A Powerful Essay About How Soccer Broke Her Brain
By Ken Reed
Rebecca Ruiz has written a powerful and compelling essay about how a concussion caused her to give up the sport she loved: soccer. Ruiz, now a writer in the San Francisco area, suffered a concussion the summer before her freshman season at Seattle University. The symptoms lingered much longer than she or anyone else expected. Once back on the soccer field, she never felt the same, physically or mentally. She eventually walked into her coaches office and quit in order to focus on trying to get her healthy brain back.
“About 250,000 young athletes are treated annually in an emergency room for a sports-related concussion,” writes Ruiz in Aeon magazine.
“Those with the luck to avoid our fate fear that it is only a matter of time before an off-kilter tackle or mid-air collision comes for them, too. They know that a concussion can cause lasting damage, forcing them to choose between their brain and being a competitor who refuses to quit.”
Sadly, it’s a choice too many contact-sport athletes are having to make these days.
A key takeaway from Ruiz’ article is how important it is not to return to play too soon after a concussion. An athlete suffering a second concussion soon after a first can be diagnosed with Second Impact Syndrome, a very dangerous — even potentially fatal — condition. Unfortunately, too many athletes, and their parents and coaches, aren’t getting the message.
A recent JAMA Pediatrics study from the Institute of Medicine in Washington DC found that a culture of ‘play through it’ still permeates organized sports. According to the study, despite increased awareness about the risks of head injuries, athletes still resist reporting concussions and don’t always comply with orders to rest. For example, the study found that more than half of the injured young girls continued to play through concussion symptoms.
Scary stuff.
Read Ruiz’ article and then pass it on. Thanks to Pamela Weintraub for sharing it with me.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world, with over 150 camps in 30+ U.S. states and Canada. We discuss problems in youth sports today, including single sport specialization, the growing gap between the “haves” and “have-nots,” the high drop-out rate in competitive sports, and the growing mental health challenges young athletes are dealing with today.
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Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Episode #24 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Mental Health and Athletes: Ending the Stigma – Nathan Braaten and Taylor Ricci are the founders of Dam Worth It, a non-profit created to end the stigma around mental health at colleges and universities through sport, storytelling, and community creation.
Episode #23 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Olympian Benita Fitzgerald Mosley Talks Title IX, Youth Sports and the Olympics.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed quoted in Washington Post column titled "What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement," by Jay Mathews
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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