Sophia Paul

Ms. Pahomov

ENGL 2

21 March 2019

Lord of the Flies Essay

Human nature digs deep into the actions that someone takes and asks, What leads to people’s actions? In the novel  Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there are a group of boys that are stranded on an island without any adults. They start out civil, but after they started killing pigs for food, they became more savage. They killed the pigs and hunted the pigs in a very barbaric way. How the boys on the island act mirrors similar primitive tendencies that people still possess such as Black Friday shoppers. The pig hunt in the book is essential for survival  but it is also how they show their true colors. Jack wanted to kill the pig the most and more excited with the fact he killed the pig than the protein he could get from the pig. When Jack killed his first pig he says, “'I cut the pig's throat,’ said Jack, proudly, and yet twitched as he said it...said Jack, laughing and shuddering, ‘you should have seen it,’” (69). Jack’s reaction to this revealed a dark truth of how people are fulfilled with pride when they have the ability to dominate and slaughter another being. Furthermore, when he killed the pig, he felt so proud and he wanted to tell everyone about his “prize.” After killing the first pig the reader could see that Jack reveals how it is human nature to have a desire of domination. A modern phenomenon that mirrors this is Black Friday where people go drastic measures in the pursuit of getting a financial discount.  This reflects Jack’s outburst because, once a buyer gets the deal, it makes them feel accomplished. According to a website article, today.com, they stated, “‘This is how they win and they are proud of it. ...it’s a symbol of their prowess,’ ” Within this quote, it explains how good it feels when the buyer wins. When the guy gets 50% off his flat screen T.V. and he gets to bring it up and put it in his house, it is a symbol of pride. That buyer is able to show the world that he “won” Black Friday. And even if the buyer had to shove someone out of the way or push pass people to get to the television, the buyer does not care. The same ideas are in Lord of the Flies. When Jack kills the pig, he gets so excited and giddy like he just won the prize. He was laughing and couldn't wait to tell the other boys about the kill. He does not think about what he just did, he just celebrated. Both of these examples show that even after doing an evil deal, it doesn’t matter because the reward is so worth it.

Emotions play a role into the actions of what characters in the book do. At the beginning of the book, Jack was trying to kill a pig, but failed. Due to him being  unable to kill the pig, he got very upset and angry. In the book, it stated, “He snatched his knife out of the sheath and slammed it into a tree trunk. Next time there would be no mercy,” (31). Jack became  upset that he was unable to kill the pig. He was in front of all of the kids and he was not picked chief, so he wanted to prove himself. Due to his inability instead, he slammed his knife into the tree in frustration. The boys knew that next time he would not hold back; he would have no mercy. Moreover, felt that his inability reflected his lack of worth as a person due to the pig escaping, which lead to his wrath after killing it. Jack’s frustration with being unable to slaughter a pig also reflects Black Friday shoppers. During Black Friday, people can also be emotional. When they get their prize, they feel so proud and happy, but when they don’t they get enraged. In an article from pbs.org, “...participants ... who had an emotional response to the scenarios, whether negative or positive, were more likely to be willing to engage in consumer misbehavior,”. A study was done to see how different consumers acted during Black Friday. More customers that are emotional are more likely to do bad things. If a buyer went  into Walmart to buy a television 50% off and someone else took the t.v. from him, he got emotional. And once the customer gets mad, they will most respond with physical violence. If another consumer gets in the buyer's way, the buyer will have a higher chance to show the consumer out of the way. This concept is seen within Lord of the Flies. When Jack didn’t kill his pig, he got very enraged and that was one of the causes that led him to kill more pigs and kill two of the boys on the island. After the emotions come through and the control the person, genuine human nature of the person is seen.

After harsh events, people are exposed to how they will act next. Jack and his hunts showed how he had fun killing and taking the life out of creatures and how little he cares about what he did. Black Friday shoppers do not care about the safety of the other shoppers and are only trying to get their product by any means possible. The feeling of winning is strong, but the feeling of losing is even stronger because that feeling will grow and grow until they win. These events are revealing the brutal and crude side of man hide that lays just beneath our surface.

