Module 3

Estimated time to complete: 2-4 hours

In “The Lottery,” we learn about a farming village that sacrifices one of its own villagers each year. As Old Man Warner states, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” In other words, the farmers hope that by making a sacrifice, the harvest in the fall will be big.

Nearly everyone in eLearn has decided that "The Lottery" is a bad tradition. Most students have said that sacrificing a villager is murder, and that the village needs to stop this annual tradition. And in the spirit of tradition, we’ve talked about our own traditions that we learn from our parents and their parents before them. For example, we honor traditions for birthdays, Thanksgiving, and other holidays and events throughout the year.

But as we learned in “The Lottery,” some traditions need to stop. So the question remains:

How do we know when it’s time to change?

To answer this question, we will focus our attention on the sport of football, and specifically the NFL. Some historians suggest that history has been played for hundreds of years, making it a time-honored

tradition, especially in America. Even Thanksgiving Day is connected to football, with annual NFL games always taking place on Turkey Day.

But some are starting to question whether football has become too violent. So this week, we will focus on answering the question above through an examination of the concussion crisis in the NFL.

As can be seen from the following graph, concussions are on the rise in the NFL, and they can lead to both serious and long-lasting health issues for the players.