Technology that can combat concussions

This article covers the newest and best technology to mitigate concussions, including helmets, mouth guards, and guardian caps.

The drive to minimize head injuries in sports is stronger than ever, especially in football. The NFL, recognizing the importance, has put stricter player-safety rules and policies in place -- but technology is catching up to offer preventive methods to combat the issue. Below are three high-tech products being tested and used in all levels of football, from Pop Warner all the way to the NFL. It should be noted that these innovations do not prevent concussions, but rather reduce the risk of head injuries.

1. Xenith X2 football helmets

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Courtesy of XenithThe Xenith X2 is designed to minimize impact and head jolt in football collisions.

• The idea: While former Harvard quarterback Vin Ferrara was pursuing his medical degree from Columbia University, he decided to develop better helmets in early 2004 after being shaken by a clip of hockey player Eric Lindros lying on the ice after a concussion. Ferrara is now the founder of Xenith, a company that produces advanced helmet technology.

• The 360: Xenith helmets use patented technology to minimize impact and head jolt. The helmet conforms to the player's head, creating a custom fit without the need for an air pump or any other device. Notably, Xenith claims to be the only helmet manufacturer to use what the company has termed "Shock Bonnet." This technology puts an emphasis on shock absorbers, which adapt to each blow at every impact level.

You probably haven’t heard of Xenith, but that's mostly because helmet brands cannot advertise on the field. However, even though Riddell has a deal with the NFL that runs through 2013, athletes are free to use helmets of their choice. Notable Xenith X2 wearers include Buccaneers TE Dallas Clark, Patriots CB Devin McCourty and Ravens RB Ray Rice, with whom the company has recently announced a partnership deal. Says Ferrara: “As of this training camp, more than half of NFL teams have players wearing Xenith.”

• Worth noting: Sales of Xenith have risen exponentially: 24,000 helmets in 2010; 65,000 in 2011; and a projected 80,000 this year.

2. X2IMPACT mouth guards

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Courtesy of X2X2 teamed with Microsoft to develop the mouthguard technology.

• The idea: In 2007, Rich Able’s son, then a high school junior, was knocked unconscious for nearly a minute playing football. It hit his father hard. But instead of just pulling his son from the sport, Able decided to do something about it, creating X2, a new company that focuses on head-impact monitoring technologies.

• The 360: X2 offers a high-tech mouth guard that monitors hits in real time. It is a custom-fit, standard boil-and-bite guard, but what makes it unique are the numerous embedded sensors that store data on the hits a player takes throughout the game. It can wirelessly send an alert to a trainer the moment a player is hit with high impact. An accompanying app allows the trainer to run the player through a series of tests to assess his/her condition. X2 has worked with Microsoft in developing the technology.

The mouth guards are at least a year from commercial release but X2 continues to expand its trials in various college programs. X2 is being used by a number of NCAA football teams, including Stanford, Notre Dame and the University of Washington. Stanford has expanded its use to women’s lacrosse and field hockey.

• Worth noting: UCLA head coach Jim Mora is an early investor in X2 and is chairman of the Sports Advisory Board.

3. Guardian Cap protective helmet covers

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Courtesy of POC VenturesGuardian Caps add less than one-third of a pound in helmet weight.

• The idea: A mother of five named Erin Hanson, seeing the need for better helmet technology for kids, created POC (Protecting Our Children) Ventures, which developed Guardian Caps.

• The 360: Guardian Caps are one-size-fits-all shells worn over helmets during practice. The waterproof, soft protector straps over a helmet and is designed to absorb helmet-to-helmet impact. Guardian has claimed the cap can reduce impact to the head up to 33 percent. Most helmets weigh 4 to 5 pounds; a Guardian Cap adds only .31 pounds of weight.

Each helmet cushion costs about $70 and lasts for up to two seasons. Currently, more than 200 teams, from youth through college programs, are using the Guardian shells. The company notes that, with 4,000 Guardians currently on the field, it has yet to hear reports of head or neck injuries sustained while wearing a Cap. Guardian hopes to expand its product for use in lacrosse and hockey.

