Thursday, February 26, 2015

In Class Lab

Taegen Hill
Engl. 102 – 5:00 pm
Dr. Sonia Apgar Begert
26 February 2015

Sports related concussions are a very common and considerably vague condition. Often, athletes who receive a concussion will return to play as soon as possible, or lie so they don’t have to get treated and abstain from playing their sport. Many times when the athlete keeps playing, they will continue to get worse or will obtain a secondary concussion, or “second-impact syndrome,” from a relatively small force, due to already having a concussion and being more susceptible to getting injured further. Secondary concussions can lead to worsening symptoms, a more severe brain injury, brain damage, or even death. Eventually, after having multiple concussions, an athlete may acquire a condition known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). All of these athletes have at least one thing in common: they’ve all chosen to return to play, and keep playing their sport, on their own. This fact brings on my question, “Why do athletes choose to keep playing their sport, even after receiving one or more concussions?” Is it a psychological issue? Or maybe a chemical imbalance? Could it simply be just an undying love, respect, and drive to play the game? Whether it’s just one issue, or all of these, plus some, in my paper, I plan to unpack this question and get to the bottom of the “why.”

            When addressing athletes who have received one or more concussions, you have to be very sensitive and careful when discussing every aspect of how the concussion(s) affect them. Most of the time, one concussion will not affect an athlete’s entire life, while as multiple concussions (which is what I will mostly be speaking to) could affect the rest of their lives. Athletes can acquire several different conditions from having obtained multiple concussions, such as chronic headaches/migraines, long term depression, or the most serious, CTE. Any of these conditions are very serious and can affect not only them, but anyone around them. There are many cases where death has been highly probable and others have committed suicide from these conditions. Getting down to the “why” factor of this issue is very important because it could save athletes’ lives; it could keep the athletes from getting serious, life-threatening conditions that negatively influence the rest of their lives, and their friend’s and family’s lives.  

            After getting a serious head injury, many tests are taken and quite a few doctors are seen. These tests show what part of the brain the injuries have affected. The doctors use their expertise to decide what medications should be taken, what treatments they should go through, and how the athlete is responding, emotionally, physically, and psychologically. After the initial treatment is finished and the athlete seems to not be experiencing any more symptoms, they’re cleared to play again. With just one concussion that can be the end of the line for the doctors, or at least the treatments, but once they’ve received another concussion, they’re back to where they started, or even further back. After they’ve gone through the process again, with even more extensive tests and more doctors, they can decide whether to return to their sport, or “retire.” The doctors weigh in to the decision, coaches and athletic trainers weigh in, friends and family weigh in, but the final decision is up to the athlete. Most of the time, the athlete chooses to keep playing. A lot of the doctors will say their choice to return is psychological, like a piece of the athlete is missing if they can’t play their sport. Others say the decision can be (for professional athletes) pressured by the greed for money. It could also be because they have the need to be the best in their sport.

Thesis:
The answer to “why” athletes return to playing their sport instead of retiring is simply because they love their sport, they feel a piece of them is missing without that sport.


I.              History of concussions
II.             Life threatening conditions from multiple concussions
III.            Emotional psychological side of concussions
IV.           The decision to return/retire
V.            Why deciding to retire might be better

VI.           Conclusion

Friday, February 20, 2015

Annotated Bibliography

1. Fainaru-Wada, Mark, and Steve Fainaru. League of Denial. New York: Crown Archetype, 2013. Print. 

            “League of Denial,” written by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru in 2013, is a book about the connection between football and brain injuries, depression, and altered brain activity that lead to early deaths, retirements, and players being diagnosed with serious and life-threatening conditions, the most significant of which being, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Even though today, the fact that concussions and football are linked, a few years ago no one knew enough about concussions and associating the two caused a great deal of upheaval and struck many debates and researches.


2. Guskiewicz, Kevin M, et al. "Association between recurrent concussion and late-life cognitive impairment in retired professional football players." Neurosurgery 57.4 (2005): 719-726. MEDLINE. Web. 12 Jan 2015.

            In the 2005 Neurosurgery article written by Kevin M Guskiewicz and many other authors, “Association between recurrent concussion and late-life cognitive impairment in retired professional football players,” bring to light the misunderstood and obscure effects of recurrent concussions on the brain and the lingering neurological symptoms and conditions.