Works Cited

Lee, Jaeha. On Black Friday, the Psychology of Retail Rage. PBS, Public Broadcasting Service,  

24 Nov. 2017, www.pbs.org/newshour/science/why-black-friday-leads-shoppers-to-behave-bonkers.

Vivinetto, Gina. Why Do We Do It? The Psychology behind Black Friday Madness.  

TODAY.com, TODAY, 27 Nov. 2015, www.today.com/health/madness-crowds-psychology-behind-black-friday-t58096.

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Penguin Books, 2006

I can’t take this anymore. I spent two hours getting ready for this date at Bello Italinao. I went out and bought this navy dress it so you would stare at me instead of anyone else. I did my eye makeup in the most dramatic way so you sigh when looking into my eyes. I got the boldest and most reddest lipstick I could find just  so we can finally have a passionate kiss. The kiss I have been dreaming of. But no! You just seem to cancel on me whenever I seem to try. You have done it twice before. And those two times I have been okay with it. We have been on many other dates before this, so I thought that you canceling on me was just a normal thing to do. For the last few times that you have canceled on me,  I have been compliant and laughed it off as a joke. But I can’t laugh anymore. You can’t just cancel on me and expect for me to be okay with it. I am not an obedient dog that will follow your every command. I am a human too.

Don’t roll your eyes at me, Orlando. You know I’m right. You never seem interested in what’s right in front of you. Whenever we are hanging out, you seem to stare at any other girls that aren’t me. Your jaw drops, your eyes are fixated on her, and she seems to be an angel sent from Heaven for you. But you have never given me that look. And I have always craved the look, but you just seem to glance over me. Remember when we are out eating at The Ruby Rooftop. All you could do is stare at that girl named Lilah. While you looked away, I would play with my hair to make mine look more like Lilah’s; I would wrap my hair around my fingers to make my hair have more volume and more waves, but you never seemed to notice. You never do.

When we do have the chance to talk and hang out, you somehow find a way to complain about everything I do or wear. “Don’t wear your hair up, it doesn’t flatter your figure.” “Stop eating so much. Fat girls aren’t attractive.” “Change your outfit, Rebeca. You look like a slut in that dress.” And everything I laugh your comments over, and I always changed for you. I would wear my hair down, I would eat less, I would wear less exposed clothing. But the most important thing is that I never said anything back to you because I loved you. I was madly in love. But not anymore.

You don’t know the damage that you have caused. There have been many nights where I have cried myself to sleep beside of your comments. You just throw around words without thinking about how it affects other people. Calling women sluts isn’t the nicest thing to say y’know. Well Orlando, I have some words for you. Words that your egoistial mind may not be able to take.

I am breaking up with you, because of you.

Don’t get mad at me. You caused it. There is so much hate that I have taken in from you and enough is enough. Now it is your turn to feel pain. Maybe I should post the picture of you and Lilah getting very …. comfortable at the mall. Or maybe a picture of all of the texts that you sent me telling me that I am an ugly whore and should present myself better while in your present. I can ruin your whole reputation.

I’m done with you, Orlando.

**phone rings**

*say this converstation sheepishly and bashful*

Hi.

(do you want to go on a date on Friday)

Ummmm... Okay

(we can go to the Riverview theatre)

The Riverview Theatre? What time?

(7:00 p.m.)

7:00 p.m. on Friday? Sounds good. See you then Orlando.

I better start planning my outfit. I want to look good for him.

The Airplane Mishap

“Wouldn’t it be funny if someone really had to throw up?”

All three of us laugh as the guy on the aisle makes the joke. He puts the barf bag into the seat pocket the conversation dies down, so  I put my earbuds into my ears. Peeking out the window, I see so many planes are departing and arriving that if I blink I will miss a plane. As I look out over the airport, I see the sun setting as the sky is turning a beautiful pink hue t. What a great way to end a trip in  Washington D.C.

Our middle school partnered up with an organization that would host schools from all over the country to teach kids about the city they’re visiting. In previous years they visited New York,  Chicago, and Boston. This year the trip was planned for Washington D.C., and my parents thought that it would be beneficial for me to learn for me about our nation's capital. The 4 day trip was eventful as we headed to the most fascinating places in Washington D.C.; from the World War II Memorial to the Pentagon. It was surely a trip to remember.

