8 Cameron S’s AP Composition

By Cameron Strawhacker

    

In the sports culture of the United States there are only so many events that could fill up a stadium with 156,000 people. Or fill stadiums with over 100,000 every Saturday in the fall. Obviously, this is football. No other sport comes close to the amount of fans coming to games on a consistent basis every week for close to 4 months straight. This displays the love, devotion, and passion people have for the sport of football. Due to this large exposure, it naturally has the most media coverage out of any sport. With this abundance of media and recognition there also comes criticism. 

    In recent years, with an increase in research and focus on dangers and head related injuries. People have started to ask-should we stop watching football because of its dangers? No, we should not stop watching football simply because of the dangers it poses. The sport has so many more important positives that come from it such as the love for the game as well as the positive stories that come from it. 

    Although there is lots of evidence and numbers showing those who play football in college or professionally are more likely to suffer from CTE, some of these numbers are skewed. In a recent autopsy study they found that 345 of 376 brains observed had signs of CTE. If you do the math, you would find that 90 percent is alarmingly high. Nobody is disagreeing with that, but you have to take into account the source of the 376 brains. 

    The majority of the brains they viewed were of retired NFL players who died in their 70s and 80s who played football in the 60s and 70s where there was no rules protecting the players, no technology to develop and improve helmets and equipment, few doctors or trainers on the sidelines evaluating players for injuries, and had no training or knowledge of diagnosing, treating, and preventing head injuries. Those others’ brains they studied were those that passed at younger ages with clear signs of CTE or other mental illnesses.

    Another reason we should continue to watch football is the positive, heartwarming, stories that come from it. One example is the University of Iowa’s “wave” at the end of the first quarter of home games, everyone in the stadium, fans, coaches, the home team, and the opposing team stop and wave to the kids staying in the Stead Family Children’s Hospital that looks over the stadium, who in a rough time like that love to feel support from thousands of people. 

    Another example of this is the story of Tyler Trent, the Purdue football superfan who was 22 at the time of his death in 2019. Trent grew up loving football and Purdue before becoming diagnosed with osteosarcoma (a form of bone cancer) in 2014. From then on his life changed as he had his arm amputated and went through a series of surgical procedures and chemo to attempt to improve his health. By the 2018 season Trent was a student at Purdue but was still living with his parents, due to his serious health problems. College Gameday, a famous college football show shared his story with millions ahead of the October 20th Purdue football game against Ohio State. Trent was to be an honored guest at the game with him and his family in a suite. Trent had just one wish for that night-a boilermaker win. Purdue, a severe underdog just 3-3 going into the game, absolutely dominated undefeated No. 2 ranked Ohio State beating them 49-20 which later came to be known as the Tyler Trent game. 

    These are just a few examples of the dozens of reasons why we should continue to support and watch football. There is no doubt football is a dangerous sport and if it’s not for you there’s nothing wrong with that. But for the hundreds of millions of fans who watch football every year, don’t judge them because they partake in the celebrations and antics of football fans all over this country that has been passed down for generations. For those football fans, take some time and think to yourself what it is you love about the game, and what it would take for you to stop watching it. 

Works Cited

Press, Associated. “Battle at Bristol Draws Record Crowd of 156,990.” The Tennessean, The Tennessean, 11 Sept. 2016, www.tennessean.com/story/sports/college/ut/2016/09/11/battle-bristol-draws-record-crowd-156990/90218348/. 

Mann, Denise. “In Autopsy Study, over 90% of Former NFL Players Showed Signs of Brain …” U.S. News, 9 Feb. 2023, www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-02-09/in-autopsy-study-over-90-of-former-nfl-players-showed-signs-of-brain-disease-cte. 

Schwarz, Alan. “Before Suicide, Duerson Said He Wanted Brain Study.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Feb. 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/sports/football/20duerson.html. 

“The Hawkeye Wave.” University of Iowa Athletics, https://hawkeyesports.com/, 22 June 2022, hawkeyesports.com/wave/. 

Kravitz, Bob. “The Tyler Trent Game: What It Still Means to Those Who Were There for Purdue’s Enchanted Night.” The Athletic, 20 Oct. 2022, theathletic.com/3679771/2022/10/20/tyler-trent-purdue-ohio-state-tom-rinaldi/. 

“Welcome to ESPN College GameDay.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 2023, promo.espn.com/collegegameday/. 

