Dizziness and confusion took complete control as his head ricocheted in mid-air, causing his leg to shiver. The only thing audible to him was the voices of cheering crowds and his teammate asking him, “Are you good man?”
    He was in pain from the stinging blow to the back of his head and the sharp pain that followed, which resembled that of being stabbed in the neck and having the knife turned. Vlaznim Huseinovic ’12 experiencing blurred vision, uttered, “Are we winning?” to those who surrounded him and tried to keep his body from falling.
    Injuries such as concussions are a violent shaking of the brain often seen in athletes who play vigorous sports such as football, soccer and hockey. According to the Department of Health and Human Services concussions are the leading cause of sports-related deaths, and this number has doubled since the last decade with about 200,000 children experiencing it per year.
    According to azsportsconcussion.com 63 percent of all concussions occur in football. Also nearly 50 percent of all high school football players have had a concussion, and 35 percent have had more than one.
    “I felt like I was going crazy. I couldn’t believe I actually thought we were winning,” said Huseinovic with a lean smile. “I knew that these injuries can occur but I never expected it to be me.”
Football is the driving force behind the epidemic of concussions, but the national football league (NFL) has started their own safety agenda.
Another prevention step that the NFL took was to move the kickoff from the 30 yard line up to the 35 hoping to keep a tab on these incidents. And these changes have affected players massively.
According to WebMd.com they commenced this for the 2011season but have been following strict guidelines since 2009, “It incorporates the most important aspects of a focused exam, so that injury is identified, and athletes with concussion and more serious head and spine injury can be removed from play,” said Margot Putukian, MD, the head team physician at Princeton University and chair of the Return-to-Play subcommittee of the NFL’s Head, Neck, and Spine Committee.
According to usatoday.com/NFL concussion rates have decreased tremendously by 12.5 percent, which is the lowest they have seen in three years. They upheld the safety agenda and changed the rules of the game to no hits to the head or neck, and those who disobeyed were fined for flagrant fowls and some faced suspension like James Harrison of the Pittsburg Steelers.
    Many students are asking themselves whether a head injury or death is worth a gym credit.
    Soccer is another sport that can result in injuries. According to the New York Times, constant heading the soccer ball can cause a loss in the white matter, leading up to memory loss and the damage is equivalent to that of a concussion.
    Constant hits to the head by other players and contact with the ground can also account for these head injuries. Soccer was not considered a dangerous sport at first because many of those injuries went unattended and unannounced, but soccer officials have changed the rules and said that if an individual receives a head hit he or she cannot continue playing and needs clearance from their doctor before returning to practice or a game.
    Mr.Leonetti, a physical education teacher and the girl’s soccer coach, experienced six concussions when he was a professional wrestler.
    Although Mr. Leonetti has never seen a concussion while training the girls, he has seen one of the worst injuries that can occur while playing soccer, which is a torn meniscus.
“When I had my concussion I saw a white light, and it felt like a surge of electricity inside my brain,” said Mr. Leonetti.
As stated in the New York Times, other than fining people who don’t follow regulations, the national hockey league (NHL) is looking into having the players wear new headgear to help prevent or lesson the amount of trauma to the head. These are called the RE-AKT helmets by Bauer Performance Sports LTD. They have a suspend Tech-line designed to lesson the rotational force impact, which are the main reasons for concussions.
According to the New York Times ID article, Claude Giroux a fallen victim of the concussion epidemic, a player of the Philadelphia Flyers, said, “No helmet is going to completely prevent concussions, but helmets like this one are providing an added level of protection which is important in today’s game.”
 “Going through a concussion was like experiencing death itself,” said Huseinovic with a saddening expression as he concluded his experience with this deadly fate of athletes. “I love football, but I love my life more,” he added.