“If everyone can please put on their seatbelts as we are ready for departure.” As the flight attendant finished her statement, I heard the unanimous sound of seat-belts clicking together. I scrolled through my Instagram feed as the flight attendants conduct the safety demonstration.

“Hey, my stomach hurts. Do you have anything for that?” The girl next to me taps me on the shoulder as we start to lift off the grounds. I tell her yes as I reach all the way into the bottom of the bag to find her some Aleve. I pop open the cap, give her a few, and she replies with a sheepish thanks.  I nod to her in return thinking nothing of her stomach ache as I close my eyes and try to sleep.

I wake up to the sound of the seat-belt light turning orange again, and the flight attendant announcing that we are descending in 10 minutes. Was I really asleep for the entire flight? I look out the window to see darkness plague my vision. The lights stand out from the abyss and give off a warming vibes. From all of the white, yellow, and orange lights I see from above. It all seems so far.

We start to descend, and the girl next to me taps me on the shoulder again. “Hey. I don’t think the Aleve helped me. Do you think you could grab me your barf back from the seat pocket.” As I reach down to get the pocket, I feel something splat onto my neck. She just threw up on me! Then she vomits once more unto herself as my fellow passengers a look away in disgust. People around me start asking if I am okay, and I give them a half-hearted “yah” and laugh it away. The teachers rushed over to the girl who threw up to see if she needed any medical help, and the flight attendant was shortly over to help her out. She gave the girl some napkins as I sat there with puke in my hair without anyone helping me out.

The plane finally landed, and I couldn’t wait to get out off of it. The smell of the vomit was so strong that it was almost making me sick myself, but I would not be the girl who throws up in someone’s hair. Since we were a class of students, we had to be the last to get off the plane so the vomit was just seeping into my scalp making the smell linger longer. We finally are walking out of the plane as I soon realized that her vomit reached my bookbag and my shoes. Great.

The teachers left us go our separate ways after we got off the plane, and I practically started to run to the plane train as I notice the girl throwing up in a trash can near the boarding area.

As I ran through the airport, tears started running down my face. I thought of all the things that I could have said, that I could have done, but I decided to stay silent; laugh it off as a joke. But this no joking matter; someone threw up in my hair! This ruined the trip, and now I never want to sit by the window; trapped from the aisle; trapped from freedom. Planes will always scare me, but not fear of heights, but from someone else’s motion sickness. This flight makes me nervous for all future flights and it makes me very superstitious. This might sound dumb, but I know that this will leave an impact on my life for better or for worse.

In the previous posts that I have made, I have talked about my issue. For you all who have not yet read my posts, I am talking about the issue of player safety in the NFL. In the first post, I talked about the main issue of player safety and how it affects the players, coaches, fans, and everyone involved with football. I also talked about major injuries in football and why there needs to be stricter rules that are set in stone so those players do not get hurt. If you want to read up on that blog post, click here and it will take you to the post.

The last post that I made, I did my own original research for the topic. I did multiple interviews with many different people and I also did a survey. The first interview I did was with Dave would is a youth football coach. He told me very interesting things about the Heads Up program and how youth football programs and becoming very safe. The next interview that I had was will a current football player for the Denver Broncos, and his name was Will Parks. He gave me interesting insight of what NFL players had to the issue with player safety. The last interview that I had was with Troy Vincent. I did this interview after the second blog post was due. If you want to hear the interview with him, please click this link to listen about it.

One of the major programs that is trying to help player safety in all the different levels of football is the USA Football Program. USA Football is a football program that helps with safety of football. One of the main ways that they are doing this is with Heads Up Football. This programs teaches both coaches and the players a safety way to play football. Instead of tackling with the helmet and hitting players head on, they would use their shoulders and upper body. This will limit concussions and other injuries around the head and neck area. This is also known as Rugby style tackling and Seahawk Style tackling. This is what Dave was talking to me about during my interview with him. He was saying that his Heads Up tackling is changing the ways of football and is bringing in more kids to play football. It makes the game safer and more inviting to both the parents and the kids who enjoy football. The NFL is also changing rules like making the helmet rules which makes hitting the helmet to another helmet an automatic penalty. I think that this new change is helping the issue with player safety. In the next few years, who knows how far the NFL will go and how much player safety will improve.

