Better Safe than Sorry
"Hey, Kenn. Are you free to do an interview soon?" I text my teammate Kennede Miller.
"Sorry, I'm with a study group right now. I have my Bio final tomorrow. Email me the questions, I'll have the responses to you as soon as possible, though!" It's finals week, so I understand Kennede being busy. She is a good student and a hard worker, and I appreciate her taking time out of her busy day to answer my questions even if it isn't in the most traditional format. I shoot her an email including 10 questions about her experiences with concussions and her personal opinions on the events going on in the NFL and a brief description of my project . About twenty minutes later, she shoots me a response with surprisingly detailed answers. The reason I chose to interview Kennede out of all varsity athletes I know at Emory is because she had a recent experience with concussions back in October. She was out for three weeks, which is quite a long time compared to the average for a concussion. In her responses, she tells me this was her first concussion. And because she was still showing symptoms more than 2 weeks after the incident our training staff kept her out of practice for the first 3 weeks of practice. I compare this to my experience with concussions. Back in 2010, during my middle school's league all-star game, I came down from a fast break and slammed my head against the floor. I still have little to no recollection of the game, but I was told the hit echoed all throughout the gym. I had short-term memory loss for a few hours after it happened, and I apparently kept asking my friends and family where I was and what was going on. Any concussion that results in memory loss is classified as beyond mild, however when I went to see a physician, the only remedy I was given was "rest for the day and see how you feel when you wake up". In Kennede's situation, no such memory loss occurred but she was out of play for three weeks. Now, of course the situations were different, collegiate sports with a professional training staff versus a middle schooler with a head injury. However, this is a perfect example of how even in the past 5 years the severity of concussions has been brought to the headlines of sports. |
Kennede believes that she was out for longer than was most likely necessary, but she appreciates the caution the Emory training staff took. "It's better safe than sorry," she said. She adds "People are beginning to realize the impact a concussion can have on your life, and I think because of that trainers and schools are beginning to take the matter more seriously than before".
The next section of questions concern the events in the NFL. I knew Kennede would be a good match for an interviewee for this topic as well because she is a pre-business/pre-law major here at Emory. Her goal is to be an attorney that works with professional athletes, like the ones in the NFL. The first question asks if she has heard of what is going on in the NFL concerning concussions, and as I expected she is aware. "Personally, I am very interested in this topic. Coming from a big football family, I am aware of the NFL concussion situation. I think football is becoming more and more of a dangerous sport and I think because of that more precautions need to be put in place. The NFL should have more standards and requirements in place to protect the players. Concussions can instantly change someones life and I think that it is important to put someones life ahead of their career in football." This is a perspective I didn't come across in my research, so it is very interesting to hear Kennede mention it. I never thought to consider a change in the actual sport of football, only a change in the way concussions were dealt with politically. And analogous to her response from the previous questions about her own experiences, she voices the perspective that is better for even professional athletes to put life above their career, because they are better safe than sorry. |