August 19, 2022
"In the roughly 130-year history of football helmets — from leather skull caps to plastic orbs to single-bar face masks to full face masks — nothing ever has looked quite like..."
"... the newly mandated Guardian Caps... pillowy, padded shells affixed to the outsides of their helmets.... According to the league, the spongy additions reduce the severity of an impact by at least 10 percent if a player involved in an on-field collision is wearing one, and by at least 20 percent if both players involved are in caps.... 'It was different to get used to,' veteran Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end Cameron Heyward said.... 'Obviously, they don’t look pretty. When you go to tackle, it almost feels like there’s a pillow on your head.'
Though the caps are an odd sight — modern American gladiator headwear turned into Toad from Mario — they produce a sound even more foreign on a football field than their look. In drills, linemen crash into one another, and what used to be a CLACK! of helmets is now muffled by the crunching of padding."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
64 comments:
I've wondered for years why they didn't do this. That is, make football helmets padded on the outside in order to reduce the impact when helmets collide or a player is hit by the helmet of another. I wonder if they found the best material to use -- maybe some kind of space age bubble wrap could be both thin and protective. Cost is no problem. These guys are being paid literally millions; if a helmet costs $1,000 that's more than worth it to pro football.
If history is any guide, adding more padding may result in harder hits and shift the damage to other parts of the body. Perhaps broken spines rather than brain concussions?
People engaged in physical contact sports such as boxing, martial arts, and American football sometimes happily accept the damage for a chance to win. Such is human animals nature.
Soccer "heading" has been associated with concussions too, but they likely didn't realize this was a problem when they played.
https://www.healthline.com/health/heading-in-soccer#concussion-protocol
Wow, I had no idea how Islam has had such influence in the NFL,
https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-c2f2f1c15729c5eb69acb8e90173113e-lq
Technology currently under development will soon allow the players to leave their heads in their lockers during the game.
Go the opposite route, back towards less padding. Make it more painful to lead with your head.
It looks like the scrum cap some rugby players wear, in a large enough size to go over an American football helmet.
JSM
Mr Wibble said...Go the opposite route, back towards less padding. Make it more painful to lead with your head.
There actually is evidence to back this up--that extra padding only encourages harder hitting and more brain injuries.
Reminds me a lot of Nuaru pandanus armor.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauruan_Civil_War#/media/File%3ANauruan-warrior-1880ers.jpg
And yes, I think this looks silly and takes from the sport.
Kazoo was way ahead of the curve back in the stone age.
Doń Beebe too.
After Dale Earnhardt Sr died in a NASCAR wreck,they were trying to make racing completely safe, but nobody mentioned double nickels.
nigma said...
If history is any guide, adding more padding may result in harder hits and shift the damage to other parts of the body. Perhaps broken spines rather than brain concussions?
Yes. The only way to reduce chronic head trauma is to limit the size of players. A family member was a lineman on the Cleveland Rams in 1940. He was about 6-3 and 200 pounds. Worked as a steel mill consultant in Argentina after he quit playing. No head problems. The black kids who are getting injured are the ones who are 300 pounds or who are tackling the 300 pounders.
Rugby Football does it better. That commie pinko sissified lame libtard coach Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks is coaching his players on Rugby style tackling to reduce all cause injuries.
Reminds me of some of the destroyed Russian tanks in Ukraine. Hope these work better.
"Go the opposite route, back towards less padding. Make it more painful to lead with your head."
It's been said if you want to reduce head injuries, remove the face masks. Make tackles with your arms and shoulders as opposed to the crown of you head.
Technology currently under development will soon allow the players to leave their heads in their lockers during the game.
They pioneered the technology last year with the Chicago Bears coaching staff.
Matt Nagy and his crew got fired anyway.
Oh look. A sport I don't pay attention to or watch anymore.
Making it so there is less pain associated with crashing your head into something means people will crash their heads into something harder.
This will lead to neck injuries is my guess.
When fighting the limiting factor on how hard you can kick someone is how conditioned your shins/feet are.
This is what happens when you stop holding back the power of your kicks.
Wearing shin pads allows you to kick harder because your shins are protected. They are not really for the person being kicked, but to protect the shins of the kicker.
I don't think reducing the amount of pain someone feels smashing their head into things is going to have the intended affect.
HA, that graphic is cruel but hardly neutral.
Use bubble wrap. A sacrificial layer and if you crush it you get a time-out while the Helmet Handlers bring you a new helmet (and then swap in a new layer for next encounter). Added benefit: that bubble stuff pops loudly —like little firecrackers— so it would be acoustically fun for the fans.