So for my Agent of Change, I had no idea what to do for it. I could have done a website, play some flyers, show a movie, but none of those were something I truly wanted to do. I didn’t think that they would have made an impact that I could record. I then came up with the idea to make a PSA. A PSA would be short enough so I could make it within the time we had, but it would still get my message across. Now with my PSA, I could have gone may ways. I could have made it really short and goes straight to the point, I could be in it, I could not be in it. After thinking about all the different ways I could make my PSA, I decided to use football clips and shows the brain. I think that this will really make a strong point and will stand out. It does not contain me speaking or me in the video. It would just have impactful video clips and moving music.

Doing the PSA was that bad. I had to find some clips that I liked but also that fit the “theme.” I did not want clips of football players getting hit in the knee, because I want to find videos of players getting hit in the head/neck. That is what could lead to CTE and other bad brain related issues. Once I found all of my clips, I had to find music that also fit the “theme” of my PSA. After that, I edited it all together to get my PSA. I do not think I was effective in making change. I do not think that making a PSA will change anything. I think that it will make people think and understand the topic more, but my PSA was not meant to change the world. It was to make people more aware at the issue at hand and to make sure they can do something if they wanted to. Once I posted the video, I got about 200 views and counting. I don’t have any screenshots that are relevant, since they are not all my social media accounts. My parents and my brother posted the PSA on their social medias as well and that helped the video spread to different people. I think that getting over 200 views is a lot of people to watch my PSA.

After going everything for the project, I highly enjoyed it. I enjoyed researching a topic that I have enjoyed almost my entire life. Even though I will not make a change, I got to interview an NFL player and the next man down from Roger Goodell. I feel like I have learned a lot more that I knew at the beginning. I learned that the NFL is trying to combat these player safety issues and that the youth level football coaches are also trying to protect the kids. I think that I put a lot of effort into this project, and I think that it shows. I am really proud of what I did and what I think might happen in the future. I think that I could have made a bit of a better agent of Change, but I still think my PSA is very impactful and is very well done. Other than that, I did a great job (that is what I think). I did great research and did great interviews as well. I now pass the baton to the people reading this post and NFL to make a change that the NFL needs.

This post will continue about the issues with safety among the NFL. If you have not read the first post, please take a few minutes to read and then come back. Click here to read the first post. If you still did not read the first post, I am still going to summarize the first topic. I first started out talking about how many injuries there are per game. There could be 6 major injured each game! That is crazy. I also talked how pre-season is too long and super unnecessary, because they already have to play 16 weeks of football and 4 more games that don’t mean anything is unnecessary. I then started to talk about how CTE affects football players and the effects it will have later on in a football player’s life. I wrapped it by pointing out how high school students are our future and how if they play football at a young age, football could cause some very negative effects in the long run.

After the first post, I wanted to do more research about the different injuries in the NFL. I read more about CTE. There was a study where former NFL player’s brains were donated to see how many of them had CTE. What the study showed was shocking. The study showed that 99% of former player’s brains had CTE. That is a huge number. The sample might have been a bit too small to see if this trend is truly true. There were only 202 brains donated, but that is a decent sample size. That could also mean that some brains were in stage 1 while others were in stage 4, but that is still a huge number.

A medial collateral ligament (MCL) tear is more common among people who play football. You can tear your MCL if you get tackled and land the wrong way, or if you jump and the land the wrong way. MCL injuries are more common than ACL injuries and can be treated in better ways. If the tear is just slightly injured, then you can just wait to let it heal. Surgery is not usually required even for more severe cases. It is only requested if the person wants the MCL to heal faster. Last season, there were 151 MCL tears in the NFL. Even if MCL tears are not the most severe injury, that is too many tears.

