Zane Leyden

Open-ended Questions

1. Thriving is defined as making the most out of your college experience so that you are intellectually, socially, and psychologically engaged and enjoying the college experience. Given that definition, to what extent do you think you are THRIVING as a college student this semester?

The first part of this question will be assessed through 3 choices of “Yes; Not sure; No.” The second part is an open-ended question.

What has happened this semester that has led to your perception of whether you are thriving or not? (Thriving Quotient Undergraduate Survey, 2021).

2. Academic hope is the motivational system that helps us achieve our goals. Do you think you are HOPEFUL as a college student this semester?

The first part of this question will be assessed through 3 choices of "Yes; Not sure; No.” The second part is an open-ended question.

What has happened this semester that has led to your perception of whether you are hopeful or not?

Student Success Questions

48. How would you describe your grades in college so far?

49. I am confident the amount of money I’m paying for college is worth it.

50. I intend to graduate from this institution.

51. What is the highest degree you intend to pursue in your lifetime?

52. Given my current goals, this institution is a good fit for me.

53. If I had to do it over again, I would choose a different university to attend.

54. I have a set of goals that I care about for my life after graduation.

55. I have a passion to continue learning after I graduate.

56. I am serving in leadership in at least one group or organization.

Zane Leyden

The Relationship between Football and CTE

Football is one of the most high-contact sports played in the entire world. It is known for the excitement it brings to people because of how the game is played. Fans love to see spectacular catches, long runs, deep throws, and obviously, touchdowns. However, what really gets crowds to jump out of their seats is the hard hitting plays. They want to watch the tackles that you can hear from the seats in the stadium because that’s how football should be played; it is known for being a sport where it is okay to hit someone and be rough. Since this is such a high contact sport, though, oftentimes players receive traumatic head injuries such as concussions. This can happen when there is head-to-head contact, as well as any high impact that the head receives. A concussion is where the brain crashes into the skull from the impact of a collision. Research has been done that shows getting multiple concussions, especially numerous cases of severe head trauma, can lead to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) (Wolpert, 2019). With these circumstances, the National Football League (NFL) needs to create new ideas to make the game of football more safe for its players. The NFL also needs to come up with an agreement where if a player is diagnosed with CTE from their time in the league, they must help and contribute to the player’s future needs. For the past several years, the alarming amount of head injuries in professional football has started to raise questions on the NFL’s effort to make the game safer. There have been plenty of research and studies done that have shown the statistics on the amount of head-related injuries there are and the chronic effects on the players. According to neuroscientists’

studies, it was found to be that there are on average 162 head injuries per football season, which means there are about 10.8 concussions a week around the entire NFL (Wolpert, 2019). These drastic amount of head injuries can lead to the increasing number of cases of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is known to negatively affect the brain and can eventually lead to death. The NFL has been known to avoid the issue and fails to take any responsibility for the damage that has been done to players ’ heads. In 2011, former NFL players filed a lawsuit against the NFL because the league did not do anything in their favor to prevent these injuries and “mishandled concussion-related injuries” (Wolpert, 2019). Once the lawsuit was finally filed and settled, it was agreed that families of “any previous player that had died between January 1, 2006, and July 7, 2014,” would receive four million dollars (Wolpert, 2019). This is an issue that needs to be fixed as soon as possible because players outside of those dates, whether they have passed away, are currently playing, or former players who are diagnosed with CTE, are left out of receiving a monetary settlement. Players feel as if they are getting betrayed by their employer— the NFL—because of the sacrifices they have made and getting nothing in return.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is caused when there are repetitive collisions to the head. It often happens in football from tackling and blocking but it also happens from hitting the ground too hard with a helmet. In a report that was conducted with a total of 68 men who had CTE, 36 were former football players. There are even different levels of severity with CTE. There was another report that had a total of 111 CTE cases and 23 “were considered mild and the other 84 people had severe cases” (Mez, 2017). There were symptoms that were present in both mild and severe cases. These included symptoms of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and verbal and physical violence. Over half of those men were football players, so it should be safe to say that the amount of repetitive contact to the head that football players go through is the reason it leads to CTE. All this should be concerning to everyone who plays football and enjoys watching the NFL; however, “CTE will continue to wreak havoc and cause needless suffering unless the NFL decides to lead by example and really do something about it” (Stone, 2017). The NFL should be the leader in their player’s safety; however, they have not shown much concern on the impact of the game. Football players should not want to play in the NFL if they know the league doesn’t have their backs, and ultimately, saying that they just don’t really care much about their players’ health. Athletes know that their health is the most important thing to