No matter what they look like, or what extra protection they might offer, rugby fans across the Pond will still call them Pussy Helmets.
@Bob Boyd - the Eagles have been doing that for years.
I don't think they look that bad. Sort of a military look. If they really work (a big if as Enigma says) I think they'll get adopted.
Football is not worth playing if you have to play with a pillow strapped to your head.
The Michelin Man approves...
'Go the opposite route, back towards less padding. Make it more painful to lead with your head.'
Some have advocated getting rid of helmets entirely, citing rugby players as the example.
They have to collide and tackle a certain way in order to avoid injury...
I took my family to see the local rodeo last week. First time in years I had been to one. The bareback bronc riders wore huge padded collars around their necks. They and the other bronc and bull riders also wore what looked like flak jackets. The need was proven when one of the bulls threw the rider and stomped him.
Wearing that much protective gear makes sense if you're a soldier or SWAT. But for sport? I'd switch to tennis.
This will confirm the suspicions of the New Zealand All Blacks, arguably the greatest rugby team ever, about gridiron football.
Haha, Toadsie! Not the graphic I expected to see on Althouse this morning.
I think it looks fine. But if it only reduces impact by 10% and makes it comfortable to hit 10% harder...
Yes. The only way to reduce chronic head trauma is to limit the size of players. A family member was a lineman on the Cleveland Rams in 1940. He was about 6-3 and 200 pounds. Worked as a steel mill consultant in Argentina after he quit playing. No head problems. The black kids who are getting injured are the ones who are 300 pounds or who are tackling the 300 pounders.
------
I've wondered if the solution is to limit the ability to swap out players each down. Guys who have to play iron man football would be built differently, and have to deal with play more conservatively.
Manly men don't call it 'smash-mouf' football for nothing.
I only ever played helmetless and unsupervised football, and after a dislocated nose one afternoon in the 9th grade I concluded that we were getting big enough to hurt one another whether we were trying or not. It was mostly two-below after that.
My son played a year of rugby, and the big selling point was that it was statistically less likely to lead to serious permanent injury than the other contact sports. Plus, neither my son nor I had to pretend to understand the nuances of play.
As has already been observed, rugby tackling techniques would help a lot more than this.
I enjoy football but don't study it closely.
However, I've watched things like professional skateboarders, race car drivers, and motorcyclists take at-speed direct head impacts against unmoving objects (i.e. the road, walls) and be fine because they have exhaustive and integrated protective measures. And all of them involve hard cased helmets.
I'm not a physiologist (anymore!) but I don't see why this is that complex of an issue where the protective systems used in other sports isn't adopted.
"But if you don't still feel adequately protected, you might consider tacking on the Gary Busey Outer Helmet Protector, Protector – which I cannot show you here because of its enormous size."
SNL: The Gary Busey Helmet(s)
The Peltzman Effect reduces or reverses safety measures owing to people operating at what they perceive as constant risk. If you make something safer, they act more dangerously to compensate.
Put airbags in the helmets. They'd activate if a player makes contact with his helmet over a given threshold. The fans would enjoy the spectacle of seeing the airbags going off and the offending player thrown backwards. Might be some safety benefits as well.
Here's what they look like.
Looks like the Explosive Reactive Armor used on modern military tanks.
neck injuries to spike…
Players are bigger, stronger, and faster than they've ever been. They need to figure out how to slow head trauma or this game will not survive. Parents are already hesitating letting their kids play football, vying instead for soccer, bocce ball, or gender reassignment.
TreeJoe's comment made me wonder if the NFL is going after a more obvious but less serious problem. Is it an occasional hard hit and concussion that causes cerebral problems, or is it the play after play pounding on their heads, almost like a boxer taking punches, that lineman and other contact players get that accumulates damage to their brains?
This will confirm the suspicions of the New Zealand All Blacks, arguably the greatest rugby team ever, about gridiron football.
that extra padding only encourages harder hitting and more brain injuries.
I'm not sure those guys in the NFL can hit any harder. My guess is that a new injury type (knees, or necks) will become the focus for the concerned.
The design made me think -- head grenades. It looks like the same fragmentation pattern.
But if it only reduces impact by 10% and makes it comfortable to hit 10% harder...
Don't they say something similar about boxing? Fists get mashed up hitting skulls. Headgear makes it possible for boxers to deliver more and harder hits, increasing the concussions.
Should lead to fewer thumb and finger injuries to QBs following through into helmets.
