Football Concussions

By: Tommy

Football is a very dangerous sport and in my opinion will not be played professionally  in 20 years. Football is a very hard hitting sport that causes a lot of life threatening injuries especially to the head and neck. Players have been affected for most of their lives because of concussions, and I don’t think that players will want to take that big of a risk on their lives.

Head injuries, mostly concussions, have become a deep concern in the NFL. Most people think concussions are a bruise to the brain because of hitting a hard surface, but it is not. The brain keeps on moving until it collides with the inside of the skull, causing damage that can lead to never playing football again or possibly losing your mental facilities. In fact, no swelling or bleeding of the brain are shown on the x-ray. The injury usually happens when the head either increases speed rapidly or is spun rapidly. The results of concussions usually are messed up vision, memory loss, nausea, and unconsciousness. The more concussions you get, the worse your future during and after your football career will be.

There are many players that played a long time ago that have problems even today from their earlier concussions. One of the many players that have a hard time today is Jim McMahon. Jim McMahon has the early stages of dementia. Dementia is when you barely know where you are, if you do not know if you’re safe, or even asking the same question repeatedly. McMahon said he would rather have played baseball if he knew what was going to happen. One of the hits that caused McMahon to have dementia was the famous hit by Charles Martin. It was a Monday Night Football game and Charles Martin grabbed McMahon and slammed him head first. When Martin went to the sideline, it appeared he had a hit list and crossed McMahon off. McMahon was out for the season. Another legend that had repeated concussions was Tight End John Mackey. John Mackey played in the late 60’s early 70’s. The problem with Mackey was not that he had one major concussion, it was that he kept getting concussions. At the age of 65, like McMahon, Mackey also had dementia. Many former players have sued the NFL for not telling the players about the consequences of playing football.

The NFL is trying to stop the cause of concussions. The NFL said they would donate 30 million dollars to the National Institutes of Health to support research on brain injuries and other injuries in not only the NFL but all other sports. That announcement was made in the season opener when the Giants and Cowboys kicked off the 2012-2013 season. We know a lot about concussions today then we used to, but not how to prevent them. No kind of helmet can offer much support, since the injury happens when a fast moving body suddenly stops or changes direction. The NFL now uses simple written or on the computer tests to assess concussions. Before each season, players are shown a piece of paper filled with words and drawings. After they look at it for a minute, the nfl commissioner takes the sheet away and the players are expected to draw and write as much as they can.

In Conclusion, I don’t think professional football will be here in the future because of all the things that have happened to former players like McMahon and Mackey. I am a big football fan, but every Sunday, at least 1 player gets severely injured.

Bibliography

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com http://whyfiles.org/190sport_injury/
http://www.sbnation.com/fantasy/2012/11/2/3591860/jahvid-best-injury-concussion-fantasy-football-lions http://xfinity.comcast.net/slideshow/sports-worstfootballinjuries/8/ http://www.wbez.org/blogs/cheryl-raye-stout/2012-11/opinion-sit-nfl-players-concussions-least-game-103855 http://www.wbez.org/blogs/cheryl-raye-stout/2012-11/opinion-sit-nfl-players-concussions-least-game-103855 http://www.wbez.org/blogs/cheryl-raye-stout/2012-11/opinion-sit-nfl-players-concussions-least-game-103855 http://www.wbez.org/blogs/cheryl-raye-stout/2012-11/opinion-sit-nfl-players-concussions-least-game-103855 http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/football/head_injuries/index.html http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/football/head_injuries/index.html http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2012/11/22/3681040/julian-edelman-injury-head-injury-concussion http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57550898/head-injury-fears-a-threat-to-footballs-future/

Introduction

As my parents and I are ready to pay at Target, Wrigley’s Big Red chewing gum catches my eye. I think how tasty the gum is and how William Wrigley Jr. is very successful for making chewing gum. I imagine what it would be like to be William Wrigley Jr.  William Wrigley Jr. is one of the most successful and one of the most business smart people of our time. He kept making his business more popular by investing in a lot of stuff like Wrigley Field. William Wrigley Jr. made one of the biggest (possibly the biggest) chewing gum company ever.

