Stupid helmet to helmet garbage

[JLEW1818]

I could care less if you lead with your helmet every time.

Mark Schlereth said it best. If you throw a flag, eject, or fine a player (NFL or College) then the replay should be 100% forbidden to be shown on any network at anytime. The NFL owns all rights to the footage and the NCAA might as well. If you want to cry and fine and throw stupid opinionated flags then the play should never be able to be shown again on highlights or replays.

[8timechamps]

While it may or may not matter to fans, the rule is meant to increase player safety. I'm all for any rule that can reduce concussions in the game.

My only issue with this rule is whether or not it will be called consistently. It's either going to be a rule that players pick up on quickly, or it's going to be called all over the map. If it's the latter, I'm sure there will be numerous times that fans/coaches/players become outraged.

[Jacie]

The NFL calls this a penalty as a matter of self-preservation and refs err on the side of caution. I think they are calling it consistently and correctly.

At the college level it is a matter of referee training and experience not being on par with the NFL refs that is the cause of discontent with this rule, not the rule itself. Unlike the NFL, the college game displays regional or conference bias of different ref "styles" that can cause problems in nonconference matchups. But if colleges are held liable for life threatening injuries on the field, like the NFL, they will make this one a priority to get right. They have already addressed grabbing the face mask, tackling out of bounds, late hits and horse collar tackles and they are usually consistent on these (though of course, there are still controversial calls), they will learn to do this one too.

[pappy]

While it may or may not matter to fans, the rule is meant to increase player safety. I'm all for any rule that can reduce concussions in the game.

My only issue with this rule is whether or not it will be called consistently. It's either going to be a rule that players pick up on quickly, or it's going to be called all over the map. If it's the latter, I'm sure there will be numerous times that fans/coaches/players become outraged.

The NCAA couldn't care less about the players. They never have and they never will. All they care about is money, which they will lose in lawsuits from concussions so they are putting this rule in place to cover themselves. That's it.

[Curly Bill]

Prediction: Within 15 years football will be legislated out of existence. Maybe within 10.

edit...Let me clarify by saying "tackle" football will be gone.

[Pricetag]

Nothing manly about a brain injury. My son's coaches taught him to wrap up and tackle correctly. These guys knew it once, too. They just have to re-learn.

[OUmillenium]

Lame rules. You dont want a brain injury? Dont play

[SouthFortySooner]

Prediction: Within 15 years football will be legislated out of existence. Maybe within 10.

edit...Let me clarify by saying "tackle" football will be gone.

There will be the rise of a new league which will become massively popular. MMAFootbal!

[C&CDean]

Take away helmets and you've solved the problem.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

We can increase safety if we remove the face masks...Just sayin'

Edit: oops, Dean probably has a better answer.

[TheHumanAlphabet]

Prediction: Within 15 years football will be legislated out of existence. Maybe within 10.

edit...Let me clarify by saying "tackle" football will be gone.

Replaced by ghey (NTTAWWT) soccer...

[Jacie]

Take away helmets and you've solved the problem.

What has happened to football helmets is technology has not developed along with the speeding up of the sport. All the helmet makers have done is adapt protective gear with materials used in helmets suitable for motorcycle riders or race car drivers and those are designed to protect the head from massive trauma in the event of a crash, not the continued pounding a football player takes over the course of a game. Additionally, they have turned what should be protective gear into a formidable weapon against opposing players, hence the rule changes.

Helmet design needs to focus on making a soft helmet, one that won't concuss anyone who gets in the way of the person wearing it and at the same time absorb repeated blows from contact to protect the wearer. Think of those engineering classes where students are tasked with designing a container that will protect an egg when dropped from on high. I bet the materials needed for such a helmet already exist, someone just needs to put it all together into a truly safe football helmet.

[8timechamps]

The NCAA couldn't care less about the players. They never have and they never will. All they care about is money, which they will lose in lawsuits from concussions so they are putting this rule in place to cover themselves. That's it.

I don't disagree with your thought on the NCAA (and money), however this rule wasn't brought down by Mark Emmert himself, or the "NCAA" executive committee. This rule was introduced and pursued by several member institutions and quickly gained support. I never mentioned the NCAA in my post, because I don't think they give two ****s about player safety.

[8timechamps]

What has happened to football helmets is technology has not developed along with the speeding up of the sport. All the helmet makers have done is adapt protective gear with materials used in helmets suitable for motorcycle riders or race car drivers and those are designed to protect the head from massive trauma in the event of a crash, not the continued pounding a football player takes over the course of a game. Additionally, they have turned what should be protective gear into a formidable weapon against opposing players, hence the rule changes.

Helmet design needs to focus on making a soft helmet, one that won't concuss anyone who gets in the way of the person wearing it and at the same time absorb repeated blows from contact to protect the wearer. Think of those engineering classes where students are tasked with designing a container that will protect an egg when dropped from on high. I bet the materials needed for such a helmet already exist, someone just needs to put it all together into a truly safe football helmet.

Exactly. I suspect we'll see the "anti-concussion" helmet brought to market within the next 5 years.