3. Hazrati, Lili-Naz, et al. "Absence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in retired football players with multiple concussions and neurological symptomatology." 24 May 2013. Frontier Human Neuroscience. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

            Lili-Naz Hazrati and quite few of her colleagues wrote an article in 2013 called, “Absence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in retired football players with multiple concussions and neurological symptomatology.” This article focuses on the science behind CTE, the study of CTE in football players, the results of those studies and the connection between football and other brain-related conditions.


4. Gardner, Andrew. "The complex clinical issues involved in an athlete's decision to retire from collision sport due to multiple concussions: a case study of a professional athlete." 27 Sept. 2013. Frontier Neurology. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

            In September 2013, Andrew Gardner wrote an article called, “The complex clinical issues involved in an athlete’s decision to retire from collision sport due to multiple concussions: a case study of a professional athlete.” Gardner confronts the issue of early retirement and the factors athletes have to think of when thinking about retirement. Many athletes have been advised to retire early because of their past concussive history.


5. Doolan, Amy W, et al. "A Review Of Return To Play Issues and Sports Related Concussion." Annals of Biomedical Engineering 40.1 (2012): 106-113. MEDLINE. Web. 12 Feb 2015.

            The article, “A review of return to play issues and sports-related concussions,” written by Amy W Doolan and a few others in 2012, highlights the importance of “return to play guidelines.” It will serve as a background information source.


6. Strain, Jeremy, et al. "Depressive symptoms and white matter dysfunction in retired NFL players with concussion history." Neurology 81.1 (2013): 25-32. MEDLINE. Web. 14 Feb. 2015. 

            Jeremy Strain, along with multiple other authors, wrote the 2013 article, “Depressive symptoms and white matter dysfunction in retired NFL players with concussion history.” This article brings us along their experimental path to connect depression in professional football players to head injuries by observing white matter in retired NFL players, who have a multiple concussion history, using brain scans.

7. Sedney, CL, J Orphanos, and JE Bailes. "When to consider retiring an athlete after sports-related concussion." Clinics in Sports Medicine 30.1 (2011): 189-200. CINAHL Complete. Web. 14 Feb 2015.

            CL Sedney, J Orphanos, and JE Bailes discuss when to consider retiring and what factors to contemplate before retiring in the 2011 article, “When to consider retiring an athlete after sports-related concussion.” They examine different conditions that come from multiple concussions, brain assessments based on imaging and diagnoses, and how it could affect you psychologically.


8. Bass III, Pat F. "Managing a patient after concussion." 01 Aug. 2014. Advanstar Communications Inc. Modern Medicine Network. 27 Jan. 2015.

            Pat F. Bass III highlights the protocol doctors take when caring for someone who has received a concussion in his 2014 article, “Managing a patient after concussion.” Bass clarifies the basic, yet crucial steps to take when addressing a concussed patent. This article is useful for background information on concussion care and is more elaborate than Amy W Doolan’s “A review of return to play issues and sports-related concussion” article.


9. Cantu, RC, and JK Register-Mihalik. "Considerations for return-to-play and retirement decisions after concussion." PM & R: The Journal of Injury, Function, and Rehabilitation 3.10 Suppl 2 (2011): S440-S444. MEDLINE. Web. 15 Feb 2015.

            RC Cantu and JK Register-Mihalik wrote the article, “Considerations for return-to-play and retirement decisions after concussion,” in 2011 to acknowledge the growing struggle of deciding whether to risk getting injured further or just retire from the game. They weigh in on the “complexity” of decisions, and the vast amount of components that come into play when deciding. They also set out to supply athletes with suitable fact-based information to use when deciding.


10. Span, Emma. "Briana Scurry." Sports Illustrated 121.1 (2014): 72-75. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.

            In the 2014 Sports Illustrated article, “Briana Scurry,” Emma Span told the unfortunate story of the U.S. women’s national team’s goalkeeper, Briana Scurry. Span examines the concussion Scurry received in 2010 that caused her to retire early and resulted in surgery and mental depression. Scurry’s injury highlights the risk for high school female soccer players to receive concussions as well.


11. Reinburg, Steven. "Extra Rest May Not Be Best For Kids' Concussions: Two days proved more effective than five days in small study of teens." HealthDay (2013-2015). WebMD. Web. 20 Jan. 2015.

The article written by Steven Reinburg, “Extra Rest May Not Be Best For Kids’ Concussions: Two days proved more effective than five days in small study of teens,” talks about how not only less rest not effect the recovery, but it actually helps. Working on school work or work that involves brainpower actually helps in the recovery process & more rest can prove ineffective. The title is pretty self-explanatory.


