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Football may be America’s favorite sport, but it’s taken a bruising. Former NFL players’ posthumous diagnoses with the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, aka CTE, have spurred lawsuits as well as growing concerns about the safety of athletes who aren’t pros. We visited a Chicago-area helmet maker to see how it’s tackling the issue. You may not be able to notice the difference in the Bears’ new quarterback Mitch Trubisky, and the Bears aren’t saying anything about it. But one day soon, he’s going to hit the field wearing a new helmet – one made just for him. Trubisky is one of 130 NFL players who have ordered the latest in headgear from Riddell, according to the company headquartered in suburban Des Plaines. Riddell has deep roots in the Chicago area, reaching back to when John T. Riddell was coaching an Evanston high school football team in the early ‘20s and invented removable cleats.
Many schools nationwide are upgrading their football teams' helmets with impact sensors in an effort to lower the number of head injuries. According to the company's website, the Riddell InSite Impact Response System is a helmet-based impact monitoring technology designed to alert coaches and trainers when significant single or multiple impacts are sustained during a football game or practice. When a player is impacted, a five-zone sensor pad built inside the helmet determines the intensity.
The Springfield Middle School Bulldogs recently learned the team was one of 10 chosen as a winner of Riddell’s Smarter Football program, a news release said. The recipients of a $10,000 equipment grant, the team was notified with a congratulatory message from Riddell brand ambassador Peyton Manning.
One Arkansas school recently bought new football helmets with quite the advanced equipment. Lonoke High School purchased Riddell InSite Helmets for every 7th through 12th-grade football player. The helmets help monitor for potential concussions, with special sensors that'll alert coaches or staff members if a player sustained a hit within the 95th percentile of hits.
Kell Walker plays without fear, whether it’s running the football on the edge or dodging tacklers on kick returns. Yet Walker feels more protected than ever this season thanks to a switch to the latest Riddell helmet. Assisted by Army’s equipment staff, Walker was fitted with a safe helmet as a freshman last season. His head was too big for a medium helmet and too small for a large one. Director of equipment Nick Determan and his staff sought a helmet for Walker this season that was more advanced. When Riddell reached out and offered four of its Precision-Fit models to Army, Determan jumped at the opportunity.
Back in June I did an ESPN column about Riddell’s Precision-Fit helmet program. As you may recall, the Riddell people showed me how the program works by scanning my head to create a series of 3-D digital images. Normally, the next step would be to use those scans to create a helmet with custom-fitted interior padding. But as I noted in that ESPN piece, Riddell had a limited Precision-Fit capacity this year, so there were no plans to make a sample helmet based on my head scans, because that would have used up one of their available helmets for this year. Later on, however, the Riddell people said they could produce a helmet for me after all, so I could feel for myself how good the fit is. They even offered to make it a Uni Watch helmet. It recently arrived here at Uni Watch HQ.
Football equipment manufacturer Riddell is making custom-fitted helmets for players in hopes of improving vision and protection. Its Precision-Fit technology scans the size and surface of an athlete’s head and converts the data into a 3D model.
With youth participation waning and football facing increased concerns over head trauma, the future of the game could well come down to the work being done in a windowless room in a generic suburban Chicago office building. That’s where Riddell, the nation’s largest football equipment manufacturer, is testing out design innovations and racing its competitors to build a safer helmet.
Hearing Peyton Manning speak of the East Thunderbird football team seems like a prize enough on its own, but for the Anchorage prep program it was just the beginning. Chosen as one of just ten programs across America, the East High School football team earned a $10,000 grant from Riddell for their efforts in implementing safety on the football field.
The Monument Blizzard are on Cloud 9. The Pop Warner football team from the Tri-Lakes is one of ten nationwide recipients of a $10,000 grant from helmet-maker Riddell. The announcement of the prize was made by future NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning. "It was an honor that he took the time out to make the video and address us personally," said Dan Hembree, president of the Monument Blizzard Association. Two months ago, Hembree submitted an essay to apply for Riddell's Smarter Football Program. Some 700 other football programs across the country also applied. "I knew it was a long shot. Lots of people from youth all the way up to high school apply for it," Hembree said.
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