How Technology is Tackling Concussions

This week I'll be discussing the issue of concussions in football, and how new technology is being used to monitor the impact that athletes take to their heads. Concussions are one of the most prevalent injuries in the high impact sport of football. And recently it has become a major issue, since the NFL has recently found that three out of ten retired players will develop a debilitating brain disease. And because of this, the NFL recently settled a lawsuit which compensates players over $675 million for concussion related injuries. (Dale)
But the most difficult part about concussions is that they can be so hard to diagnose, and even harder to determine how long a player should be held out after they have been concussed. And since concussions are not visible injuries, players often hide the signs of a concussion in effort to keep playing in the game. This however can be detrimental to a player's brain, as a serious concussion can cause permanent injury or even death.

While the new technologies being implemented won't prevent players from getting concussions, they will provide real-time measurements recorded within the player's helmet. So when a player takes a hard hit to the helmet area the sensors will measure the impact and determine if there was enough force to cause a concussion. This eliminates the guessing game that is determining if a player has a concussion, as well as prevent the player from playing through an injury and potentially causing grave damage. Football programs across the country are starting to utilize concussion sensors like the ones Shockbox produces, and not just in the NFL but even under the Friday night lights of high school football. And for good reason, since an Institute of Medicine and National Research Council report found that high school football players have almost twice the risk of getting a concussion compared to college athletes. (Castillo)
Unfortunately I don't think we can ever prevent a player from getting a concussion, however I do believe that the introduction of concussion sensor technology greatly reduces the chance of a player getting consecutive concussions. This is a step in the right direction for the sport of football, which has seen leagues go as far as changing rules to prevent concussion related injuries. At least now coaches and trainers will have real time data to find out if they can keep their player's head in the game.

References:

Castillo, M. (2014, September 19). 4 cool tech innovations that could revolutionize sports. Retrieved October 12, 2014, from http://theweek.com/article/index/267865/4-cool-tech-innovations-that-could-revolutionize-sports


Dale, M. (2014, September 12). NFL: 3 in 10 ex-players face Alzheimer's, dementia. Retrieved October 12, 2014, from http://bigstory.ap.org/article/estimate-3-10-nfl-retirees-face-cognitive-woes?utm_campaign=NFL&utm_source=SocialFlow&utm_medium=Twitter