That’s a ghettoized sport, not a mainstream American sport.”

Football helmet sensors could help keep players safe


Football season is only a few weeks away and as excited as many of us are to watch that first kick, for high school, college, and professional football players alike, a new season also means a whole new crop of injuries.

Teams of the future, however, may have a new way to protect themselves from the serious brain injuries that so many players suffer from today.

While its development is still in the early stages, a new form of headgear filled with tiny sensors could someday give athletes insight into the extent of their brain injuries only seconds after they step off the field. By detecting changes in the brain activity of athletes as they occur, these small sensors called magnetometers would alert players and coaches of head injuries that could have dire effects later on in life.

Developed by Svenja Knappe of the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, the sensors can measure changes in the brain’s magnetic field. What differentiates them from magnetometers of the past is that they are compact, portable, and perhaps most importantly, inexpensive—allowing them to be used by both bigshot NFL players and small-town high school teams with limited budgets.

good ideas.

Thanks to you both for your thoughts . . . . . . . I use a device utilizing technology that I believe would be useful in limiting the extent of brain injury(s), it's called a fitbit zip. While it has absolutely nothing to do with monitoring brain injury it does exhibit the technology available to detect and then immediately transmit the severity of an impact during practice or game. Monitoring changes in the brain's magnetic field is an impressive and very noble goal but what seems to be almost as relevant is have a statistical study to determine the likelihood of injury relative to the severity of the impact which is measurable.

Just a thought . . .

Ghost Rider wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:It is the nature of people to want to see pain and suffering. They go to car races for the pileups and the fires and gladiatorial competition. Not a lot different from Rome in any meaningful way. Rome was just more honest in their intent to pacify the public and get reelected by providing your grand PARTIES. Bread and circuses....art at a very base and demeaning level.

Teo, there are safety features that NASCAR has implemented that deaths or serious injury is few and far between. Before Dale Earnhardt was killed, drivers were not required to wear a Hans Device, however shortly thereafter NASCAR made them mandatory. I have seen cars roll numerous times and completely obliterate the body of the car, however the driver walks away unscathed.

If football hits are the real cause of concussions, they some type of safety measures need to be implemented. When I played football, we had more broken bones than we did head injuries. Concussions were also very seldom mentioned when players wore leather helmets.

So at this moment in time, I am going to reserve judgement about concussions being cause by football hits. I believe it is more hoopla to drive ticket prices even higher than they already are and line the owners pockets with more green.

You're 100% correct. If they want to drastically reduce the number of head injuries, play without helmets.

Markle wrote:

Ghost Rider wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:It is the nature of people to want to see pain and suffering. They go to car races for the pileups and the fires and gladiatorial competition. Not a lot different from Rome in any meaningful way. Rome was just more honest in their intent to pacify the public and get reelected by providing your grand PARTIES. Bread and circuses....art at a very base and demeaning level.

Teo, there are safety features that NASCAR has implemented that deaths or serious injury is few and far between. Before Dale Earnhardt was killed, drivers were not required to wear a Hans Device, however shortly thereafter NASCAR made them mandatory. I have seen cars roll numerous times and completely obliterate the body of the car, however the driver walks away unscathed.

If football hits are the real cause of concussions, they some type of safety measures need to be implemented. When I played football, we had more broken bones than we did head injuries. Concussions were also very seldom mentioned when players wore leather helmets.

So at this moment in time, I am going to reserve judgement about concussions being cause by football hits. I believe it is more hoopla to drive ticket prices even higher than they already are and line the owners pockets with more green.

You're 100% correct.  If they want to drastically reduce the number of head injuries, play without helmets.

******************************************************

With all due respect that is nonsense . . . . leather helmets? Really?
Your experience in HS football is far from the collegiate and pro levels that they are not on the same plane or even close. HS level is one thing but when at the level things change rapidly . . . . size, strength and ferocity which are all qualities necessary to succeed in collegiate and most especially in the NFL.

Football was such an integral part of my life growing up. My dad had played Army football, even though he was a Merchant Marine (he was too young for WWII)...local college football was where I went with my dad...certainly was a big part of my college life...my girlfriend was sweetheart of the football team and we tutored some of the players in accounting. Both my brothers played in HS. I have sat through many a rainstorm under plastic to watch a game...and the team at my college was flat amazing...QB and both running backs all went pro.

But when I was a freshman, one of the players, who was a first round draft pick (NCAA), was severely injured on the field...I wasn't there, but I know the outcome...paralysis from the neck down. I honestly don't know what happened to him after that...he was a senior obviously when it happened, so I only knew of it...didn't know him personally...but obviously I've remembered him all these years. I don't know about Markle's idea of no helmets, but I do know that there were leather "helmets" back in the early years. Maybe if you have no helmet, you're less likely to use your head as a battering ram. Many sports are dangerous, and football can be brutal...no doubt. I don't really watch it much anymore, but I think it's an incredible sport...but it's easy to see how the coaches could become overzealous and push the players too far.