12. KH, May, et al. "Table 6: 6-Step Return-to-Play Protocol." Chart. F. Bass III, Pat. "Managing a patient after concussion." 01 Aug. 2014. Modern Medicine Network. 27 Jan. 2015.
      This source, made by May KH and others, is an image of a chart that appears on the Pat F. Bass III’s article “Managing a patient after concussion." The chart portrays the “6-Step” process that most doctors agree on when treating a concussion patient. These are the steps that an athlete must complete, without skipping, to be cleared to play their sport again.

13. Kurowski, B, et al. "Factors that influence concussion knowledge and self-reported attitudes in high school athletes." Sept. 2014. J Trauma Acute Care Surgery. Web. 14 Feb 2015.
      The 2014 article, “Factors that influence concussion knowledge and self-reported attitudes in high school athletes,” written by B Kurowski and others is mostly as it seems. High school athletes commonly have a dilemma when pondering whether to report their concussions. They can either self-report and take a test, be diagnosed with a concussion, and be suspended from their sport until they get cleared, or they can keep playing without any short-term problems. The second choice sounds much more appealing than the first, but its all short-term benefits. This article confronts the factors that influence the decision teenage athletes make for self-reporting.

14. Chen, Yun, Wei Huang, and Shlomi Constantini. "The differences between blast-induced and sports-related brain injuries." 14 Aug. 2014. Frontier Neurology. Web. 15 Feb 2105.
      The article written by Yun Chen, Wei Huang, and Shlomi Constantini, “The differences between blast-induced and sports-related brain injuries,” informs us of the seriousness of both injuries, but the differences between the two. This article is very good for background information because it deals with how athletes tend to think sports-related concussions aren’t as serious as blast-induced concussions and then get injured further because they keep playing, which is called a secondary concussion, and can be taken out from their sport longer, or even permanently.

15. Kumar, Neil S, et al. "On-Field Performance of National Football League Players After Return From Concussion." American Journal of Sports Medicine 42.9 (2014): 2050-2055. Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition. Web. 15 Feb 2015.
      Neil S. Kumar and his colleagues’ article, “On-Field Performance of National Football League Players After Return From Concussion,” really helps informing the public on the effects of concussions on athletes. Concussions are a lot more serious than most people think and they can seriously affect performance levels of athletes in quite a few different ways.

16. Omalu, Bennet. Play Hard, Die Young: Football Dementia, Depression, and Death. Lodi, CA: Neo-Forenxis, 2008.
      Bennet Omalu’s book Play Hard, Die Young: Football Dementia, Depression, and Death enlightens the public of the seriousness of multiple concussions and what many football players are dealing with and the reason why many football players had to retire early, or why they died at a young age. Concussions can cause some of the worst brain illnesses there are, but athletes still keep playing their sport, and keep getting concussed.

17. Otto, Jim (with Dave Newhouse). Jim Otto: The Pain of Glory. Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing Inc., 2000.
            The story of Jim Otto’s career involves his numerous injuries, frequent surgeries, and how those injuries translated into a struggle to live during his life of retirement. It focuses on the psychological side of how the injures affected him and how the “glory” eventually resulted in a painful struggle.


18. Pellman, Elliot J., et al. "Concussion in Professional Football: Repeat Injuries--Part 4." Neurosurgery 55 (Oct. 2004): 860-876. Web. 15 Feb 2015.
            The article, “Concussion in Professional Football: Repeat Injuries--Part 4” written by Elliot J. Pellman and his colleagues is the medical data of a 6-year study on professional football players who have received multiple concussions. The data from this study shows the signs, symptoms, and management of those athletes.


19. Pellman, Elliot J., et al. "Concussion in Professional Football: Neuropsychological Testing--Part 5." Neurosurgery 55 (Dec. 2004): 1290-1305. Web. 15 Feb 2015.
      This article is the same 6-year study of the same professional football players’ neuropsychological testing after they have received one or more concussions. Neuropsychological testing is a high-intensity IQ test that tests different kinds of brain activity/power. This test allows doctors to see how the concussion has affected these athletes, and what part of the brain is most affected.

20. Pellman, Elliot J., et al. "Concussion in Professional Football: Players Returning to the Same Game--Part 7." Neurosurgery 56 (Jan. 2005): 79-92. Web. 15 Feb 2015.

      Part 7 of the 6-year study of the athletes who’ve received one or more concussions, is the “returning to the same game” aspect of concussions. It involves the decision making of the athletes who have gone through concussion symptoms and neuropsychological testing on whether or not they should return to playing, or retire. Sometimes the decision is for the doctors to make because it becomes a serious medical issue.


Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Bedford Researcher Ch.16 - Writing with Style

                Writing with style is the emphasis of Ch. 16 in The Bedford Researcher. Your writing style will be based on your experience, writing situation, and/or prompt. Beginning to write with style will include: writing in a briefer manner, productively using active and passive voice, make sure you use a consistent point of view, choose words conscientiously, and use different sentence structures. Writing more briefly includes removing unnecessary words, information, and “stock phrases,” or phrases that could easily be shortened. Writing concisely allows your reader to understand what you’ve written without working too hard at it, but isn’t too vague either. Using active and passive voices are important when trying to get to the point, or emphasize the person carrying out the action to supply an adequate amount of information. In The Bedford Researcher they talk about how important using a consistent point of view in your paper. If you switch from one point of view, such as first person, to another, like third person, it could confuse the reader and make it harder to understand. To conscientiously choose words you have to first identify the formality in which you’re writing, who you’re writing to, and words that will clean up your sentence/paragraph structure.

                Polishing your style is the subject of the next section in ch.16.  To enhance the value of your research writing paper, The Bedford Researcher tells you to change up your sentence structure, transition from one sentence, idea, or paragraph to another productively, avoid using language that could imply sexist meaning, consulting a handbook, and reading widely. Varying your sentence structure keeps your reader from getting bored and makes your writing more attractive. Transitioning can signal small shifts within your sentence, to larger shifts within your document. Using author’s ideas or quotes should be introduced in a more elaborate way. Avoiding sexist comments can be just as simple as taking out the gender focus of a sentence that negatively conveys a person or person’s action. The Bedford Researcher then suggests to consult a handbook for further ways to “polish” your writing style. The last way they suggest to perfect your writing is to simply read more and diverse books. 

Bedford Researcher Ch.18 - Understanding Design Principles

                In ch.18 of The Bedford Researcher, informs you of how to properly design your document. They emphasize the importance of how the design of your paper will impact the ability of your reader to interact with and understand your research writing project. The first section of this chapter is titled, “How can I use design effectively?” and they highlight four design aspects to focus on: Understanding design principles, designing for a purpose, designing for your readers, and designing to address genre conversation. Understanding design principles is just knowing how to work with a word processor to create a sleek, professional looking paper. Designing for a purpose is just what it sounds like, designing your paper that effectively represents and informs your reader of your purpose as a writer. Designing for your readers is just to help your readers comprehend, navigate, and utilize your design easily to gain as much information as possible. Addressing genre conventions is just “[creating] a document that meets the expectations of your readers.”

                The second section of ch.18 is called, “What design elements can I use?” and it enlightens you of the vast amount of features you can use on your document. The most important features writers use are: fonts, line spacing, and alignment. These features simplify your document so it becomes easier to read. The Bedford Researcher then talks about the importance of placing your text, illustration, columns, foot notes, etc. in an organized manner. “Coloring, Shading, Borders, and Rules” (291) are qualities of your paper that can affect the “attractiveness” (291) of your paper. Then they inform you of the different kinds of illustrations that can contribute to your paper in a good way. Photographs set mood, charts and graphs portray your information visually, tables can visualize more difficult information, and other digital illustrations bring the different aspect of sound and movement to your paper that most people won’t have. The Bedford Researcher emphasizes the value of using illustrations for a purpose, not just looks, placing them near the ideas of your illustration that are in your paper, and explaining the illustration using a brief summary/caption or title.

Research Proposal

Intro:

            Sports related concussions are a very common and considerably vague condition. Often, athletes who receive a concussion will return to play as soon as possible, or lie so they don’t have to get treated and abstain from playing their sport. Many times when the athlete keeps playing, they will continue to get worse or will obtain a secondary concussion, or “second-impact syndrome,” from a relatively small force, due to already having a concussion and being more susceptible to getting injured further. Secondary concussions can lead to worsening symptoms, a more severe brain injury, brain damage, or even death. Eventually, after having multiple concussions, an athlete may acquire a condition known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). All of these athletes have at least one thing in common: they’ve all chosen to return to play, and keep playing their sport, on their own. This fact brings on my question, “Why do athletes choose to keep playing their sport, even after receiving one or more concussions?” Is it a psychological issue? Or maybe a chemical imbalance? Could it simply be just an undying love, respect, and drive to play the game? Whether it’s just one issue, or all of these, plus some, in my paper, I plan to unpack this question and get to the bottom of the “why.”


