Football Safety Essay

Linebackers especially have a certain mass that allows them to have the strength to defend the team. According to the Article, “The Problem with Football,” sources tell that “The speed and size of pro athletes have made the game more dangerous. Offensive linemen now average nearly 315 lb.--65 lb. more than they did 40 years ago.” What this tells is, that the football player's’ weight has increased in the last forty years, with the head injuries as well.

While doing so, he also provides solutions to limit the number of injuries football players endure. While comparing rugby and football, Munger notices that even though rugby has less safety equipment, larger fields, and longer game time, they have fewer concussions than football. He states, “in professional rugby union, there are far more tackles per game (about 220 versus about 90). Yet it is football that has more concussions — about seven concussions every 10 games this year, while rugby has ‘only’ 2.5” (Munger). This supports Munger’s claim, which is that football tackling is too dangerous and needs to be changed, by displaying evidence that proves, despite the excessive safety equipment, football has a problem with its disproportionate amount of injuries.

This is one of the biggest advancements in helmet technology or one of the worst ones. In one perspective they provided more padding and protection for the football player. On the other hand it gave the players the ability to use it as a weapon on the field and gave them the confidence to hit other players with their head, where before they were scared to use their head. Once players found out they could use their heads they began to use it more often and in some instances these hits left players unconscious and concussed. Concussions are a bad deal in any sport and if a player is concussed and doesn 't say anything and gets another one it can lead to permanent or long term brain damage or in the most severe cases even

The essays The NFL’s Head Cases and Do Sports Helmets help or hurt have different point of views of how helmets in sports help head injuries. In Nate Jackson’s essay he had so many questions about why the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was suspending players for hits with the head. He played in the NFL for six years; and was for reducing

If the problem that I picked can be solved, it will affect many football players. In this paper I’ll be focusing on their helmets, The helmets that they wear are a crucial part to their protection. On average football players receive about 1.6 million to 3.8 million concussions in a year. I believe that If we engineer new equipment, then these numbers will drop significantly.

Concussions in sports are extremely common, especially in high contact sports like football and lacrosse where helmet to helmet contact is very high. Although helmet technology has drastically improved as there has been more concussion awareness the past decade, concussions are still one of the top injuries. A smart helmet that contains an electromagnetic field to repel helmet to helmet contact would significantly decrease the amount of head and neck trauma. The helmets will utilize opposite magnetic fields to ensure that when the helmets do get close together they will be repelled from each other. These smart helmets will contain the technology to determine the acceleration of the two people and determine the right amount of repel to expel

First, as seen in previous research,7 in a sample of 7- to 8-year-old football players, we noted more head impacts during practices compared with games. However, the difference between the mean number of impacts per practice and per game in our study (7.5 vs 12.9) was greater than those reported by Cobb et al5 (9.5 vs 9.6), Young et al26 (9 vs 11), and Munce et al19 (9 vs 12). One additional study found the mean number of impacts per practice was greater than that per game (6.7 vs 5.8).7 Second, the mean number of impacts across the season (106.8) in the current study was similar to that of Daniel et al7 (107) but lower than that of other studies (range, 161-252).5,19,26 These variations may be due to differences in the demographics of our sample, such as age and location. However, this difference may also be due to our purposeful selection of teams implementing the HUF educational program. Had we utilized a sample of all NHUF groups, it is likely that our mean number of impacts per practice and across the season would have been similar.

Football rules have been changing for the better of athletes over the years it has existed. Football rules early on where an advancement, but they didn’t know all the medical things we know now about player safety. In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt demands change of rules in football or be abolished after 18 people are killed while playing in one year. “The first leather football helmet was worn by Joseph Reeves… This marks the birth of the American Football “ Football didn’t advance very fastly on player safety.

Having healthier more physically fit players also helps them because they are less prone to getting injured. When the players are bigger, they have more natural protection because their bodies have been built up and strengthened due to them playing the game for many years. This evidence of having better gear has helped lessen head injuries a lot over the years. As more rules came along, the gear also developed.

According to an article titled “Riddell Unveils Overhauled New Football Helmet SpeedFlex,” the solution may be closer than ever. Just recently, Riddell came out with a new football helmet called the SpeedFlex. Like the Revolution Speed and Riddell 360 helmet, this helmet was designed to reduce the impact of head-to-head concussions.

The newest football helmet on the market is the riddell axiom. It is designed not repell what is hitting it, but to absorb it. Keeping your brain from not moving as much in your skull. They are also making rule changes to protect football players aswell.

So why, with our rapidly advancing technology, has the number of these injuries gone up? It could be because of the price of the equipment that would be required to maintain healthy athletes. Or that the league is not taking proper precautions. Regardless of the reasons, there is a clear neglect of the player’s safety.

The point of a football helmet is to prevent any type of head injury, mainly concussions. Throughout the years of making new helmets to protect the brain, the percentage of concussions have decreased 20% or more each year. A football helmet consists of a hard plastic shell with thick padding in the inside, a facemask, and a chin strap. The first use of football headgear dates back to 1869 when George started to use straps and earpieces to protect his ears but there were no facemasks on it. It wasn’t until 1939 when the first plastic helmet became available.

To support this, “No amount of protection can stop the sudden acceleration and deceleration of the head that comes with blocking and attacking, which can cause the brain to slosh around inside the skull like yolk inside a vigorously shaken eggshell.” (Source #2). The evidence proves that no amount of protection can stop the head. Moreover, “No helmet can protect concussions entirely, says Rowson.” Source #1).

This paper studies the evolution of football equipment and how each piece of equipment has changed the game. It begins with a discussion of the origins of American football and its storied history. The second section then explores how each piece of protective equipment is used and how they have positively and negatively affected the sport. The third section examines the fact that injuries that have increased despite the evolution of different equipment and will focus, most importantly, on the helmet and concussions. It continues by looking at the ways the NFL is attempting to make football safer for its players.