For this stage in the project, I had to interview or do a study about an expert on my topic. I tried and tried and tried. I emailed Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, 3 different times with 3 different emails and I have still gotten nothing from him. I then tried to contact some doctors that know a lot about concussions and injuries in the NFL and same deal; no responses.  I then went to plan B, and I was going to try to call the front offices of different organizations within the NFL, but that also did not work. I was starting to worry that no one cared about me. I then tried to contact local football high schools to ask for an interview with the players, and EVEN them did not respond. I then emailed back all of the people I already emailed, and someone finally responded! I then had my dad’s friend contact some high school football coaches and he helped me get more interviews and some survey responses.

The very first interview that I have was last friday (March 16th). The man that I interviewed was named Dave Kutzler, and he is a youth football coach. The reason why I wanted to interview him is because he would provide an interesting perspective about football. Below are the questions that I asked him and what he responded with. There is also the audio of the interview if you would want hear it that way.

Q: What do you enjoy the most about football?/What made you want to become a youth football coach?

A: “I played from a young age as well. I think I started when I was 8 years old, and I played till I was 16, and I have a lot of fond memories like playing with my teammates and stuff like that, so that is really what wanted me to coach football. When I was playing I always had fun, I never got hurt, never got a concussion. So, yeah that is why I like it.”

Q: How has the greater awareness of player safety changed the game and the way you coach?

A: “I have coached for about 10 years. Back when I first started coaching him, he did flag football for his first two years, and then when you are 7 years old, you can convert to playing tackle football. When I first started out coaching, I had to take a bunch courses that were pretty expensive. They are run by USA Football, which is endorsed by the NFL, and they have NFL coaches giving video chats that we would have to watch. The people who pioneered a lot of the ‘Heads Up’ stuff were the Seattle Seahawks. They had a defensive coordinator who taught this different style of tackling, more like rugby style, where it is called ‘Heads Up’ tackling or ‘Seahawks’ tackling where your head is always up, you never dip your head. It does not get rid of the concussion injuries, but it does eliminate neck injuries. What the Seahawks taught was that you wrap around the legs and roll, which is a different style of tackling than I learned early on. From the years that I have coached, I have seen it change. For the first 5 years that I coached, there were no instructions, there were no videos or courses to take. They just trusted that the people teaching the kids understood the game. But in the last five years, they started to teach how to do proper techniques regarding the neck injuries, spine injuries, concussions on how to take that out of the game. So there have been a lot of advancements in the youth coaching within the last  4-5 years. Before that there was almost nothing.”

Q: Do you think that the NFL should be implementing the “Heads Up”/Rugby style of tacking?

A: “They actually do. That is why you are seeing a lot of these dudes roll. Within the last year or two, a lot of the defensive back hits have not been anywhere near the head. I do not think that it is widely broadcasted, but I do think that this ‘Seahawk’ tackling is being used more often than you think. I think that a lot of people are starting to teach it that way, because the NFL changed the rules so much because if they do not, they will be penalized and will hurt the team more. If you do not see it a lot now, you will see it very soon (the “Heads Up” tackling”).”

Q: You said in the email that for the 10 years you have coached, none of your players have received a concussion. What have you done as a coach to make sure of that?

A: “When the kids are young, I would say anywhere between 7 and 10 they truly do not hit hard enough as far as concussions. So that has really never been a concern, and I do not think it should be a concern for any parent or any organization. They just don’t hit hard enough, they are just a bunch of bobbleheads walking around a football field. Now, at about age 10 or 11, you can start to see some of these kids really develop. They are really starting to understand the game, and really starting to understand the hits. That’s really when the teaching and the movement and the pushing towards that ‘Seahawk’ tackling (“Heads Up) football is put into place. We took that as coaches and integrated that. Football starts in August. Your biggest concern in August is heat exhaustion. So they taught us that as well. What to look for as far as heat exhaustion (symptoms, etc.), and the first week is no pads, and just allowing the body to get used to the heat, and the running, and stuff like that. That is week one; no hitting, just heat. The second week is really when you teach the kids basic fundamentals. What I mean by that is doing step by step processes of how to hit, and we do it very slowly. It is really two weeks of getting your body just to the heat and the second week is very step by step no large hitting. Not only that, they teach us that during practices, you should not have the kids tackling more than 3 yards part. In other words, you are not running 20 yards in full steam, bashing each other 20 yards apart. That contact is very close contact, so if the contact is very limited during practice, we do not have large collisions. Within the last 5 years, the NFL has really brought in a lot into the lower levels of football as far as training.”