 Review of Literature: 

 Fainaru-Wada, Mark, and Steve Fainaru. League of Denial. New York: Crown Archetype, 2013. Print. 
            “League of Denial,” written by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru in 2013, is a book about the connection between football and brain injuries, depression, and altered brain activity that lead to early deaths, retirements, and players being diagnosed with serious and life-threatening conditions, the most significant of which being, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Even though today, the fact that concussions and football are linked, a few years ago no one knew enough about concussions and associating the two caused a great deal of upheaval and struck many debates and researches.

Guskiewicz, Kevin M, et al. "Association between recurrent concussion and late-life cognitive impairment in retired professional football players." Neurosurgery 57.4 (2005): 719-726. MEDLINE. Web. 12 Jan 2015.
            In the 2005 Neurosurgery article written by Kevin M Guskiewicz and many other authors, “Association between recurrent concussion and late-life cognitive impairment in retired professional football players,” bring to light the misunderstood and obscure effects of recurrent concussions on the brain and the lingering neurological symptoms and conditions.

Hazrati, Lili-Naz, et al. "Absence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in retired football players with multiple concussions and neurological symptomatology." 24 May 2013. Frontier Human Neuroscience. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.
            Lili-Naz Hazrati and quite few of her colleagues wrote an article in 2013 called, “Absence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in retired football players with multiple concussions and neurological symptomatology.” This article focuses on the science behind CTE, the study of CTE in football players, the results of those studies and the connection between football and other brain-related conditions.

Gardner, Andrew. "The complex clinical issues involved in an athlete's decision to retire from collision sport due to multiple concussions: a case study of a professional athlete." 27 Sept. 2013. Frontier Neurology. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.
            In September 2013, Andrew Gardner wrote an article called, “The complex clinical issues involved in an athlete’s decision to retire from collision sport due to multiple concussions: a case study of a professional athlete.” Gardner confronts the issue of early retirement and the factors athletes have to think of when thinking about retirement. Many athletes have been advised to retire early because of their past concussive history.

Doolan, Amy W, et al. "A Review Of Return To Play Issues and Sports Related Concussion." Annals of Biomedical Engineering 40.1 (2012): 106-113. MEDLINE. Web. 12 Feb 2015.
            The article, “A review of return to play issues and sports-related concussions,” written by Amy W Doolan and a few others in 2012, highlights the importance of “return to play guidelines.” It will serve as a background information source.

Strain, Jeremy, et al. "Depressive symptoms and white matter dysfunction in retired NFL players with concussion history." Neurology 81.1 (2013): 25-32. MEDLINE. Web. 14 Feb. 2015. 
            Jeremy Strain, along with multiple other authors, wrote the 2013 article, “Depressive symptoms and white matter dysfunction in retired NFL players with concussion history.” This article brings us along their experimental path to connect depression in professional football players to head injuries by observing white matter in retired NFL players, who have a multiple concussion history, using brain scans.

Sedney, CL, J Orphanos, and JE Bailes. "When to consider retiring an athlete after sports-related concussion." Clinics in Sports Medicine 30.1 (2011): 189-200. CINAHL Complete. Web. 14 Feb 2015.
            CL Sedney, J Orphanos, and JE Bailes discuss when to consider retiring and what factors to contemplate before retiring in the 2011 article, “When to consider retiring an athlete after sports-related concussion.” They examine different conditions that come from multiple concussions, brain assessments based on imaging and diagnoses, and how it could affect you psychologically.

Bass III, Pat F. "Managing a patient after concussion." 01 Aug. 2014. Advanstar Communications Inc. Modern Medicine Network. 27 Jan. 2015.
            Pat F. Bass III highlights the protocol doctors take when caring for someone who has received a concussion in his 2014 article, “Managing a patient after concussion.” Bass clarifies the basic, yet crucial steps to take when addressing a concussed patent. This article is useful for background information on concussion care and is more elaborate than Amy W Doolan’s “A review of return to play issues and sports-related concussion” article.

Cantu, RC, and JK Register-Mihalik. "Considerations for return-to-play and retirement decisions after concussion." PM & R: The Journal of Injury, Function, and Rehabilitation 3.10 Suppl 2 (2011): S440-S444. MEDLINE. Web. 15 Feb 2015.
            RC Cantu and JK Register-Mihalik wrote the article, “Considerations for return-to-play and retirement decisions after concussion,” in 2011 to acknowledge the growing struggle of deciding whether to risk getting injured further or just retire from the game. They weigh in on the “complexity” of decisions, and the vast amount of components that come into play when deciding. They also set out to supply athletes with suitable fact-based information to use when deciding.

