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PHOTO: Getty Images (Dave Duerson) |
Helmets: Last Line of Defense
By Aric DiLalla Mohamed Massaquoi lay on the Heinz Field turf, clutching his helmet as trainers hovered over him. Three seconds earlier, the Cleveland Browns receiver had pushed off the line of scrimmage into a drag route across the middle. The ball and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ James Harrison hit him at the same instant. The impact, and a resulting concussion, kept Massaquoi sidelined for two weeks. That Sunday in October was a particularly brutal one in the National Football League. Four players suffered concussions, spurring a new round of fines and threatened suspensions by a league that already instituted rule changes to minimize head trauma, including a ban on helmet-to-helmet hits and new protocols restricting players who display concussion symptoms from returning to the field. Now, as players get bigger and hits gets harder, the NFL and others on the front lines of football are seeking solutions beyond the rule book and the pocketbook. They are zeroing in on helmets as the last line of defense against concussions and other serious head injuries, and as a critical tool in understanding how NFL-style hits affect the brain. “While medical professionals agree that helmets cannot fully protect against concussions,” says Brian McCarthy, a spokesman for the league, “NFL researchers are among those exploring ways to use helmets as a means to provide important data on player health.” Long ignored in the days of Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath, concussions now dominate discussions of safety in the NFL, as studies turn up more evidence of long-lasting brain injuries suffered by football players. The concern has also spread to the college and high-school level, amid questions about the long-term effects of repeated injuries on teenage players whose brains are still developing. DUERSON’S SUICIDE NOTE An athlete can suffer a concussion with the slightest blow to the head and face side effects that range from short-term dizziness to long-term depression. In 2010, 154 concussions were reported in the NFL through the first eight weeks of the season, including Massaquoi’s, according to a report by the Associated Press. But it was two off-the-field incidents—the suicides of former Philadelphia Eagles defensive back Andre Waters and former Bears safety Dave Duerson that sparked concerns about the longer-term impact. Waters’s suicide was linked to a mental problem stemming from multiple concussions, according to an article in The New York Times. Duerson, who was on the Bears’ 1986 Super Bowl-winning team, took his own life in May 2011 with a gunshot to the chest after months of headaches, blurred vision and reduced memory, the Times reported. After his death, Duerson was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain condition—also known as boxer’s encephalopathy—that occurs in people who have suffered multiple concussions. In his suicide note, Duerson asked that his brain be used for research on football concussions. He was one of more than 20 players to be diagnosed with CTE. The NFL is doing its own research, using helmets as a tool in themselves to study how the brain responds to big hits on the field. Kevin Guskiewicz, director of sports-related brain injury research at the University of North Carolina and a member of the NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee in charge of safety equipment, is testing helmet sensors—called accelerometers—to monitor the impact of hits to the head during games, Mr. McCarthy says. Dr. Guskiewicz is also testing mouthguards with sensors for the same purposes. The data provided by these sensors may one day help medical professionals understand why athletes respond differently to head impact. The spreading concern has also shone a spotlight on Riddell, the official manufacturer of helmets for the NFL and a supplier to colleges and high school programs, and its top competitor, Schutt. Riddell says it has taken strides to lessen the possibility of an athlete suffering a concussion during play. These improvements include the introduction of Riddell’s 360 helmet during college football’s National Championship game in January 2010. The helmet featured newly designed facemask clips to dissipate the force of a hit across the helmet, a unique design to reduce the force of frontal impact and an adjustable, air inflated liner that provides stability. “We’re making our product as protective as we can based on the best science,” says Thad Ide, senior vice president for research and development. “That’s a core value of Riddell—always looking to advance the protective capabilities of our football helmets. We’re always monitoring the latest research looking for ways that we can improve.” Schutt did not respons to requests for comment. Meanwhile, a team of researchers at Virginia Tech are scoring helmets for safety and providing helmet makers with data intended to help refine their products further. Over the past eight years, the professors have attached accelerometers to the helmets of Virginia Tech players and mapped the results. “We know exactly how many times the front of the helmet is impacted and how hard each impact is,” says Steve Rowson, assistant professor at the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences. These data gave Rowson, who assisted another of the school’s professors, Stefan Duma, on the study, a framework for conducting what they called the “drop test.” Researchers dropped helmets from a height of five feet to test how well they absorbed the shock of an impact, according to the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment. The results showed the viability of several different designs and materials. Riddell’s Revolution Speed was the only five-star-rated helmet. Five others received a four-star rating, which Rowson says is more than satisfactory. “All the higher-rated helmets do a very good job and we’ve seen good advancement,” Rowson says. “But it comes down to the manufacturers. These experiments give us a good idea of human tolerance to impact.” COST IS A FACTOR Some athletic directors question the value of the study. Rick Hendrickson, athletic director at Mercersburg Academy, a boarding school in Pennsylvania that uses Schutt helmets, is among the skeptics. “The testing that Virginia Tech does is a good thing, but it is limited,” Hendrickson says. “We can only take testing so far.” With rising costs of helmets and constant safety upgrades, Hendrickson says the best thing to do is wait rather than jump at the next new thing. “There’s a lot of pressure on the helmet manufacturers,” Hendrickson says. “When you have Schutt and Riddell competing, someone is going to make something great. We’ve decided to let the innovations take place and let the stuff settle.” One reason for the wait-and-see attitude at the amateur level is cost. Only 14 of the 120 Football Bowl Subdivision schools made money on football in 2010, according to the NCAA. For Mark Russo and the rest of the Syracuse University athletic trainers, a price tag of a few hundred dollars per helmet makes upgrading to new helmets more difficult. The team recently purchased six Riddell 360s that cost more than $400 each. “We provide what we think is best for our athletes,” Russo says, “and it’s strictly based on safety. It doesn’t matter how you look. It’s how you play.” For their part, players say they’re happy to let others worry about safety. “You can’t worry about safety because it’s such a dangerous sport,” says Robert Mathis, a three-time Pro Bowl defensive end with the Indianapolis Colts. Still, Mathis says, “I see more helmet safety standards in the near future because of the many concussions.” Mathis says the effort by NFL trainers to check and adjust air pressure will help make helmets safer until the next generation of helmets arrives. “I doubt that safety crosses any of our minds,” says Sam Rodgers, a freshman long snapper at Syracuse who says players are more concerned about visibility, looks and comfort in a helmet. “I know they take the time to fit our helmets properly, but it’s not something I can take time to think about,” he says. “In college, everyone is quicker, faster and hits harder. I need to make sure I’m protected, but my safety is the helmet’s job. That’s what it’s made to do. That’s what it’s going to do.”
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