It’s the Helmet, Stupid

Have you ever seen an NFL quarterback break some knuckles on his hand by simply throwing a pass and having his hand follow through and hit a defensive lineman’s helmet? Have you ever seen a defensive back tear up somebody’s knee by going low and hurling himself helmet first into his opponent’s legs to make a tackle? Here’s an easy one. Have you ever seen somebody taken off the field with a concussion brought on by a helmet to helmet tackle? What do these sentences have in common? Could it be that the word helmet is in all of them?

If the National Football League wants to cut down on injuries, they could do something significant that would make it happen. Right now, they could make a difference.  I’m not sure of the percentage, but let’s call it X amount.  They could make “that many” of those injuries go away with one visible, but not necessarily earth shattering move. But I don’t think they ever will. Because I think the NFL thinks that their image is more important than the health of their players.

The biggest cause of injuries RIGHT NOW in football are the helmets worn by every player on the field. Helmets (and shoulder pads) are made of a hard, synthetic plastic material that is too hard for the human body to compete against. Concussions aren’t just caused because they are from helmet to helmet hits.  They are caused because of how hard the plastic on the helmets are that cause the savage hits.  You could take off a helmet and swing it at a person’s head in real life and you would crack his skull.  Players have seized a hold of the helmet as weapon concept and have used the very hard, plastic nature of it to their advantage (why else is there such an outcry against helmet to helmet tackling?). He who strikes first and hardest wins. The other guy gets injured.

Helmets aren’t just hard, they are rock hard. Smack your knuckles really hard against a heavy canvas boxing bag and nothing happens. Smack your knuckles really hard against a football helmet and you will break your hand. Why does a football helmet have to be made of SUCH a hard substance on the outside that when the collisions that result from that contact with the helmet multiplies the traumatic effect of what gets hit?   In other words, why is there, in a contact sport, a piece of equipment, that by its very makeup, is a serious injury waiting to happen?

People didn’t used to get as many head injuries many years ago in the earlier years of professional football when the helmets had a soft leather exterior. The helmet protected the head on the inside, but had that softer material on the outside that gave a little every time it was involved in a collision. The NFL is also doing studies all the time as to why they have so many of their players getting head injuries. They are working at the problem from the inside out.  The inside has a pretty good polyurethane foam padding to help the head absorb some of the concussive impacts.  The problem is, the impacts are TOO powerful because of the hard plastic shell of a helmet.

The NFL has to know that the rock hard composition of the outsides of their helmets is a huge reason why they are having so many injury problems. The commissioner has precedence in, shall we say, matters of evading responsibility when it comes to acknowledging key information as it relates to his league and its policies (cough, cough Ray Rice). For that matter, what do they know and when do they know it regarding football helmets and the dangers they present? And why oh why aren’t they bringing up conversations they might be having regarding possibly switching over to a safer, less dangerous helmet?

Here is my challenge. Commissioner Goodell, I challenge you to bang the back of your hand – you pick left or right – against a stationary football helmet ten times, knuckle to helmet, really hard. As hard as the contact that happens in your sport when people are crashing into each other at top speeds. If I am right and you break your hand, then you will put forth serious efforts to try to get your league to change the nature of the rock hard exterior of your helmets to try to prevent more injuries. If I am wrong, I am full of shit and I will shut up and publicly acknowledge that the NFL is right and I am wrong. I am so confident in this I am upgrading this to a double dog dare.