Damar Hamlin’s tragic injury shocked millions across the world. Nobody expected a seemingly healthy, fit football player to suddenly drop without warning, especially in the middle of an NFL game.

Hamlin’s injury quickly became widely known, and he had to be put into a medically induced coma so the doctors help him.

“With Hamlin, it wasn’t a brain impact, he took a helmet to the chest, and the extra pressure in his heart just caused it to stop for a second. He got rammed straight from the helmet into his chest and into his heart, it stopped, and he had a heart attack on the field,” says Mrs. Waide, an ap psychology teacher.

Damar Hamlin has earned a lot of respect over the years, and his perseverance throughout his career also gained him a lot of fans. So when his injury occurred, the question arises of whether or not he would continue his career.

“It depends on how long the recovery is, [but if I was Damar Hamlin and] if I was able to recover to a 100 percent, I would keep on playing..because if I already made it to that level, football’s my passion, and I love football, I would keep on playing.” Luka, a sophomore, says.

Football is considered the most dangerous sport, and yet it also happens to be a very popular sport in America.

“Because it’s a very contact-heavy sport, compared to other sports, when we’re looking at injuries, especially in the brain, for example, hockey is a pretty like contact sport, but hockey players don’t typically get their heads hit. Football has been a historical ‘American’ sport and each year they try to place some restrictions to make it safer because they know that science has shown that their brains are shrinking, and concussions are a big thing with football players,” Mrs. Waide says.

Furthermore, injuries, especially head injuries, can affect a person mentally, sometimes even changing their entire personality.

“People can forget things a lot, they might be mid-sentence trying to scramble words together, they might be trying to comprehend what the person saying as well,” says Mrs. Waide, “They might get a little more irritable and sometimes with concussions they get really sleepy too. Their personality is kind of subject to change, and it’s often noticeable, there’s a clear before and after.” 

There are many examples of how severe head injuries can be and Aaron Hernadez is one of them. 

“I would say that Aaron Hernandez is the biggest one…his brain was significantly smaller compares to any other NFL player or an average person [because of repeated head injuries and concussions], and that caused him to have a lack of impulse control, and he murdered his girlfriend and mom, kind of spiral out of control,” says Mrs. Waide.

Additionally, according to Mrs. Waide, high schoolers are being required to take an impact test recently, and schools have to look at concussions with anyone in sports as it’s super important to make sure nothing is going wrong.