National Football League Launches Challenge to Improve Facemasks and Reduce Concussions
Source: Slashdot
Overview
As Super Bowl Sunday comes to a close, the National Football League (NFL) is challenging innovators to improve the facemask on football helmets to reduce concussions in the game, according to the Associated Press.
Background
Most progress on helmet safety has come from improvements to the shell and padding, helping to lower the overall rate of concussions. Working with the helmet industry, the league has introduced position‑specific helmets—e.g., quarterbacks now have more padding in the back after data showed most concussions for QBs occurred when the back of the head slammed to the turf.
However, the facemask has largely remained unchanged. This past season, 44 % of in‑game concussions resulted from impact to the player’s facemask, up from 29 % in 2015, based on NFL data. Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president overseeing player health and safety, noted:
“What we haven’t seen over that period of time are any changes of any note to the facemask. Now we see, given the changes in our concussion numbers and injuries to players, that as changes are made to the helmet, fewer and fewer concussions are caused by hits to the shell, and more and more concussions as a percentage are by hits to the facemask.”
Challenge Details
The league announced the next round in the HealthTECH Challenge series at an innovation summit for the Super Bowl. This crowdsourced competition is designed to accelerate the development of cutting‑edge football helmets and new safety standards.
The challenge invites:
- Inventors
- Engineers
- Startups
- Academic teams
- Established companies
to improve impact protection and design of football helmets by enhancing how facemasks absorb and reduce the effects of contact on the field.
Funding and Timeline
- Selected winners will receive up to $100,000 in aggregate funding.
- Winners will also get expert development support to move concepts from the lab to the playing field.
- Winners will be announced in August.
- Miller expects helmet manufacturers to begin implementing any improvements into helmets soon after the announcement.
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