I read a book by John Grisham a while back, called PLAYING FOR PIZZA, about an injured player (whose injury coincided with the loss of a playoff game...so he was not only injured but kind of blackballed)...so he went to Italy and played...surprising for a Grisham story, but I did enjoy it.

knothead wrote:

Markle wrote:

Ghost Rider wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:It is the nature of people to want to see pain and suffering. They go to car races for the pileups and the fires and gladiatorial competition. Not a lot different from Rome in any meaningful way. Rome was just more honest in their intent to pacify the public and get reelected by providing your grand PARTIES. Bread and circuses....art at a very base and demeaning level.

Teo, there are safety features that NASCAR has implemented that deaths or serious injury is few and far between. Before Dale Earnhardt was killed, drivers were not required to wear a Hans Device, however shortly thereafter NASCAR made them mandatory. I have seen cars roll numerous times and completely obliterate the body of the car, however the driver walks away unscathed.

If football hits are the real cause of concussions, they some type of safety measures need to be implemented. When I played football, we had more broken bones than we did head injuries. Concussions were also very seldom mentioned when players wore leather helmets.

So at this moment in time, I am going to reserve judgement about concussions being cause by football hits. I believe it is more hoopla to drive ticket prices even higher than they already are and line the owners pockets with more green.

You're 100% correct.  If they want to drastically reduce the number of head injuries, play without helmets.

******************************************************

With all due respect that is nonsense . . . . leather helmets? Really?
Your experience in HS football is far from the collegiate and pro levels that they are not on the same plane or even close.  HS level is one thing but when at the level things change rapidly . . . . size, strength and ferocity which are all qualities necessary to succeed in collegiate and most especially in the NFL.  

Yes leather:


A blow to the head is still a bow to the head, whether administered by a pee-wee or an NFL player, granted more severe by NFL player, but a blow just the same.

Before I moved here, I coached a Pop Warner Mighty-Mite team. An 8 year old kid knocked our running back out cold. So my point is, while more vicious, these kids can hit pretty damn hard also and cause damage.

Bob wrote:It's gonna take a very long time before the south gives up it's almost religious in nature worship of high school and college football.  A very very long time.  I would say it will take about as long to give that up as it does to give up the Southern Baptist religion.  lol

Much longer that it will take for a southern man to quit fried chicken and cold beer.

Yella wrote:

Bob wrote:It's gonna take a very long time before the south gives up it's almost religious in nature worship of high school and college football.  A very very long time.  I would say it will take about as long to give that up as it does to give up the Southern Baptist religion.  lol

Much longer that it will take for a southern man to quit fried chicken and cold beer.

I cannot give up my football, but I did give up beer and fried chicken many years ago.

2seaoat wrote:http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/Will-concussions-cause-football-to-become-extinct-083013

I would not let my son play football with what I have learned in the last three years.  I think this author has a unique prediction of the future.   The money machine of college division 1 football is the next area which has to be addressed.   These kids are taking huge hits.   Fortunately, I am seeing some changes with concussions at the high school level.  I loved playing football and watching football, but these concussions are simply going to kill the game, or there will have to be significant rule changes.

Tackling technique is part of the problem, but also the speed and strength of the athletes is an issue as well. These kids are now working out 24/7/365. There used to be a time when each sports season had conditioning that was only a part of the season. Not anymore. Go to any HS locally and see how the football coaches are employed. Most teach weightlifting/PE or a combination of both to include conditioning for all sports. Then the supplements are also part of the equation as well. They help make the kids stronger and faster. Want to get rid of it though, you will have to drown out the adulation of the pep rallies, the mommas and daddies living vicariously through their kids, and the HERO WORSHIP that goes on with this sport.

Tackling technique is part of the problem, but also the speed and strength of the athletes is an issue as well. These kids are now working out 24/7/365. There used to be a time when each sports season had conditioning that was only a part of the season. Not anymore. Go to any HS locally and see how the football coaches are employed. Most teach weightlifting/PE or a combination of both to include conditioning for all sports. Then the supplements are also part of the equation as well. They help make the kids stronger and faster. Want to get rid of it though, you will have to drown out the adulation of the pep rallies, the mommas and daddies living vicariously through their kids, and the HERO WORSHIP that goes on with this sport.



Very knowledgeable post and dead cinch correct. It is going to be a difficult road to keep the game we love, yet protect the players from life time injury.

2seaoat wrote:Tackling technique is part of the problem, but also the speed and strength of the athletes is an issue as well. These kids are now working out 24/7/365. There used to be a time when each sports season had conditioning that was only a part of the season. Not anymore. Go to any HS locally and see how the football coaches are employed. Most teach weightlifting/PE or a combination of both to include conditioning for all sports. Then the supplements are also part of the equation as well. They help make the kids stronger and faster. Want to get rid of it though, you will have to drown out the adulation of the pep rallies, the mommas and daddies living vicariously through their kids, and the HERO WORSHIP that goes on with this sport.



Very knowledgeable post and dead cinch correct.   It is going to be a difficult road to keep the game we love, yet protect the players from life time injury.

AGREE . . . . . . good post PD!

TY