Head Shots

Two major North American professional leagues are having a bit of a crisis with head injuries. Both the NFL and the NHL seem to be struggling with what to do about the apparent increase in concussions their players are suffering.

Here's what I have noticed so far.

Hockey players who, because they are on skates, are travelling twice as fast as football players and are wearing half the helmet of football players.

The worst hits in football are the helmet on helmet.

The worst hits in hockey are shoulder to helmet.

Fighter pilots can eject out of a supersonic aircraft that is coming apart and not suffer any head trauma.

Interesting.

I don't think the powers that be in either league will change the rules to influence how players play to better protect them. Honestly, I don't think I want them to but, maybe we can leverage some technology to increase the chance of a head shot not causing permanent neurological damage.

We need to explore covering more of a hockey players head. We need to make the exterior of hockey shoulder pads softer. We need to look at making the exterior of helmets in both sports softer so they absorb some energy and not transfer it to the skull and eventually the brain. If the shell of the helmet can absorb and dissipate some of the energy, and the padding inside can absorb the rest, both these sports will be much safer in the long run.

I think we can accept our professional athletes having arthritis from playing but we do not want them to lose their faculties and becoming drooling, incoherent blobs just to entertain and inspire us.

The answer is in technology, if the leagues will not embrace it the players must force the issue, or change will never come.