Grinnell College in Iowa just cancelled the rest of their football season

[HawkGold]

Been noticing for a number of years now the quality of players going on to play in college decreasing. The pool is shrinking.

 

[#1DieHardHawk]

With all due respect if the guy told you any of that he was most likely a crackpot.

The "I can't compete with the current manufacturers" argument doesn't hold water because if it were that revolutionary he'd be selling his idea to Riddell, Schutt, or Xenith in a New York minute.

It all boils down to the physics of a football impact and you can't change that.

If you take a brain moving 15-20 mph and stop it in the space of 3-4 inches (or almost zero when helmets hit the ground), brain damage is going to occur no matter how much padding or shock absorption there is. It's a super simple problem really, and the reason there aren't concussion-preventing helmets out there is because it can't happen in a football setting under current rules.

And it really is that simple. Medical folks have known for a really long time what the deceleration limits are for the human brain to get damaged, and the only way is to slow that deceleration down. For a football helmet that's going to mean making it the size of a beach ball, and then you have the problem of huge leverage on your neck. Until someone can modify the laws of physics, there's absolutely no way you can decelerate a brain from 20 mph to zero in the space of a few inches and not wreck it.

The only way to make it safer is to neuter the rules to the point of taking away physical contact. Myself, I think we're going to see ProBowl style rules implemented within 6-8 years followed by the rapid downfall of the sport as a whole. People like violence and that's why football is so popular.

Yep, same problem they have in auto racing. They've stopped the basilar skull fractures by using a HANS device that ties a guy's head to his shoulders and that has eliminated almost all deaths in racing, but they can't stop the deceleration brain trauma when someone goes from 100 to 0 in a couple of feet.

The physics of coup contrecoup injuries is the dilemma facing the NFL and the NCAA and you can bet that there are a lot of people behind the scenes sweating it out knowing the financial repercussions.

Tinkering with the helmets ultimately will have minimal impact. The rule changes will have some impact over time but likely not enough to keep the downward spiral that we are seeing from continuing.

Ironically, eliminating helmets altogether probably would have the best result when it comes to decreasing concussions. Wearing a high-tech protective shell promotes a false sense of security, and the natural instinct to protect one's head suffers. If no helmet was in place - or perhaps a simple retro leather helmet- players would once again alter their style of play to protect themselves. We'd almost certainly see an uptick in lacerations (which look much worse than they actually are), but an overall decrease in white matter injuries.

 

[okeefe4prez]

The physics of coup contrecoup injuries is the dilemma facing the NFL and the NCAA and you can bet that there are a lot of people behind the scenes sweating it out knowing the financial repercussions.

Tinkering with the helmets ultimately will have minimal impact. The rule changes will have some impact over time but likely not enough to keep the downward spiral that we are seeing from continuing.

Ironically, eliminating helmets altogether probably would have the best result when it comes to decreasing concussions. Wearing a high-tech protective shell promotes a false sense of security, and the natural instinct to protect one's head suffers. If no helmet was in place - or perhaps a simple retro leather helmet- players would once again alter their style of play to protect themselves. We'd almost certainly see an uptick in lacerations (which look much worse than they actually are), but an overall decrease in white matter injuries.

You probably would need a leather type top and sides with a bit of plastic reinforcement to hold some sort of lacrosse or hockey goalie type of face mask. I think you'd end up with like 5 broken noses per game if you didn't have a facemask.

 

[CP87]

The physics of coup contrecoup injuries is the dilemma facing the NFL and the NCAA and you can bet that there are a lot of people behind the scenes sweating it out knowing the financial repercussions.

Tinkering with the helmets ultimately will have minimal impact. The rule changes will have some impact over time but likely not enough to keep the downward spiral that we are seeing from continuing.

Ironically, eliminating helmets altogether probably would have the best result when it comes to decreasing concussions. Wearing a high-tech protective shell promotes a false sense of security, and the natural instinct to protect one's head suffers. If no helmet was in place - or perhaps a simple retro leather helmet- players would once again alter their style of play to protect themselves. We'd almost certainly see an uptick in lacerations (which look much worse than they actually are), but an overall decrease in white matter injuries.

Among US high school and collegiate football players, concussion incidence is 0.47/1000 athlete exposures.

Among US high school rugby players, it is 3.8/1000 athlete exposures (95% CI of 2.0-5.7; this study only followed 2 teams for 3 years, so much smaller sample size).

I don't think getting rid of the hard-shelled helmet is a viable solution.

 

[Chickenlounge]

Grinnell does have a storied football history:

From the Washington Post:

So does the school’s location, Hamilton said. It’s hard to recruit football players from all over the nation when they can’t find the village of Grinnell, Iowa, on a map.

And yet the sport has a deep history at the school. In 1889, less than a quarter-century after the Civil War ended, the University of Iowa issued a challenge for a football game, the first college contest played west of the Mississippi River. Grinnell answered the call. The Pioneers whipped the Hawkeyes, 24-0. The heritage has remained important.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...football-team-forfeits-remaining-seven-games/

Isn't that right around the time the Cyclones won their last conference championship?

 

[#1DieHardHawk]

You probably would need a leather type top and sides with a bit of plastic reinforcement to hold some sort of lacrosse or hockey goalie type of face mask. I think you'd end up with like 5 broken noses per game if you didn't have a facemask.

Among US high school and collegiate football players, concussion incidence is 0.47/1000 athlete exposures.

Among US high school rugby players, it is 3.8/1000 athlete exposures (95% CI of 2.0-5.7; this study only followed 2 teams for 3 years, so much smaller sample size).

I don't think getting rid of the hard-shelled helmet is a viable solution.

Just to clarify, I'm not proposing the idea of no helmets, and, yes, there would have to be some type of face/eye protection. The point is that players would naturally alter their style of play to protect the head, something that most players don't do instinctively with the current helmets.

That's a good point about rugby. Another good example is the higher rate amongst girl's soccer (which I believe has the highest rate amongst the major sports).

Rugby is a bit of a different animal though, as the contact is essentially constant due to the scrum, and the individual plays are longer. In girl's soccer, there are some theories that there is something innate about the female brain that may make them more susceptible. No one knows for sure.

Also, organized football has long been criticized for under-diagnosing and reporting concussions. That is changing, but a lot of the data was gathered during a time where players were just pulled for a few plays or told to "walk it off." It would be interesting to see how the numbers bear out with the new protocols.

 

[Bigfist]

Sort of odd, as I am a graduate (1975) of Grinnell. I had no idea it happened, and I get press releases from the College all the time. I never played football when I was there, but the team had around 50-60 players. Played a different schedule as well, including Coe College, who has sent some players to the NFL.

I did play baseball there, but our baseball team was about as successful as the football team. Meaning..not very.