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As the concussion issue looms over all of football, a handful of college programs across the country are trying out a new helmet system this spring.
Riddell Inc. may have lost its status as the official helmet of the National Football League, but the two will be tied together on sales of collectible helmets for nearly the rest of this decade.
Not long ago we got a glimpse of specially designed helmets being used by a couple of different college football programs this fall with a camera built-in to the helmet. As cool as it is to see technological enhancements be implemented in to the helmets to provide for new coaching and film study methods, the helmet is still primarily used to protect the player’s head. Arkansas is using a new helmet design to hopefully reduce the risk of concussions this spring.
In other words, the helmet's design can help reduce the number of concussions, and it also alerts coaching staffs when a concussion may have occurred due to the kind of impact players are taking. It's hard to argue against equipment that tries to keep a player safe, and should these helmets work, I'm guessing we'll see a lot of teams wearing similar helmets in the very near future.
A report Monday in the journal Pediatrics says kids who suffer concussions should lay off reading, homework and video games. By giving their brains a rest, most can recover in 20 to 50 days, about twice as fast as those who keep doing those activities. We also have news regarding how concussions are diagnosed. Researchers are developing a test that could be a game changer.
A system used at Westlake High and 11 other high schools on a trial basis this season features sensors in helmets that issue alerts triggered by high-impact hits.
New concussion alert technology is aimed at reducing injuries in young players: One of the biggest topics in football today is head injuries. And it’s become more important than ever to find ways to make the game safer. Solutions have ranged from stiffer penalties for head hits in the pro game to teaching safer tackling at the youth level.
Riddell's new InSite system uses technologically advanced helmet inserts to alert sideline staff when football players suffer head injuries.
New technology from the sport equipment manufacturer will help identify possibly injured players on the field. The growth of concussion and head trauma awareness in football over the past decade has led to a slew of procedural changes in an attempt to curb occurrence. Defenseless receiver rules, helmet-to-helmet violations, and moving kickoffs up to the 35-yard line are all attempts to make football safer by reducing high-impact hits on players’ heads. Even so, head trauma can still occur without players and trainers even knowing, which only compounds its severity. Hopefully, InSite can change that.
"This is not a diagnostic tool." That's what Riddell, the country's largest manufacturer of football helmets, kept emphasizing during a presentation of its newly developed InSite head-impact monitoring system. The fact it would throw this disclaimer out there isn't surprising, really. After all, the topic involving concussions in the NFL is one that's been massively debated by many different entities, inside and outside of the sport, over the past few years. Most recently, PBS debuted a documentary titled League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis, in which it delved deep into the "hidden story" between brain injuries and the National Football League.
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