By Cameron Strawhacker

As numbers of youth football players continue to drop, you can’t help but take into account the effect injuries have on football in today’s world. This has caused a popular debate whether we should stop watching football because it is too dangerous. Although there are many arguments for both sides, when faced with the logic of it, there is an obvious answer. No, we should not stop watching football simply because of the dangers it poses. There are plenty more dangerous sports that are still aired and watched by millions of fans. For example, studies show that up to 50% of combat fighters suffer from chronic brain injury. Now you may say well obviously mma and boxing are going to have high injury rates. Let’s look at youth girls hockey- where the rate of concussions are nearly double that of football. Another reason people shouldn’t stop watching is the tradition and lifestyle many have built upon it. As an 18 year old who has played football for the past 6 years, and watched and been at games for as long as I can remember I couldn’t imagine not being allowed to watch the sport anymore. This is reality for over 145 million unique fans who watch college football every year. This number doesn’t even take into account those who also watch the NFL.

By Cameron Strawhacker

 During Covid I had a meaningful experience, learning the importance of friends and family. Although the COVID-19 pandemic was hard on everyone, there were some bright spots and positives that came from it- for me, this was developing a closer relationship with my brother.

  Beginning from the middle of March to the end of summer I couldn’t see or hang out with any of my friends really at all. I didn’t see my extended family much either during this time. At times it got lonely and boring. However, one positive I got from it was the closer bond I formed with my brother. We were close growing up but like most brothers, we would fight and didn’t always get along the best. As we got older we continued to get along better but we also didn’t see each other as often. I hadn’t thought about it until recently but with both of us being involved in sports and different things, we didn’t see each other much when I was in middle school, and he was in high school. During covid that changed.

  Being locked in our houses for months we saw each other every day, we spent hours talking, hanging out, and playing video games together. I remember the first couple of times we had to get groceries during the pandemic, my mom did the new curbside pickup from Hyvee so that we didn’t have to go in. After the first couple of times, she would start asking me and my brother to go pick it up. We used this time to our advantage and would drive around for an hour before picking up the food. Because gas was so cheap at the time we weren’t worried about going through a tank of gas in a couple of days. We would use this time driving around listening to new music or talking about things happening at the time. My favorite though, was catching up on all the stories we had from the past 3-4 years of our lives that we hadn’t had the time previously to share with each other. 

  These hard times eventually passed and he went off to college the next fall in Iowa City. Starting high school myself I was pretty busy, so I didn’t think about him being gone as much. But knowing we spent our time during the pandemic catching up and becoming closer gave me peace of mind not seeing him for long periods of time. We still text and Snapchat every day four years later, something that we never did when we lived together before he left for college. Because of the time we spent during COVID-19, I will forever be grateful for family and friends and the relationships I have with them.

By Cameron Strawhacker

Credit: OPN Architects

Living in the aftermath of a pandemic, high school in 2023 is concerning. Coming off the Covid-19 pandemic there are still lingering effects worldwide, but especially in our high schools. Whether it’s gaps in our education, lazy work ethics, or high absence rates from students- it almost feels like us high school students won’t recover from the pandemic before it’s too late. Now this isn’t the case for everyone but for a majority of students this is an everyday reality. 

Many students go to class everyday and struggle to learn advanced concepts or even beginner level ideas because the basics of concepts were taught three years ago through a google meet. I have experienced this many different times in multiple classes, and I know many of my peers experience this as well. In whatever version of online or hybrid school students were in, learning conditions were not ideal. This continues to impact students today. 

Another effect of the pandemic and online school is procrastination. After talking to people who finished high school before or during the pandemic, levels of procrastination have seemed to continually grow. Many students  wait to write papers and do homework until the night it’s due because that’s all we’ve known during our high school days. During online school there were little consequences to staying up all night or procrastinating work until the last moment because of the odd schedules. Now as students have returned to in person learning there are more consequences to their procrastination. 

Lastly, and maybe most important of all is absences. It’s easy to say to yourself, “It’s okay if I miss a couple days of this class, I can just do the work at some point” when our beginning of high school was waking up 5 minutes before a google meet, and making the decision whether to grab our laptop and join the google meet while we lay in bed, or just skip it today and go back to sleep. Because there were no consequences and attendance was rarely taken online, this mindset has carried into everyday schedules of high school students. 

For everyone’s sake hopefully something happens that flips all of this around for those in high school in 2023, before it has a lasting impact into the next steps of our lives. 

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