Concussions In Football: A Case Study

Safety and equipment have come a long way in football in order to prevent brain injuries. A very important piece of equipment used to prevent brain trauma is the helmet. The helmet has evolved a lot over the years, even more in the past decade. The Helmets main purpose use to be just to stop skull fractures, then they added the facemask to prevent facial injuries. Concussions are more of a recent concern (Hand 1). Overconfidence in the helmets' protective power prompts many NFL athletes to deliver and accept hits that would have killed players of previous generations. Now the helmet is being revolutionized. Helmets aren't only being created to stop skull and face fractures but they are being created to help prevent brain damage such as concussions now. Helmets have gone through testing to see how to design a better preventative helmet. These newer helmets are being designed to reduce the amount of force that is being applied to the head by a hit that is received (Vandantam 2). Virginia Tech football has been monitoring helmet collisions since 2003, courtesy of Dr. Gunnar Brolinson. Dr. Gunnar Brolinson has outfitted the teams helmets with six sensors and a small antenna that records and transmits data to a computer on the sideline. This information collected is crucial because it will help find better ways to design a helmet that will prevent concussions(Goldman 1). Equipment isn't the only important part of football that can help prevent concussions.

Soccer, being the most popular sport across the nation, currently has millions of fans and approximately 25 million registered players in the United States alone (Niedfeldt). Since the early 2000’s and continually seventeen years later, concussions are among the highest sustained injury to soccer players. While the sport is increasing in popularity, fear of injuries is increasing as well. In response to the arising panic, several companies have come together in order to create, promote, and sell protective headgear to concerned soccer players and their parents. The creators of this gear claim that their products will reduce concussions and any negative neurocognitive effects in relation to heading balls in soccer. Although some believe that

Concussions occur on a large scale in football. During a concussion, the head can experience a blow directly or can have whiplash. When the head is hit, the brain hits the inside of the skull, giving it a temporary bruise. This bruise or tearing of the brain can lead to mental impairments that can affect a person’s emotional state of being, physical problems like deteriorated mobility and sensitivity to light and sound. Doctors are quick to point out one of the major reasons that youth receive concussions, saying, “... children have big heads relative to the rest of their bodies and weak necks… that elevates the risk of concussions,” (P6). Along with a lack of education and care for the protection of athletes, youth are already at a huge risk. When children wear their football helmets, they are saving themselves from many injuries that could have occurred without them, most especially protecting the brain. But, in many cases, this is not enough.

The issue of multiple concussions is finally becoming recognized by major sports. The awareness has led to a variety of interventions to help protect athletes. There have been two recent interventions concerning football helmets. First off, Riddell, a company that produces football helmets, has released a new helmet that is supposed to best prevent concussions. This helmet is known as the Revolution Speed. Using advanced technology, the Speed helmets were designed around the head 's center of gravity and include an uneven outer shell to help absorb a hit. The inside of the

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) have always been a problem in sports and especially in contact sports like football. Since the beginning of football there has been different styles of head protection, from no helmets at all in very early stages to the modern day helmets we have today. In order to know how the evolution of the football helmet has made head injuries less common than they originally were, we have to know what is a concussion and how someone gets one.

Therefore, a group of researchers consisting of former team physicians from the NFL and NCAA as well as members of the Department of Neurosurgery at NorthShore University HealthSystem and West Virginia University have devised a piece of equipment to protect against sports-related concussions in the form of a collar. As the first form of internal protection for head injuries, compressive collars include two beads that gently compress the jugular, which increases the amount of blood in the cranium. Increased blood flow in the cranium adds a protective layer of blood between the brain and the skull, which decreases the amount of contact between the two. This minimizes the movement of the brain, or momentum resulting from a hit, which reduces the amount of torn or rotated brain fibers (Cole, 2016). Although compressive collars haven not been tested on athletes, they have been used by the military, which is increasingly more intense than any sport, to test for wearability of the collar. Also, in an experiment conducted by the inventors of the collar to test for the sufficiency of the product, an 83% reduction in the number of torn brain fibers in lab rats wearing the collar was found. Aside from the

Statistics have proven that about 300,000 cases are reported annually, many of which are high school students due to sports or strenuous activities. Many coaches could argue that technology has given us the ability to create helmets that could ultimately absorb the shock impacts from a blow to the