Q: So, as highers schoolers go to college and might want to be professional football players, and they are not doing the 3-yard tackles, when do they learn that running 20 yards at full speed to tackle someone is not the right idea? When is the learning curve?

A: “What we also teach is this thing called angle tackling, and the ‘Heads Up’ tackling. You always have your head up, and you always have to keep your head out of tackles. When I played, you always had a coach who would say, ‘Put your hat on,’ or ‘Let ‘em up’. Stuff like that. We do not say stuff like that anymore. When you have a tackle, your head has to go across the body, the head is never down. During games, hopefully, that what we have taught in the 3-yard drills, does work. You are going to see concussions in any sport; soccer, cheerleading, gymnastics. The best thing that we can do is to keep emphasizing the ‘Heads Up’ to just keep your head out of the tackle. I do know that they teach the technique at high school level football. That probably is also probably only been out for 4/5 years, because when we (coaches) have to take the courses, there are high school courses. The high school coaches have to take the high school level courses.”

Q: Do you think that enough/too much is being done to prevent concussion in football?

A: “There is never too much. There can always be more, but do I think that they are going in the right direction and heading the right way as far safety? Let's face it: If people do not address this issue, football is not going to existent anymore. About 3 or 4 years ago, I would say that amount kids signing up for football was at an all-time low. But now that people are starting to see what we (the coaches) are doing as far as courses, training, stuff like that, the amount of kids signing up for football is rising again. I have seen within the last 2/3 years, the levels are going back up, but there was a time where some parents were reluctant about putting their kids in. But again, there is never enough training. I think that they are heading in the right direction. It is definitely a lot better than it was.”

Q: Have you received any concerns from parents regarding the safety of their child/children?

A: “I have not. I think they see us (coaches) the way we approach our practices. We have their their best interest at heart as far as safety. Let’s face it; these are kid are anywhere from 10 to 14 years old. Most of the kids who play football have been playing  a few years before that, and also the kids who play football are a different breed. Most of them are very aggressive kids. Most of them are very up-beat kids, very postivekids, not a lot of negativity. And honestly that is another reason why I love coaching football, just kids that can listen to discipline, kids that like discipline, kids that listen, kids who want to get better, kids gernalary a little more athletic. I love teaching kids football. They are a different breed - I can not explain it. Some of the kids that play baseball can play while others are just okay. If you can not play football, you are afraid to hit, stuff like that, you get weed out pretty quick. So you are dealing with a type of child that wants to be there, and wants to get better, and wants to learn teamwork, and wants to learn the game of football. That is another why I really like it (coaching football) as well. I loved dealing with the kind of kid that is really interested in it.”

Q: Any else that you think would help me?

A: “I know that we all want to keep our kids as safe as possible, I mean there are all kinds of sports that can be dangerous. Like I was telling you earlier, cheerleading can be dangerous especially if you are getting through 20 feet into the air. People can get hurt by that. That being said, you can not put your kids in a bubble. We can do all kind of things to keep them as safe as we can. But kids have to be kids and I hear parents say that they will never let their child play football, but if they want to? I do not want to hold my kid back. If he wants to play football, I will ensure that he is getting the best instruction as he can to be safe, but I would let him do it. I hear a lot of the conversation, ‘I will never let me kid play’....why...why? There might be another sport that you could not play because your parents would not allow you, you be upset? That is kind of how I feel about it. The kids are totally into it. Alright lets teach them the proper way to play and go by it that way.

After doing the interview with Dave Kutzler, I learned a lot. I learned that football is changing for the better. Youth coaches are teaching the kids the proper way to play without injuring themselves. I also did not know how much the NFL is helping out. They want the younger generation to be safer so they can play in the NFL as well. They want as many kids to enjoy football. The interview also many me think of my project in a different light. I thought that there was a lot to improve upon within football. You can never help out too much, but the NFL is working on safety issue more than I thought that they were. Dave answered all of my questions wonderfully and I was left with no questions.