Oh brother. I wonder if, somewhere, a woman is involved trying to 'make it safe'. The advent of body padding and plastic impact materials has lead to selection of freakishly large and strong athletes and scientific body strength development. Padded helmets now? In 50 years time, just before football is made illegal by OSHA, the players will be waddling around like giant Michelin Tire men, and the running backs will be like hamsters inside those big transparent balls you see people playing with. It would be a better game if they were dressed more like rugby players.
Saint Croix said...
Here's what they look like.
Pro Football is dead.
This is going to place extra leverage on the neck in collisions. This is easily foreseeable.
I look forward to the neck injury lawsuits.
Wasn't it Jack Ham who said quarterbacks should have to wear dresses?
Temujin said...
Parents are already hesitating letting their kids play football, vying instead for soccer,or gender reassignment
this raises a Serious Question
Statistically, which course produces the most harm to a child?
a) playing football, with all its risks?
b) chemical castration, your body filled with artificial hormones and having your genitals mutilated?
If you love your child enough to not play football; maybe let him keep his dick? Just saying
Here is a modest proposal, to make EVERYONE Happy
It seems that larger players, and more padding just make football More dangerous
Let's switch the rules, so that ALL players Must have two X chromosomes.. This will limit the size of the players, and reduce injuries.
Let's remove ALL padding (and uniforms). so that these gals play in the nude.. This will also reduce injuries
Finally, lets replace the turf, with lime jello.. This will ALSO reduce injuries
IF you Don't Want to see naked babes, playing football on a jello field.. You are NO American!
The NFL can afford $1,000 per player, but once the NFL starts using them, they become the standard of care. Any high school or junior HS that does not use them will be sued so thoroughly that the average member of the plaintiffs bar will have a yacht bigger than Putin's.
This will be the death of football.
A reminder while watching on tv, the crowd noise during lockdown and zero stadium fans was equally as loud as live full stadium.
Just like canned laughter.
Improvements in conditioning and "chemistry", not to mention better scouting and changes in tactics, have upended quite a few equilibriums in professional sports. Sports that were fine are finding that these innovations have upended any equilibriums they had enjoyed. Hence we are seeing all sorts of adjustments by sports leagues to adjust to this new environment. The problem is football is much more of a contact sport than, say, baseball, so bigger, faster, stronger is going to lead to a lot more injuries, not to mention players who are probably far too big to be healthy long term.
I am doubtful that this helmet will help much. Each time football has added more padding, that encouraged harder hits. This will arguably just make things worse.
CJ wondered: "I've wondered for years why they didn't do this. That is, make football helmets padded on the outside ..."
Because it's counter-intuitive. If you play without a helmet at all, you reduce the overall injury rate and severity. But they won't do that. Because the NFL is stupid and run by morons.
The safer they make the helmets, the harder people will hit and the more injury there will be. Just wait and see.
Oh well ... I don't watch the NFL any more, so the gayer and more Pokemon they make it the better. Bring back the pink ribbons. That was a nice touch. What happened to that?
WHO. WHO WON'T WEAR DA RIBBON!!?!??!?
I've wondered if the solution is to limit the ability to swap out players each down.
Smaller rosters and a lot less recuperation time between plays will lead to smaller players. But little time for ads, so the second is a non-starter.
Let's go the other way.
Put a huge metal spike on the crown.
The team will be named 'The Kaisers.'
: )
Lurker21 said...
The design made me think -- head grenades. It looks like the same fragmentation pattern.
But if it only reduces impact by 10% and makes it comfortable to hit 10% harder...
Don't they say something similar about boxing? Fists get mashed up hitting skulls. Headgear makes it possible for boxers to deliver more and harder hits, increasing the concussions.
This is very true.
You can absolutely punch harder with gloves on than without gloves.
Additionally you will see that their wrists and hands are taped up heavily providing additional support.
Many of the fighters you see on TV have not really conditioned their hands to strike. They cannot punch hard without the gloves. Many MMA fighters rely on gloves and tape too.
You know what is a lot more fun to watch than Football?
Pro video games.
I'm betting if they do get implemented there won't be much difference in long-terms brain injuries, mainly because most of the damage occurs from the brain hitting the inside of the skull, not a sharp impact from outside.
hombre said...
This will confirm the suspicions of the New Zealand All Blacks, arguably the greatest rugby team ever, about gridiron football.
**********
Under pressure from the wokerati, the team is being renamed the "All Blacks Matter".
"You know what is a lot more fun to watch than Football?"
Ladies figure skating! Among PG-rated fare.
why not put Terminator robots on the field and use BIG-DATA fan input to maneuver around the field.
The NFL is covering those heads to cover its ass.
It needs to claim preventing head injuries is a Priority One of 'the shield'.
They look like the headgear Eric Cartman wore in the special olympics.
Post a Comment