William Wrigley Jr. is your classic definition of business smart. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 30th, 1861. He died on January 26, 1932 in Phoenix. When William was 11 years old, he ran away from home. To survive, he sold newspapers to have food and water. For shelter he slept on the park bench. When Winter came William went back home. Unfortunately for him, he went back to school. Soon he got kicked out. He got kicked out because he liked pulling pranks in school, and the teachers could not take it. When his father found out, he made him work in his soap factory. William wanted to sell the soap, but instead he was forced to make the soap. As a soap maker, he had to stir large pots of boiling hot soap. When he was 13, he was promoted to selling soap. William was very persuasive. Whatever he was selling he made it seem like it was the best product in the world. He had a great talent as a salesman. Whenever he sold his product he would give something free with it to make it seem like the product was popular. It started out as baking powder, but soon it became chewing gum. William saw how everybody loved the chewing gum, and he realized that there were only 12 small chewing gum companies, so the idea was easy. For him to create his own chewing gum company.

William saw an idea that could not be passed up, so he stopped selling soap for his father and when he was older, he left and started his own chewing gum company. At first he did not sell his own gum. He discontinued his main product and started selling two brands of gum: Vassar and Lotta Gum which was another companies gum.  In 1893, he created his own 2 tasteful flavors, Juicy Fruit and Spearmint. He packaged them in units of 5 individually wrapped sticks with the Wrigley name boldly emblazoned on the package. The Spearmint and Juicy Fruit sold so well, he discontinued the other companies gum because he wanted to start his own chewing gum company. He stayed with those two flavors for a long time but in 1910, he introduced Doublemint.

Social Contribution

Beside making a very successful and tasteful invention, William Wrigley Jr. gave back to his community and his town Chicago. In 1916, he invested in the Chicago Cubs. In 1921, he built beautiful Wrigley Field for the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago Bears to play in. It is one of the most famous and beloved sports facilities in the country. He also provided an extreme age old principle “ The customer is always right” which is used by many selling companies today. Instead of increasing his marketing offers, Wrigley listened carefully to his customers and, based on what they told him, he scrapped his entire product line not once but twice.

Long Term Impact

Sometimes called America’s greatest salesman, William Wrigley Jr. showed how advertising and marketing could be used to develop strong brand recognition. While some of his early gum flavors have disappeared, Juicy Fruit, Spearmint, and Doublemint have remained strong brands throughout the 20th and 21st century. With domestic consumption of chewing gum falling in the latter part of the century, the company found strength in overseas sales in some 111 countries, which nearly equaled U.S. sales. The company remains the world’s largest chewing gum manufacturer, and in the 1990s the Wrigley Company enjoyed record profits. It is now one of the best chewing gum brands all over the world. Wrigleys flexible attitude paid off in the end as quite by accident, he found a product that made him a fortune and made his name a household word throughout the United States. Still under the leadership of the Wrigley family, it continued to manufacture nearly half of the gum sold in the country. In 2002, led by Bill Wrigley, great grandson of William Wrigley, the company recorded net sales of more than $2.7 billion.

Conclusion

William Wrigley Jr. did many important things during his lifetime and even though he is not here today, he is still a household name throughout the world. Some might say that all he made was chewing gum, but he did much more than that. If Wrigley never invented chewing gum, we would mostly have bad breath and have no taste in our mouth everyday. If you do not believe that he is important and everybody knows about him, go to your local grocery store and I guarantee you that a kid is crying for Wrigley’s chewing gum.

Counting on Grace

Genre: HF

By: Tommy

While Grace is at school, Miss Lesley calls on Grace to read part of the book. Grace always says her mind works different because she jitters and moves a lot, but Miss Lesley does not buy it. While Grace is reading, a man named French Johnny comes in to take Arthur (Grace’s best friend) to work in the mills. Miss Lesley does not want Arthur to go because she thinks Arthur is her  best reader, but French Johnny still takes him. Miss Lesley starts to cry, and Grace is trying to cheer her up but she kicks Grace out because she does not want French Johnny to take another one of her great readers. Grace leaves but is very happy to hear what Miss Lesley said. The story took place in a small little country town by the French Hill. I liked that Grace was a trooper, because when she was being counted on by so many people, she never stopped or gave up. I did not like the part when Mamere slapped Pepe because I thought it was very emotional when his cheek turned red and almost started to cry. My favorite character was Henry because even though he was not in the mill or in a major part of the story, I think he really helped himself and his family by stuff like locking the door on Pepe before he left for school, those little things count. The main character changed  because in the beginning of the story Grace was never happy but by the ending of the story she was always smiling and talking to people. I would recommend this book to a friend because it is very interesting to see how young the kids in the mill were and what they went through. I would give this book a ⅖.

