By: Lauren Silverman, KERA NEWS
DALLAS–At the first game of the season this Sunday, SMU’s football players will be wearing helmets outfitted with ballistics-grade Kevlar. The technology is meant to reduce concussions. KERA’s Lauren Silverman checks in with the team.
Summer training is over, and the Mustangs are celebrating by diving thirty feet into the SMU pool.
Coach June Jones watches over them protectively. He’s led the charge in concussion protection, limiting contact in practice long before the NCAA announced hitting guidelines. Now, he’s the first Division 1 college coach to require all his players to wear a special pad inside their helmets.
JONES: “I see this product as something that is going to change the game. I think it’ll be mandatory that everyone has one of these in their helmet.”
The 8 ounce, “hulk green” padding is created by Unequal Technologies. The Philadelphia company has sold military-grade Kevlar lining for sports equipment to football players like Tony Romo and Michael Vick.
Here’s founder Rob Vito:
VITO: “Our slogan is if we can stop a bullet, we can certainly stop a blitz.”
To demonstrate the product’s power, Vito once had someone smash a Louisville Slugger bat across his chest. He claims the helmet will be like armor for the head.
VITO: “It’s comprised of an impact shield, a layer of Kevlar, and then a layer of Acceleron and these three layers together help dissipate about 50 percent of that energy that would normally go inside the head through the composite.
There’s no doubt Helmet technology has come a long way since the leather “head harnesses” with flaps and ear holes used a century ago. But neurologists warn that bullet-proof or not,
COLLINS: “There’s not a single helmet on the market that’s going to mitigate this injury or prevent concussion.”
Dr. Michael Collins directs the Sports Medicine Concussion Program at the University of Pittsburgh. His patients have included NFL stars Brian Westbrook and Tim Tebow. He says concussions are caused by the brain moving around inside the skull.
COLLINS: “The way the brain is situated in the skull is much like an egg yolk is inside an eggshell, and until we find a helmet that goes around the egg yolk itself, it’s impossible to stop the biomechanical forces that would cause concussive injury.”
Now, Rob Vito with Unequal Technologies doesn’t claim his 60 dollar helmet liner can prevent concussions — he does say it can reduce them. Doctor Collins points out there’s no peer reviewed research to back that claim. He’s all for prevention, but worries technologies that make players feel invincible could actually make concussions worse.
COLLINS: “If we make these claims that this technology is better and some child has a concussion and is not recover from the confusion and says oh if I wear this tech I’ll be safe, that’s when we see catastrophic outcomes, because we don’t want to layer concussions. You want to make sure the first injury is resolved…
This season SMU Coach June Jones will have team doctors collect concussion data for Unequal Technologies.
JONES: “I’m anxious to see in the games if we have less, and I think it’ll be pretty clear cut that we will.”
The race is on to find a technology that can reduce concussions — for college, professional, and high school football players. The challenge is coming up with something that doesn’t just protect the skull, but the yolk inside as well.
Lauren Silverman, KERA News
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