[sooneron]

What has happened to football helmets is technology has not developed along with the speeding up of the sport. All the helmet makers have done is adapt protective gear with materials used in helmets suitable for motorcycle riders or race car drivers and those are designed to protect the head from massive trauma in the event of a crash, not the continued pounding a football player takes over the course of a game. Additionally, they have turned what should be protective gear into a formidable weapon against opposing players, hence the rule changes.

Helmet design needs to focus on making a soft helmet, one that won't concuss anyone who gets in the way of the person wearing it and at the same time absorb repeated blows from contact to protect the wearer. Think of those engineering classes where students are tasked with designing a container that will protect an egg when dropped from on high. I bet the materials needed for such a helmet already exist, someone just needs to put it all together into a truly safe football helmet.
This will probably not happen as most concussions have to do with trauma from the brain hitting the skull and not something making contact with the skull. If someone hits another person head on with both running at 18mph, you CANNOT keep the brain from sloshing around inside the noggin. It is a reactive injury. A helmet that saves a life usually will not keep someone from getting a concussion. There's a huge difference.

[8timechamps]

This will probably not happen as most concussions have to do with trauma from the brain hitting the skull and not something making contact with the skull. If someone hits another person head on with both running at 18mph, you CANNOT keep the brain from sloshing around inside the noggin. It is a reactive injury. A helmet that saves a life usually will not keep someone from getting a concussion. There's a huge difference.

I gathered that Jacie was talking about some kind of soft helmet that would deflect energy from the head altogether. I remember in college, we did that egg experiment, dropping the eggs from atop a building to see if the egg broke, then if it didn't, the egg would be cracked to see if the yolk had broken inside the shell. There were several teams that had no damage to either the yolk or the shell.

Like you said, a concussion is the brain hitting against the skull, so a helmet would have to be designed to keep the impact at a minimum. The only thing I can think of that would work that way is a soft, cushioned helmet. Using the NASCAR physics of the "soft wall" to dissipate energy around the head, rather than forcing the head to a complete stop (while the brain continues forward or backward).

Surely someone out there can create and/or develop the technology.

[OU GENO]

When we play texass the (texass) refs gives us the bad calls and think they will toss out our defensive players for spearing with the helmets. This could very well lose the game for us and you can bet texass won't get the bad calls.

[jkjsooner]

The NCAA couldn't care less about the players. They never have and they never will. All they care about is money, which they will lose in lawsuits from concussions so they are putting this rule in place to cover themselves. That's it.

I think this is BS. "The NCAA" doesn't make a lot of money (compared to college sports budget as a whole) and almost all of it goes back to fund programs for athletes.

I believe the NCAA as an organization cares a lot about the athletes. In some ways they bow down to demands from member institutions (such as allowing gray shirting and year by year scholarships) but all in all I think they try to represent the interest of the athletes.

Now the member institutions are a different matter. They are the ones who are making the money. A high percentage of it goes to pay for smaller sports but of course we've seen an explosion of facility upgrades and coach's salaries too. But the member institutions are not the NCAA...

[jkjsooner]

We can increase safety if we remove the face masks...Just sayin'

Edit: oops, Dean probably has a better answer.

I think removing the face mask would solve a lot of the problems.

I don't know that you can remove the helmets altogether. Football is a very different sport than rugby. Some say it is not a tackle sport but is instead a collision sport. In rugby it's sufficient to let a guy drag you for a yard or two before bringing him down. In football with the 10 yard first down concept it places much more emphasis on collisions - stopping a guy's momentum immediately. You still wrap up of course.

Also football allows blocking, etc which means that 11 guys are hitting 11 guys on each possession. You also have the line of scrimmage with a mass of bodies flying at each other. Accidentally head collisions (even what we would consider minor or insignificant today) happen all the time.

If football had a safe record prior to instituting helmets you could make that argument but the sport's record back at the turn of the century was dismal - and that was with much smaller players.


You do have a point though. Maybe soft helmets without face masks would be better. I also think some rules changes that would require more stamina (maybe going back to the way it was in the '50s) would limit the size of players and injuries to some extent.

[PrideMom]

Yes, there have been ex-players that have had brain injuries, but there are even MORE ex-football players that do not. Some cases even could be hereditary, who really knows? Football is a very physical sport, and the men who play it enjoy the hitting and roughness of the play. The "old" players think the game has been "sissy-fied." Pretty soon they will eliminate the defense all together and we will get to watch "run and catch."

[Mac94]

When we play texass the (texass) refs gives us the bad calls and think they will toss out our defensive players for spearing with the helmets. This could very well lose the game for us and you can bet texass won't get the bad calls.

Was thinking about this very thing ... it gives a biased ref a golden way to really impact the game under the cover of the rule book. How this gets called is going to be interesting.

the way the game is going games like last years OU-WV and OU-oSu games are going to become more the norm. With the handicaps the defenses are going to have ot operate under the more gifted athletes will end up on the offensive side of the ball and coaches and OCs will continue to push tempo and the pace of an offensive attack and exploit the rule book to full effect. Scores will be more arena league"ish."

[radio]

If players would wear helmets that fit and wear them correctly it would have a major impact.

Take the fing diamond earrings off and cut a couple feet of hair off and helmets will fit.

[C&CDean]

If players would wear helmets that fit and wear them correctly it would have a major impact.

Take the fing diamond earrings off and cut a couple feet of hair off and helmets will fit.

Why you wacist Vince?