Basketball Miracle

By:Tommy

10/31/12

On the way to my basketball game I felt nervous because the team we were going up against was very good. Not only was the team a good team, it was at their home court, and if we won we get to go to the playoffs. When I got to the court the fans were roaring and booing at our team. Right away I realized it was going to be a very tough game. When the game started the other team started scoring and stealing the ball from us so we did not get a lot of possessions. By the time the first quarter ended, the score was 2 to 23, we were losing. The second quarter was even worse. My team was trying their hardest. I could see the sweat on their face and when they fought for loose balls. But the other team was simply playing way better basketball compared to us. When we did get the ball and we went up to shoot, we shot weakly because we were scared that the other team was going to block our shots. We were losing 49 to 12 at halftime. To add on to things, my team started to give up. In the next quarter, we were doing pretty well but we were still down. During the third quarter, the other team started getting tired because all of our plays were fast breaks. At the start of the 4th quarter, the score was 31 to 49.

My teammates were starting to realize we had a chance, and started to help. I was still going to block every shot and make all of the shots I took. Surprisingly, we were down by 2 with precisely 29 seconds in the entire game. We called a timeout. During the timeout, my coach told us what we should do with the final possession of the game. He told us who to pass to, when to shoot, and all that other stuff. When the timeout was over, the basketball was inbounded to me. I let the clock run down to about 10 seconds. When the clock hit 10 seconds I went inside the free throw line area and tried to pass to my teammate, but I quickly realized he was covered and the whole area was flooded with the other team’s players. I quickly get out of the pile and faded back for a three-pointer. When the ball was in the air, it felt like everything was frozen other than me and the ball. The ball bounced on the rim. I thought it was not going to go in, but it took one more bounce and splashed into the net. WE WON BY ONE POINT. WE GET TO GO TO THE PLAYOFFS!!!! My whole team started hugging me, laughing and surprised at the same time. It was hilarious because in the first half we were down by so much, but my team and I came from behind to win by one point. I was so proud of myself because I hit the three-pointer. My teammates helped me a lot on that play because they blocked the other team’s players from blocking me. I made the three-pointer, but my teammates played a HUGE role on that play. My coach was very proud of me for trying my hardest all game, even though we were losing for the entire game. HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!

Book Blurber on Last Shot

Genre: RF

By: Tommy

One ordinary day, Stevie was getting the mail and suddenly he saw something very appealing to him. It read: Steve Thompson, you and another 6th grader named Susan Carol have won the student sports writing contest and you will be able to be a reporter in the Final Four. Stevie was speechless. He actually got to be a real reporter at one of the famous sporting events ever….THE FINAL FOUR!!!!!!!!  This story took place in New Orleans where the Final Four was being held. I liked that throughout the story Susan Carol and Stevie were always trying to find out what was happening like real reporters. I did not any part of the story. My favorite character was Susan Carol because she always found clues even if there was nothing there. The main character changed a lot by learning team work. He worked so well with Susan Carol even though they were completely different. I would recommend this book to a friend because it will be an easy read because you always want to see what will happen next so they will never put it down. I would give this book a 5 out of 5.

Florida Narrative

BY: Tommy Garbis

When me and my family were in Florida, we were going to a restaurant. It was a perfect Spring clear day, 70’s and no need for a coat. When my family and I were walking in the parking lot my sister stepped in a small little ditch in the ground. Her leg was stuck and her shoe had fallen into the sewer where now it was floating away. I started laughing so hard that I fell to the ground. While my parents were trying to get her out, my sister started crying because she was bleeding and probably getting blisters. Everybody that was walking in the parking lot stared at my sister. I thought it was hilarious HA HA HA HA.  It took my parents a while but they finally got her out. My sister was scratched up on her leg and she was missing a shoe. Absentmindedly she went to the ditch, put her hand in it to look for her shoe. My mom even started laughing then. We did not end up going to the restaurant because my sister was missing a shoe and was scratched up. HA HA HA HA. When we got back to the hotel room, my sister was so angry at me for laughing at her so she started to punch me. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

THE END

Eddie and the Jets

By: John Attans

Book Blurber by: Tommy

Genre: RF

While Eddie was playing in his football game his team was losing as usual 28-7, but this time Eddie thought he had a chance. He had the ball and he threw a long pass for a touchdown. The next time his team had the ball he tried the same play but this time it got intercepted. Eddie’s team lost. This story took place in Eddie’s neighborhood where there were a lot of kids his age. I liked how the story had a lot of twists and turns because without them the story would not be as exciting. The part of the story I dislike is Eddie’s enemy Kirby because he kept saying rude stuff about Eddie and his family. My favorite character was Eddie’s best friend Bobby because Bobby stands up for his friends and family and lets nobody hurt them. The main character changed by realizing that going with his gut feeling is not always the best thing to do. I would recommend this book to a friend that likes football. I would give this book a 5 out of 5.