For a select few in this country, professional football is considered a job. From paper cuts to broken bones, injuries can happen in any job, and like any other job, the NFL has its fair share of injuries. Concussions have quickly become one of the most frequent injuries in the high-velocity, hard-contact sport of football. NFL players have gotten bigger, stronger, faster, and hit harder than in years past. With these key attributes in mind, this simply turns into a “physical problem of mass versus velocity” (Lark 9). With the NFL being the main leader in all sports, they failed to do their best to protect the players. Since 2009, the NFL, as an organization, has finally begun to install new equipment and regulatory standards to try to prevent the frequency of these head injuries from occurring at the terrifying level it once was. A concussion is “a trauma-induced alteration of mental status.” this may or may not result in loss of consciousness” (Lark 4). Enclosed in the skull, the brain is made up of soft tissue protected by spinal fluid. Bruises, nerve injuries, and blood vessel damage occur when the brain bounces in this fluid following blows to the head. Due to the damage that can occur to the blood vessels from these violent head jolts, glucose availability is limited. Depending on their severity, symptoms of a concussion may include slurred speech, nausea, headaches, clumsiness, vision problems, memory loss, and sensitivity to light and/or noise. Concussions are graded on a scale of one (minor) to three (major), this helps coaches and team doctors determine the severity of the injury and what measures are needed to help the player. A player is six times more likely to ge... middle of paper... speed up workouts if experiencing no symptoms. Once the player has reached maximum speed, without incident, both independent and team doctors must approve the player's health before he can return to the field. According to the American Journal of Sports Medicine, 300,000 sports-related concussions occur each year in the United States (Peters). Football in general accounts for 47% of all concussions. With the NFL being the major leader in sports, taking a stand against concussions has led other leagues to do the same. Today, MLB, MLS, NBA and NHL all have concussion policies to follow, however each of these policies has only been in effect for the last four years (Peters). Making concussion awareness a vital part of professional sports not only protects its players; protects kids who play the same sports and idolize those players.