The very next day after I had my interview Dave, Will Parks called me. Will Parks is a safety who plays for the Denver Broncos, but he grew up in Philly. My dad’s friend, friend friend, knew Will and set me up with an interview. I do not have the written portion, but I do have the audio that you can listen to.

After doing the interview, I learned a lot. Will Parks was lucky enough to have no major injuries, but has seen injuries. He noted that the last game of the season that he played, he saw one of his own teammate’s break a leg. His response to someone the questions were similar to Dave, in the fact that he said that football is football. There will be injuries either way. He also said that if you want to play harder, you have to more careful and watch out for yourself. Since Will Parks did not have any major injuries, I could not find out some information about players who had to go through the injuries process, but other than that I got all I needed from Will Parks.

For my project, I also did a survey. The survey is supposed to be filled out by high school football players to see how much they know about the risks of football. I have a few responds, but I want to wait a few more days for more responds, so I will post another post about the survey and what it said.

After doing all of this, I have learned a lot. Reading a bunch of articles made me think one way, and then doing my interviews makes me think another way. At first, I thought that the NFL was not doing a whole lot, but after doing the interviews, that is false. The NFL is trying to reduced injuries in football. The last thing that I have to do is “change” or fix my issue. I have some general ideas, but they are half-baked. I might try to design a helmet or pads to reduce the number of injuries, or I can make a website or powerpoint to have my reader know about the issue. If you have ideas please comment below.

A Concussion a Day Leads the Player Astray

Have you ever had an issue on your mind that you just wanted to help solve? The NFL has a huge issue with player safety. That might not seem to a major issue to you or me, but it impacts a lot of people inside and outside the game. It affects all the people within the NFL as well as the 22 million people (on average per game) who watch each game. Too many players are getting hurt each year. Even though the league has tried to help with the major injury issue, what they have done only impacts a small fraction of the entire league. Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, has tried his hardest to prevent injuries, and many players agree with that statement. I want to help make the NFL a safer for the players  and more enjoyable for the fans  to watch.

This graph shows how many injuries there were per game in the last 4 years. It is also separated by which day the games were.

Player safety in the NFL is a big deal. Almost 300 players had to leave the game because of a concussion that will impact them for the rest of their lives, and about 6 players had to leave due to an injury every game! Many people who watch the sport rarely know the true details of each injury, and they believe that it might only affect the player for a few weeks or months. Little do they know that some injuries will have lasting effects. There are many players who had to retire from the sport they love because of an injury they did not know was going to happen. People like Bo Jackson, Joe Theismann, and Kevin Everett who never could have imagined what happened to them. These people should the world how nasty the NFL can be and how the rules need to change.

One of the major injuries that is caused by concussions and hard hits to the head is chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a disease that grows over time inside your brain that can cause different symptoms over the years. There are 4 different stages and the symptoms get progressively worse. . Another big issue with CTE is that it can only be diagnosed through  an autopsy; which means that scientist and doctors only know if a person has CTE once they are dead. A famous story about an NFL player who had severe CTE is Aaron Hernandez. He was with the Patriots before being found guilty  of murdering a total of three  people. While he was in prison, he commited suicide with a bed sheet, which is when doctors then found out that he had CTE. Doctors believe that is what lead to him being so violent and being suicidal. That is just one major case though. There are many other former NFL players who had CTE and committed suicide.  Dr. Ann McKee did a study that looks at many former NFL players brains. She found out that 110 out of 111 of player’s brains had some stage of CTE. She also found that high schoolers will already have mild cases of CTE at their age.

This is a picture of the brain with CTE and how CTE looks like in its different stages. The brown stain is the tau protein, and over time the tau protein spreads until it is the entire brain. Tau protein can be both good and bad proteins, but in the matter of CTE, it is bad.

Another major issue with player safety is the length of the NFL  Some people think that pre-season should be shortened or just eliminated. Other people think that there is no issue with it or that it should be increased. Many people debate that pre-season should still be 4 weeks, because even though there are injuries in the pre-season, there are also injuries in practice and in the regular season.  Pre-season produces almost the same amount of injuries as practice so if the pre-season is eliminated, that would get rid of at least 25% of injuries.

