topic, considering the determination of each is so intricate and individualized. In addition, it is difficult to treat each injury in general, but most specifically, at the time of the accident. Whether the accident caused internal brain bleeding, to neck injuries, to spinal impediments, the perplexity behind head injuries is the inability to determine its state by outside appearances, due to the lack of scrapes and bruises in the brain being visible. Many symptoms of a concussion specifically, can be determined through common verbal tests, or any out of the ordinary pain in the head region, or signs of throwing up. These physical signs help the medical examiner better identify the injury as a concussion, and to what level of severity.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is the new and most recent disease that is overcoming athletes. Although this can only be diagnosed once the athlete is diseased, the symptoms are very serious and life degrading. Most people believe that CTE comes from concussions, but these two head injuries are entirely different. CTE symptoms are much more serious and long term. If an ex-player suspects he or she has CTE they must find help immediately. Treatment options are very vague. The amount treatment options are very low because of how recent this has been in existence. You cannot treat CTE itself you can only treat each symptom individually.
With all this in mind, is it worth playing contact sports? Dr. Omalu askes the question, “you wouldn’t let your child drink a glass of cognac or smoke a cigarette, so why would you send him out on a football field to risk brain damage?” A very blunt and honest way to put it but is this comparing the same thing? Being a football player for majority of my life has been the
most useful resource and life changing experience of my life. I have been privileged to play a team sport so useful to me as a human being. Not only on the field but off the field. I have learned so many life lessons through football that I wish other kids could experience. The work ethic and determination that it takes to be a football player helps put young children on the right path for success. If you’re going to compare football to drugs and alcohol, you must remember that there is a huge upside to this sport as well.
With everything researchers know already, the concern of what steps are available to prevent these injuries and diseases rather than just the basic level of acquiring knowledge about them reaches. The increasing number of concussions, “3,800,000 concussions reported in 2012, double what was reported in 2002” (Headcase) is not helping worried parents decide what their children’s athletic participation will be. The increased statistics of head injuries would seemingly cause adults to hesitate to put their child in a contact sport like football. However, through my personal experiences and life lessons, living with the fear of the slight possibility of having permanent damage, is well worth playing a sport. When my mother exclaims to me her concerns of my sports, I relate football to driving a car. Most of the time everything goes smoothly, but there is always a chance of an accident or fatal crash. The idea of this chance does not prevent most anyone from riding in a car or arriving to places by them, while the slight possibility of a permanent injury in football does not prevent me from doing what I love. If numbers are doubling, the statement that researchers and league owners are “preventing life-threatening injuries” is quite false. The research has gained much more knowledge about head and neck injuries, but the realization that this step has not prevented many injuries just goes to show they almost inevitable and that physical contact is an act that is not easy to eliminate the downfalls of.
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