For the past several years both college and professional football has been growing both in attendance and physicality. Players are becoming much bigger, much stronger and much faster at every position. Physics dictates that a object in motion will stay in motion unless altered by another equal or opposite force. When this happens if either player can't properly absorb that force - something will breakdown. In the majority of instances the breakdown results in injury to soft tissue or bone.
Concussions are becoming more prevalent in the sport of football. We need to take a closer look at the mechanism of impact to reduce the incident of trauma. In my opinion, I can't fully understand why we can't put a thin layer of force absorbing material on the "outside" of the helmets. It only makes sense to me that if we can develop high intensity materials for space travel, automobiles, and other items. There is no reason why we can't develop a material that can withstand impact to protect the athlete.
The game of football is a rough sport with players developing way past the point in which the game was originally developed. It started with no helmet that was leather in nature. They then added plastic to protect the head and eventually added a bar across the face. They have tried putting air inside the helmets and then water. They've attempted to build up the jaw area to prevent impact to the TMJ area (the area that can accelerate a concussion).
So why with all the changes on the inside of the helmet why the hell aren't we attempting to change the outside of the helmet. You can't tell me that by adding a force absorbing material on the outside of the helmet won't take the changes of concussion down by a considerable amount. Please don't tell me that we are doing it because of money. Division I football is making plenty of money from the direct activity from the student-athletes. The NFL is the most solvent sports organization in the world. So please, please don't tell me that we can't afford to add something to the outside of the helmet.
Football needs to change with the times because as we develop from decade to decade the players continue to develop just as fast. The equipment hasn't changed in many years except for the rib protection for quarterbacks. It's time to modify the uniform and equipment just like every other sport has including golf, tennis, and the shoes in basketball. We need to take a closer look at what materials are protecting our young athletes. Innovation is the backbone of America and we need to let the spirit of our inventors help change the game while preserving the sport that we all love.
We also have to take a closer look in the way we train our athletes. Bigger and stronger has definitely changed the game but have you looked at the weekly injury report? Yes players are bigger and stronger but they are getting injured at an accelerated rate. It's not how you will get injured...it's when. Why is it that every football team needs to carry two quarterbacks? They all know that sometime during the year the starting quarterback will go down with injury. The game has developed to the point that we all know that most, if not all quarterbacks will not make a full season without injury. We need to begin to train all athletes to properly hold muscular position. That will allow the body to better absorb force or impact.
If larger muscles were the total answer then every body builder would be our best athletes. We need to train the muscles to properly lengthen and become more dense to be able to absorb force keeping it away from the joints, ligaments and tendons.
Let's build the sport support the player and not to support the companies bottom lines of profit. I'm all for making a profit but quality should be first and foremost be put on the front burner to develop a safer way for the athlete to participate in football.
No comments:
Post a Comment