The reason that player safety in the NFL is an issue is because there are many kids who want to play in the NFL. A lot of teenagers play football in high school and some play college football and others also make it all the way to the NFL. Many people say kids are the future and if kids are playing football and get minor stages of CTE, that could very dangerous to their health, since their brains are still developing. Some people even believe that high school football should be banned due to the danger it poses for their safety. Player safety among the NFL should be important to understand, because people should not want other people to be put into risky situations.

Player safety is a huge issue to me because I am such a huge football fan. Last season, I saw many players out for the season and that upset me. I know that football has a huge risk factor, but there has to be a way to decrease injuries. In my opinion, it just makes the game more enjoyable to watch without players getting season-ending injuries. Football is just so important in my life, and to see preventable  injuries makes me mad. Concussion and ACL tears should be more avoidable all together and that is how I hope the NFL will be one day.

The research that I have done has changed my view. I know a lot more about how the brain is affected because of the concussion. I also learned a lot about CTE and how that connects to NFL athletes. After doing the research, it makes me want to solve the issue of player safety even more. I still have to read more about pre-season and different injuries. I want to learn more about the risk of the NFL and any more surprising brain injuries.

The link to my annotated bibliography is here.

Justine and I made a board game that related to Macbeth. In Macbeth, many characters are fighting to be king. Some make noble decisions, while others take the dark path to the top. Macbeth chose to take the sinful way to the top which resulted in his downfall. Macbeth heard of the prophecies and decided to force his way up. He felt that he had no choice because of his “vaulting ambition”. So he went down a horrible path which ultimately resulted in his downfall. He killed the prior king, King Duncan, and blamed it on his servants, then killed them too. Duncan’s sons decide to flee because they were afraid for their lives and they thought they would be next on the murder list. No one suspects Macbeth and he is crowned king. Of course, there are always repercussions for evil choices. So, Macbeth realized that although he would be king, his children won’t be king because Banquo’s children are destined to be king. Again, Macbeth decides to do a sinful thing to get what he wants. He kills his best friend Banquo. As Macbeth was doing all these things, he failed to rule his kingdom properly which resulting in his own people rebelling against him. He loses the fight and dies. This is one example of what could happen after making bad choices to get what you want. This is the whole objective of our game, as six players race on the way to Dunsinane. Malcolm, who was the king’s son, and next in line, became king because Macbeth was killed. He did not kill anyone to become king, and he was more noble about being king. So, in our game you can either be more noble, somewhat like Malcolm, or you can be evil, like Macbeth and kill everyone in your way.

Some of the cards that we have in our game, relate to many things from the book. Someone of the cards relate to 3,because 3 is a recurring theme in Macbeth. There are also a lot of cards that can hurt or aid you in the ways of slumber. There are also more exact cards that relate more towards the book. One the of cards talks about the porter and how he was drunk and how that related to the player. Most of the repercussion cards (the cards you have to pick up if you choose the evil path) are all something that might have happened to Macbeth. Macbeth saw the ghost of Banquo, someone he had killed, he that is somewhat similar to one of the cards in our game.  All of the cards relate to the play in someway. It might be a bit more abstract than others, but they are related. Also, the idea of fate cards are related to Macbeth, because Macbeth is either letting fate lead him or he is fighting fate. Some in our game, the fate cards lead you in the way it wants to lead you, because it is fate. Our game is related to Macbeth, because of the overall idea of the game, to become the king of Scotland first, and all of the cards that come from something in the play.

When I was making my slides, I wanted to make mine simple. I do not want to distract the viewer with pictures or words that were unnecessary. I used the rule of the third while making the slide. I made a 3 by 3 chart and then spread it across the whole screen, so I can see where to place pictures/words according to the rules of the thirds. I did not want everything to be at the top or bottom of the screen, so I put certain components in different parts of the slide that would look best. I put the silhouette of a dog in the bottom right hand corner so it does not interfere with the quote. I also wanted to make the words pretty big so it is readable, but not so big that the spacing between the words look off. I bolded the word dog, because that is the most important part of the slide. The slide is showing my love for dogs, and having the word dog bolded makes that word stand out and makes viewers eyes go for it first.