What is the connection between head injuries and bonus payments in American football?
It is alleged that some NFL teams paid bonuses to their players to deliberately injure opponents. However, this article does not provide evidence to support this and so further reading would be necessary.
How has the NBA responded to the problem on concussions in basketball?
It produced a list of players who have been disabled due to concussion in 2011 and continues to work on the issue. Once again though, given the nature and source of this article, few details are given.
Some universities have started rating equipment according to degrees of safety. Is this idea supported by research?
No it is not. The study referred to, concludes that it is the physical contact inherent in the game that is the issue, not the quality of the protective equipment.
Why do you think the number of sports and recreation related traumatic brain injuries among children has increased by 60% in the US over the past ten years?
It doesn’t say here and the statistic is presented in such a way that makes it somewhat questionable. The figure may well have increased but was this because more children were participating in risky activities or could it have been because more teachers, parents, PE instructors and coaches were all more aware of the dangers of head injuries and so began reporting it more frequently. Without some kind of corroborating evidence to back this up, the claim is meaningless.
What is the significance of the research work carried out at Boston University?
Boston University is conducting comprehensive, well-funded research on the long term effects of concussion.
Now having answered these questions, ask yourself again, if you were writing a paper on head trauma in sport, which parts of this article would you use?
Clearly this article is relevant but is it detailed enough to reference. Whilst it provides an excellent overview of recent research in the field, it doesn’t provide in-depth analysis of the research areas it comments on. Because of this, it is probably an excellent starting point for further investigation.