In source B it states “ Concussion Rates per Sport: Football: 64 -76.8, Boys' ice hockey: 54.”. Sports like football, and ice hockey include a lot of contact whether with your teammates or the other teams. These sports have the highest concussion rates. If athletes were to wear better protective headgear than what they already have, concussion rates will decrease. Furthermore, in source A it states “ Now, a team of engineers and physicians at Stanford has provided the first-ever measurements of all the acceleration forces imparted on the brain during a diagnosed concussion. The findings could lead to better injury detection, or toward developing safer protective gear.”. Physicians are finding new ways to develop injury detections, and safer protective gear. This is the future of sport protective headgear. With safer headgear and a better understanding of concussions, concussion rates will

In the 2015 season there were 271 total concussions; a fifty-eight percent rise from the 2014 season (Seifert, esnp.go.com). Of the 271 concussions, ninety-two of them were caused by helmet-to-helmet contact (Seifert). Dr. Michael C. Miller, former editor of the "Harvard Mental Health Letter" believes the NFL has taken steps in the right direction but more needs to be done in order to protect future players and preserve the heart of the game. Helmets with better padding and impact monitors cut the risk of sustaining a concussion in half. A group of researchers collected data from 1,800 athletes from eight different college football teams using two versions of a helmet made by Riddell, the "VSR4" and the new "Revolution". Using sensors in the helmet, they recorded hits experienced by players and found a fifty-four percent reduction of concussion risk in the players with the Revolution helmet. (Newsmax Health). Dan Polnerow, a journalist at Northeastern State University, wrote that Riddell’s new helmet “utilizes high density vinyl nitrile foam, a facemask designed to absorb some of the energy of the impact, and a larger shell to fit more padding” (Polnerow). No helmet can completely protect an athlete from a concussion however providing better protection can substantially reduce the risk

The use of protective headgear in contact sports has been a major issue of discussion amongst the sporting community for many years. Some people believe that headgear should be compulsory for all contact sports because they decrease the rate of catastrophic head injuries and they give the athlete a greater sense of security that there will be less head injuries. Others believe that headgear should not be compulsory, but instead optional, because they are an added cost to already expensive sports and they don’t offer any protection against concussions which can lead to brain damage and other problems in later

Bone-crushing hits and flying tackles are all part of what makes football exciting to watch, but they are also part of the reason why the sport is now facing heavy criticism over the serious head injuries that it can bring. In response to concerns from both the public and players about injuries, research into making this head-crushing sport safer has become a leading concern for the NFL and many other sports medicine organizations across the country.

The number of concussions in professional and amateur football has been rising and has sparked much controversy in recent years. These concussions are most likely linked with disease and even the deaths of some pro and semi-pro football players. New research is attempting to solve the problem but the issue is still prevalent in football today.

Football can be a very dangerous sport. And although those who play the game believe that they are being protected by the helmets that they wear, the truth is that this may not be the case. In a recent study released by the American Academy of Neurology it has been found that “protection against concussion and complications of brain injury is especially important for young players, including elementary and middle school, high school and college athletes, whose still-developing brains are more susceptible to the lasting effects of trauma”(Science Daily, 2014). The study also found that standard football helmets worn by the majority of players on the field today, only reduce the risk of traumatic brain injury by 20 percent compared to not wearing a helmet at all (Science Daily, 2014).

There has been extraordinary improvements of helmets from the old leather to the modernized-plastic football helmets along with the face mask and energy- absorbent padding. In addition, the concern over preventing concussions, have led to helmet changes, impact testing methods and reconstruction of injuries during play helping to provide insight on concussions(4). Helmets have been successful in decreasing the risk of traumatic brain injuries, but there is much concern over concussion; therefore, scholars argue the importance of technology development to address concussion(5). As the author(s), David Viano and David Halstead discusses, there is room needed for understanding the types of collisions associated in youths and the impact condition addressing collisions. There are many variables to consider addressing concussion and where they occur.

American football has been around for over one hundred years, and along with the sport has been the need to provide proper safety for the players. An assortment of padding has been instituted in the game that protects against most blunt trauma including blows to the shoulders, mid section, and legs. In an attempt to prevent fracture of the skull, helmets were designed. However, studies have shown that helmets do little to nothing to prevent concussive damage to the brain. A polycarbonate shell is used as the outer housing for regulation football helmets, but along with this material, the materials used on the inside of the helmet are just as, if not more, important. The purpose of this report is to analyze the materials used in current football helmet design and the improvements being made in the field of materials science in order to combat the severe number of concussions suffered by NFL players.