Will we see Guardian Caps used in the NFL? Probably not anytime soon. At an NFL concussion symposium, Guardian Caps presented the Gladiator, a helmet with a fully integrated soft shell, for use in actual games. After review, the NFL determined that the product was too radical a change to incorporate into the league.

• Worth noting: Guardian Caps partnered with predecessor ProCap, which made custom helmets with extra cushioning. Former Buffalo Bill Mark Kelso sits on the Guardian Cap board and memorably wore a ProCap in the NFL from 1989 to 1993.

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Riddell 360 is claimed to be the football helmet of the future

This article takes a close took at the Riddell 360, which is claimed to be one of the safest helmets ever made.

A few weeks ago, the folks at Riddell sent SB Nation their newest football helmet, the Riddell 360, the latest in a long line of next generation helmets. It came in a big shiny case and got everyone in the office excited. But we were asked to review it, too, and absent a football field in the office, that meant doing some research.

Riddell's been building helmets for players at every level of football for upwards of 80 years -- including providing the NFL with helmets for decades -- but it's the past few years where the technology's begun to accelerate.

And as football season approaches this fall and a nation again wonders whether it's "moral" to love football, this sort of new helmet technology is an important part of the conversation.

"Player protection is the number one priority in developing new helmet technology," a Riddell spokesperson told me when I brought up the issue this week. But in the next breath, "It’s important to remember that no helmet can prevent a concussion."

Because of the ongoing controversy surrounding football, in general, equipment manufacturers find themselves in a tricky position in 2012. Manufacturers can spend endless amounts of money researching and building the best equipment possible, but as football deals with its own identity crisis, a company like Riddell is an easy target for litigation when things go wrong.

This helps explain the all-caps disclaimer you'll find when you go to buy Riddell's gleaming new helmet:

WARNING: NO HELMET CAN PREVENT SERIOUS HEAD OR NECK INJURIES A PLAYER MIGHT RECEIVE WHILE PARTICIPATING IN FOOTBALL.

It's a loud reminder of where football is in 2012. As for where it's going? The 360 offers some hope for the future. It's been tested against 1.4 million impacts, and if it's not guaranteed to prevent concussions, it was certainly designed to try. One of the biggest challenges football players face at any level is finding a helmet that fits--the less room there is for a player's head to bounce around inside the helmet, the better.

Riddell's 360 model tries to solve this with an "occipital lock" that keeps the helmet firm and stable on any player's head. The inside of the helmet looks like this:

The ridged feature helps manage energy from any hits, all in an effort to limit the pounding that might be transferred a player's head. And then there's the facemask, which flexes on impact to absorb energy from head-on hits, limiting what goes into the helmet.

But even if the science behind all this is mostly just a bunch of impenetrable scientific buzzwords involving physics properties most of us forgot in the 10th grade, the end result is what's interesting here. There are two important points:

1. On the one hand, he Riddell 360 cannot "prevent" concussions.
2. On the other hand, it's one of the safest helmets ever made. Researchers at Virginia Tech have been looking into the relative safety of various football helmets on the market, and the Riddell 360 was one of three helmets on the market that received the highest possible rating (5 stars) in concussion reduction.

The Va. Tech methodology (.pdf) is dense, but to a completely untrained amateur reading all this as a football fan, the implications seem more clear.

Any sport that involves repeated collisions and blows to the head is going to carry some significant risks. There's no magic bullet to make football safer, and if it were as easy as pouring millions into helmet development, that would've happened by now.

What the Riddell 360 can't prevent underscores what's been obvious for a few years now: If we're serious about making football safer for future generations, it won't happen without rule changes, better injury monitoring at every level, and probably a change in the way players think about the game and their responsibilities to a team. It's all about minimizing the inevitable risks any way we can, and better helmet technology will absolutely be part of the formula, too.

On that front, the Riddell 360 seems like an excellent start.

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Adult Football Helmet Ratings - May 2012

Adult Football Helmet Ratings - May 2012

A total of 15 adult football helmet models that have been evaluated using the STAR evaluation system .....  All 15 helmets included in the ratings have been made available to consumers at the time of publication.  Helmets with lower STAR values provide a reduction in concussion risk compared to helmets with higher STAR values.  Based on this, the best overall rating of 5 Stars has the lowest STAR value.  Group rankings are differentiated by pre-determined thresholds...

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