Is American football safer?

The Helmet

Here's a quick video from Youtube briefly explaining the development of the helmet in collegiate football. This video shows how some of the colleges are researching ways to improve their football helmets in order to provide their athletes with technologically enhanced equipment. Without a doubt, injuries will continue to happen due to the physicality of the sport, but with continued research, safety for the players will continue to improve.

Leather Helmets?

So this article brings up the question whether or not leather helmets should be reintroduced into the NFL. Of course, with a suggestion like this, there has to be a good reason. The author of this article specifically points out brain diseases amongst players and how the source of it comes from the modern helmets that are being used today. The author explains that athletes are "spear" tackling, using the helmet to deliver the blow when making a tackle. This tackling technique has become too common in the sport of football. The author also made an observation, relating the type of helmets and head injuries together. He says back in the 50's, tackling styles were different and more pile-ups occurred. During that time, these pile-ups were one of the factors that contributed to head injuries. In today's era, players tackle head on towards the opposing player, a much more serious and dangerous way of making the tackle. Ignoring the fundamental techniques of tackling, players are using their heads when making contact with other players. This way of tackling has proven to be harmful as it has brought about the issue regarding brain diseases amongst football players. By bringing back the leather helmets, the players would more likely to focus on tackling the proper way and avoid using their heads as a weapon. Moreover, they would have enough padding to protect themselves when properly making a tackle, but not enough for them to "spear" the opponent. This method is very similar to how rugby players tackle. Thus, with more players tackling properly, we can see a steady decline in head-related injuries. However, I believe there are still many flaws in this suggestion.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=650442

I Told You It'll Be Fun!

Despite the NFL switching to hard plastic helmets and some rule changes, injuries are still to common amongst the players. More specifically brain diseases, witch is something that still poses an issue not only in the league but also college and even high school football.

Mental Health

Here's another blog site that I found on the web that focuses their topic about their beliefs in the improvement of public health. The name of the blog is "Health with a Capital H" and one of the posts that I found on their blog discusses about the mental illnesses that can be found in players who play football. The post mentions two NFL players, Ricky Williams and Brandon Marshall, who have such ailments. Ricky Williams, current running back for the Baltimore Ravens, suffers from anxiety disorder, and has been probably before his NFL career started. after mentioning his emotional problems to his coaching staff, the coaches told him to just focus on football. With Brandon Marshall, he was diagnosed with a personality disorder, mouthing off other players more than often. With that said, the NFL is beginning to bring about awareness around the league, and to other football programs, about the health of their athletes by partnering with the Satcher Health Leadership Institute of Morehouse School of Medicine. Other organizations that were mentioned in the post that assists athletes with their physical, as well as their mental health are, Retired Pro Athlete Assistance (RAPP) and P.A.S.T. Retired Athletes Medical Resource Group. There are also many cases where retired athletes have become depressed and even committed suicide. 

Here's the link of the blog that I summarized: http://www.iqsolutions.com/ideas-and-insights/blog/are-you-giant-fan-mental-health-or-patriot

I also found this video on youtube on semi-pro leagues and the dangers of it. This video mentions about the death of a player caused by unregulated equipment and the lack of physical check-ups. I found this video to be shocking because I never thought about how important the maintenance of the equipment was when I played in high school and how it could be the difference between life and death.

 

A Short History Lesson

(Non-text media)

Here's a quick one-minute video that I thought did a good job in showing the history of the game. Since my blog focuses on the players' wellbeing and the improvements on their equipment, I'd like you to focus your attention on how football gear has changed throughout the years. The video does an excellent job in presenting the progression of this sport, starting off with a black and white visual that gives the feeling of the past and gradually adding color that brings us back to the present. This visual technique parallels the improvements of the equipment, and ultimately, the game itself.

Hypothesis

Football has been a big part of my life, which is why I decided to blog about a certain aspect of the game. In the last decade, injuries within this sport has become an issue that cannot be easily ignored. For example, new rules are being enforced to prevent injuries, players are being fined for unnecessary  actions that may harm other players, and new football equipment are even being developed for the sake of the safety of the athletes. I want to inform my followers the physical and mental toll the game has on the athletes and how the results of their injuries have helped with the improvement of the equipment. However, I don't want to discourage anyone from playing the sport. I simply want to explain the reality of the game and discuss how this sport is moving forward with new innovations of the equipment. Hopefully I can bring awareness as well about the importance of player safety.

New Blog Topic (first post assignment)

Not wanting to get involved in any copyright issues, I decided to focus this blog on the affects the game of football has had on the players and how it has helped shaped the development on the equipment. I found a blog online that shares similar content as my ideas that I am going to be sharing. The title of the blog that I found is “Blog and Tackle” at the link I provided below. This blog mainly discusses what is going on in the NFL. However, I did find a category on the blog where the blogger talks about the improvement of football equipment, not just in the NFL, but also for college and even high school football. The blogger first mentions the issue regarding concussions and other injuries that have led equipment developers to improve the quality of football gear for all levels of the game, whether it be professional or pop-warner football. For this discussion the blogger focuses mainly on the development and improvements that are being explored with the helmet. The blogger briefly mentions a program that allows tests to be conducted in order to get the results manufacturers need in order to come up the headgear with the latest technology to prevent injuries such as concussions. However, the costly price of such program has prevented many football programs from joining a program such as this. After talking about the expensive program, the blogger mentions companies that has made significant improvements on their product and the new technologies that come with it.

http://www.blogandtackle.net/2010/10/22/stories-you-may-have-missed-making-football-helmets-safer/

What this is about

My name is Jayson and one of my favorite hobbies is playing and watching football. I don’t play as much as I would like to nowadays, now that I am in college, so I thought blogging about it would be a good idea. In this blog, I am going to provide the latest news updates on the National Football League. Come listen as I bring to you what coaches and staff are doing to improve their rosters and their game plan for the upcoming season, and what players (primarily free-agents) are deciding to do with their NFL careers. Since the draft is soon approaching, I am planning on talking about that as well and also talk about the top incoming rookies of this year’s draft and what they have to bring to the table for their new teams. And for those who enjoy joining fantasy leagues, I will be discussing with my followers about fantasy football and inform which players are predicted to be the most productive this coming season, and players who should be avoided during the fantasy draft. Other than updates on the league and fantasy football, I would also like to bring up one issue the NFL has regarding the safety of the players. Indeed safety has always been an issue in this sport, but has recently become a matter of concern. To summarize what I was talking about, this blog will provide up-to-date news about the League, fantasy football league, and the issue regarding player safety.   

I will be using the official website of the NFL as my main source. Here's the link: http://www.nfl.com