Is it time to take off the helmets?

Concussions have become a major concern in many sports, most notably with football.

In moves made from pee-wee football all the way to the NFL, recognition of how devastating concussions can be to a person’s long-term health has resulted in rule changes and protocols designed to spot and limit the impact of a potential concussion on a player. No doubt, the procedures related to concussion recognition and management will evolve, one of the simplest means of preventing concussions might come with removing a piece of equipment.

Conventionally thinking, a helmet is designed to protect the head from outside trauma. Throw a stone at someone’s head while they’re wearing

a helmet and what would otherwise result in a nasty head wound ends up being deflected off the helmet. This is the reason why armor throughout

the ages have utilized helmets, since a nasty blow to the head would result in a soldier giving his life for his country.

While a helmet in football undoubtedly does protect from exterior trauma, the same doesn’t hold true for concussions. A concussion is caused by the brain being jostled inside the skull as the result of a sudden, heavy impact. The brain bounces off the interior of the skull, damaging brain cells and, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, creates chemical changes within the brain.

A helmet, regardless of the design or the padding inside it, won’t be able to safeguard a person from concussions. Concussions by themselves aren’t typically life threatening, though several similar injuries over the course of a career can accumulate. Several former football players were posthumously diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a type of brain damage that can only be identified after physical examination of the brain.

While CTE has been identified in people from other professional sports and high impact entertainment such as professional wrestling, the NFL has remained front and center when it comes to the effects concussions have on former players.

Helmets, along with the other equipment football players wear on the field, help give players a sense of invulnerability. They’re willing to do things an unprotected person would shy away as a result of their gear. Defensive players will hit harder both because they don’t feel the pain that would otherwise come from a hard impact and to make sure the other guy does feel it.

Removing the helmet would help lessen that feeling of invulnerability and allow players to instinctively protect their heads. Players would be less willing to throw themselves into situations where their heads would sustain injury. However, removing helmets immediately wouldn’t result in a benefit. Football, as it’s played currently in the NFL, would result in more

injuries if helmets were taken out of the equation. It would require changes to how the game is played.

Regardless, it’s something that should be explored. If not in the NFL, definitely in youth and high school football. Those are players who need

the protection the most and would benefit the greatest from the change.

 

Reader Comments(0)