I didn’t wear a helmet when bronc riding, or bull riding, or snowboarding, or when I thought it was a good idea to take an inner tube ride behind my friend’s truck.

The short-term and longterm effects of getting smacked in the head don’t outweigh the perceived reputation for being hardcore — dangerous sports are hardcore enough; whether or not a helmet is involved doesn’t impact that.

Football and hockey players wear helmets and nobody thinks twice about it; it’s an expected part of the uniform.

But somehow this vital form of protection hasn’t been fully adopted by other sports, despite there being very good reasons for it. Many rodeos and other major sporting events require helmets now, but practice sessions and small-scale competitions still make it an option.

Traumatic brain injury contributes to about 30 percent of all injury deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This adds up to about 138 Americans dying due to injuries that include traumatic brain injuries.

Assuming the initial blow to the head isn’t fatal, the effects can be long lasting and life changing.

Ever lose your hat only to realize it’s on your head? Or, go temporarily blind for no reason at all?

This is what happens when you get whacked in the head too many times — the brain gets scrambled.

Most traumatic brain injuries are mild and are just called concussions. Sometimes it means being knocked unconscious or even having memory loss.

According to the CDC, traumatic brain injury effects include impaired thinking or memory, movement, vision or hearing and emotional functioning such as personality changes or depression.

It’s a little difficult to “cowboy up” when you can’t remember where your horse is or have direct orders from your doctor to not get in the chutes. A good local example of this occurred recently when Kanin Asay got 200 stitches to reattach his ear. He credited his helmet as saving his life when a bull stomped on his head.

In just 2010 alone, the CDC reported about 2.5 million emergency department visits or hospitalizations associated with traumatic brain injuries. Sometimes those included other injuries, since a blow to the head often involves other injuries along the way.

Perhaps we’re living more dangerously, or we’re more aware of the damage we are doing by cowboying up or by doing whatever happens after saying “hold my beer and watch this.”

Men are three times more likely to die from traumatic brain injuries than women, according to the CDC.

Emergency room visits increased 70 percent and hospitalizations increased 11 percent for traumatic brain injuries from 2001-2010, according to the CDC. Fortunately, death rates decreased by 7 percent during that time.

It’s not just rodeo and football that contribute to traumatic brain injuries for youth younger than 19. According to the CDC, nearly 250,000 children were treated for sports and recreation-related injuries that involved concussions or traumatic brain injuries. That’s an increase of 57 percent for that age group from 2001-2009.

Those kids are now young adults, and some of our best stories of “how I got this scar” don’t even have a “cool scar” to show for it — because it literally is all in our heads.