Final assessment ENGL 135

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Staying true to Rowan’s Law: how changing sport culture can realize the goal of the

legislation

Summary

A rugby player's death due to a series of head injuries leads to the formation of

Rowan's law which requires the removal of young concussed players and concussion

education to individuals involved in youth sport (Burt C, 2001). But certain elements of

sports culture render it ineffectual. Taking pride in overcoming and pushing through physical

adversities as part of the sports culture has stigmatized prioritizing brain health over the game.

A head injury should not be treated like skeletomuscular injuries as the aftermath of the

former can be much more drastic and permanent (Kroshus & Baugh, 2008). Despite the

increase in concussion education, athletes continue to play at risk as seen in research that

shows that under-reporting in high schools remained consistent despite the passing of Lystedt

Law. Even after removal from the game, Rowan's law does not stipulate medical clearance to

return to play, nor are there any qualification requirements for the person-in-charge of RTP

policy compliance. To avoid conflict of interest, an independent physician must be involved

who is well suited for the problem and is concerned with the patient, not the athlete (Kroshus

& Baugh, 2008). Nevertheless, noncompliance with policies has led to the use of vague terms

to avoid concussion diagnosis. Quite a few prominent athletes are striving to change sports

culture to be more inclusive of brain health, but it is still not enough. Rowan's law will be

impactful only when all people involved work to reduce the stigma and uphold concussion

policies.

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Persuasive Response

This article is concerned with the efficiency of brain health in sports and aims to

convince and educate the reader about various elements of the sports culture that hold players

back from prioritizing their health. There is no doubt that the passing of Rowan's law is a

considerable step forward in promoting brain health in sports. However, as McCradden and

Cusimano argue, merely educating people about concussions and removing young, concussed

players from the field will not be enough unless these elements of the sports culture are not

changed.

As students, almost all of us have played some kind of sport and are very familiar

with the "no pains, no gains" and "smile through the pain" mentality that is prevalent in the

sports world. According to research, sports-related injuries are the cause of 2.6 million annual

emergency hospital visits by people between the ages of 5 and 24. These youth players make

up 68% of the total injured players (Burt, 2001). Every year, 30,000 traumatic sports-related

injuries in the United States are brain injuries (Green, 1997). According to another research,

where 146 players from 6 different ice hockey teams were surveyed before and after

receiving concussion education. It was found that, despite an increase in knowledge, the

intent to continue playing despite injuries decreased by an insignificant amount. The attitudes

towards concussion remained almost the same (Kroshus & Baugh, 2008). This proves the

authors' argument that merely concussion education is not enough to change attitudes and

promote brain health in the youth, and shows that their arguments are well researched.

As minors, the decision to return to play lies with many people such as parents,

physicians, and coaches. However, after the age of consent is reached, the ultimate decision

lies with the player even when a physician advises against it. A worth-mentioning case is of a

19-year-old Ontario hockey player who returned to play despite being medically advised not

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to and ended up receiving the same injury after five weeks (Menta, Roger, & D'Angelo,

2016).

As the authors stated, there is no proper criterion for Return to play policy. This is

proven by a research conducted in 2016 in which RTP definition and policies were searched

on seven popular medical databases. It was revealed that only half of them contained any

definition of RTP. The criterion for RTP decisions varied widely on all databases, all of

which were unverified (Van der Horst, van de Hoef, Reurink, Huisstede, & Backx, 2016).

This shows the lack of Healthcare and the need to reach a definite consensus about RTP in all

sports.

All of these issues exist despite the existence of Rowan's law. All the arguments

provided by the authors of the article as to why it is ineffectual were well researched and

easily provable by public data. The transparency of the issues also validates their concerns for

the health of young players as it seems that nothing is being done about it (Menta, Roger, &

D'Angelo, 2016).

Audience Description

My audience was a fellow classmate who claimed that through Rowan's law,

concussion education and removal of injured players should be enough (Menta, Roger, &

D'Angelo, 2016). He claimed that, as no one is more concerned about a person's health than

that person himself, everyone would take the knowledge seriously and prefer their brain

health over a game. Therefore, research and statistical data are being used to persuade them

otherwise.

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References

Burt, C. (2001). Emergency visits for sports-related injuries. Annals of Emergency Medicine,

37(3), 301-308.

Green, T. (1997). Sports-related recurrent brain injuries--United States. Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, USA, 46(10), 224-227.

Kroshus, E., & Baugh, C. (2008). NCAA concussion education in ice hockey: an ineffective

mandate. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 48(2), 1-6.

Menta, Roger, & D'Angelo, K. (2016). Challenges surrounding return-to-play (RTP) for the

sports clinician: a case highlighting the need for a thorough three-step RTP model.

The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association, 60(4), 311-321.

Van der Horst, N., van de Hoef, S., Reurink, G., Huisstede, B., & Backx, F. (2016). Return to

Play After Hamstring Injuries: A Qualitative Systematic Review of Definitions and

Criteria. Sports Medicine, 46(6), 899-912.

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Index of comments

1.1 Include your name and identify the course on all assignments. See the "How to Format" video in Week 3.

1.2 Tense: use the past to discuss past events.

1.3 Make sure that you introduce the article and the authors somewhere in the summary.

1.4 Indicate that you found this reference in the article by McCradden and Cusimano by adding "qtd. in. Be sure to include the page number in your parenthetical citations. This applies to all the references.

1.5 Introduce and explain this new concept.

1.6 Good focus on conclusions and implications.

2.1 This clear identification of the authors and their main argument would have been helpful in the summary.

2.2 Word choice: article or study

2.3 Good use of evidence here.

2.4 Misplaced modifier: https://www.trentu.ca/academicskills/how-guides/how-edit-your-writing/grammar-and-style/misplaced- squinting-and-dangling-modifiers

3.1 Note that the assignment guidelines specify 300-500 words for the persuasive response. You have exceeded this number by a wide margin.

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