Span, Emma. "Briana Scurry." Sports Illustrated 121.1 (2014): 72-75. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
            In the 2014 Sports Illustrated article, “Briana Scurry,” Emma Span told the unfortunate story of the U.S. women’s national team’s goalkeeper, Briana Scurry. Span examines the concussion Scurry received in 2010 that caused her to retire early and resulted in surgery and mental depression. Scurry’s injury highlights the risk for high school female soccer players to receive concussions as well.

 Plan to Collect Information:

            So far, the information that I have collected has mostly come from databases online. I’ve used EBSCO, WebMD, and “Frontiers in” scholarly journals. I have also used the book “League of Denial,” which has many sources in the back of the book that I’ve taken a look at & plan to use later on. In addition to the quite a bit of sources I have so far, I am going to take advantage of the libraries at both of the schools I attend, along with the librarians, continue to use online databases, divulge in the labyrinth of sources in the back of my book, and conduct field studies. My field studies will consist of “personal interviews” of my magnitude of doctors I see on a regular basis, my father who has read a ton of books, articles, and journals on concussion information, and possibly shadow my chiropractor or physical therapist. I can also use my own experiences and previous knowledge to fill some of the voids my research isn’t filling.

Project Timeline:

            In the coming week, I have quite a few doctors’ appointments that I will be able to conduct interviews at. My goal there is to find out, in their experiences, why most athletes decide to return to their sports even after enduring such traumatizing injuries. I would also like to hear unique stories of recovery and further injury from some of their other/past patients. I hope to also find out what kind of medication or procedure they use most when treating a patient. With those medications and procedures I will find out the pros and cons of each. I also will spend most of my time catching up on the blog posts and assignments and will be done with those by the end of the week (God willing). My research will consist of narrowing some of my searches on the libraries online databases to find exceedingly specific sources to my topic. My goal is to find the majority of my sources by the end of the week and gain the most information out of those sources as possible. I hope to go to the actual library and scope out some books on concussions, recovery, and psychology. With all of this information I should be able to draft my thesis and create a concrete argument. By February 19 I will have finished my annotated bibliography and will have started my review of literature. Hopefully by the end of this week I will be on track to start drafting my final paper and make sure I have all of the information I need and that information is satisfactory.


Working Bibliography:

Bass III, Pat F. "Managing a patient after concussion." 01 Aug. 2014. Advanstar Communications Inc. Modern Medicine Network. 27 Jan. 2015.

Fainaru-Wada, Mark, and Steve Fainaru. League of Denial. New York: Crown Archetype, 2013. Print. 

Guskiewicz, Kevin M, et al. "Association between recurrent concussion and late-life cognitive impairment in retired professional football players." Neurosurgery 57.4 (2005): 719-726. MEDLINE. Web. 12 Jan 2015.

Hazrati, Lili-Naz, et al. "Absence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in retired football players with multiple concussions and neurological symptomatology." 24 May 2013. Frontier Human Neuroscience. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

Gardner, Andrew. "The complex clinical issues involved in an athlete's decision to retire from collision sport due to multiple concussions: a case study of a professional athlete." 27 Sept. 2013. Frontier Neurology. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

Doolan, Amy W, et al. "A Review Of Return To Play Issues and Sports Related Concussion." Annals of Biomedical Engineering 40.1 (2012): 106-113. MEDLINE. Web. 12 Feb 2015.

Strain, Jeremy, et al. "Depressive symptoms and white matter dysfunction in retired NFL players with concussion history." Neurology 81.1 (2013): 25-32. MEDLINE. Web. 14 Feb. 2015. 

Sedney, CL, J Orphanos, and JE Bailes. "When to consider retiring an athlete after sports-related concussion." Clinics in Sports Medicine 30.1 (2011): 189-200. CINAHL Complete. Web. 14 Feb 2015.

Cantu, RC, and JK Register-Mihalik. "Considerations for return-to-play and retirement decisions after concussion." PM & R: The Journal of Injury, Function, and Rehabilitation 3.10 Suppl 2 (2011): S440-S444. MEDLINE. Web. 15 Feb 2015.

 Span, Emma. "Briana Scurry." Sports Illustrated 121.1 (2014): 72-75. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.