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https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39812700/nfl-owners-approve-massive-revamp-kickoff-play


ORLANDO, Fla. -- NFL owners approved a massive revamp of the kickoff play Tuesday, opting for a format that originated in the XFL after three days of discussions at the league's annual meeting.

The new alignment rules represent the most significant on-field rule change for the NFL in years and is designed to reverse more than a decade of declining return rates while also lowering concussion rates. In essence, the format will move the majority of the kicking and return teams downfield to minimize high-speed collisions. It will go into effect for one year only in anticipation of possible tweaks over time.

During the 2024 season, kickers will continue to kick from the 35-yard line, but the other 10 players on the kickoff team will line up at the receiving team's 40-yard line. At least nine members of the return team will line up in a "setup zone" between the 35- and 30-yard line. Up to two returners can line up in a "landing zone" between the goal line and the 20-yard line.

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No one other than the kicker and returner(s) can move until the ball hits the ground or a player inside the landing zone. Touchbacks will be marked at the 30-yard line, and no fair catches will be allowed. In the event a team wants to attempt an onside kick, it will have to inform officials of its intent and would then be allowed to use the NFL's traditional formation. No surprise onside kicks will be allowed.

The proposal follows the structure and philosophy of the XFL version with a slight shift in where the players are aligned. In the XFL, they lined up farther downfield, between the returning team's 30- and 35-yard lines. More than 90% of kickoffs were returned during the XFL's two seasons. NFL special teams coaches who participated in designing the NFL version of this format are hoping for a return rate of at least 80% in 2024.

The reason for the change is clear. In its efforts to reduce concussions on kickoffs, the NFL over the past 15 seasons has implemented rule changes designed to reduce returns. It moved the kickoff from the 30-yard line to the 35-yard line, outlawed wedge and double-team blocks and in 2023 created a rule that allowed a fair catch to be spotted at the 25-yard line.

Touchback rates dramatically increased over that period, and the return rate fell to a league-record 21.7% in 2023. The number of concussions dropped as well, but only in parallel with the decrease in returns. The rate of concussions per kickoff, according to league officials, has remained relatively constant.

Speaking before the vote, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell said he was in favor.

"You felt like that took a significant amount of plays out of the game, and those were from special teams. And you don't make it up really anywhere else. And so, we put an emphasis on it. So, I believe in it."

So .... no onsides kicks anymore??

There are. You can only kick them in the 4th QR, be the losing team, and notify the refs you want to kick a OSK. It will be done as it always has.

No surprise on side kicks.....like Payton did in Super Bowl....second half kickoff......done- and for player safety....probably a good thing.

This one doesn't bother me. The hip drop tackle one is likely going make for some flag-filled, inconsistently enforced, ugly football.

Seems like a strange rule change. NFL has been wimpifying kick returns for over a decade, now they want more kick returns and expect fewer injuries based on a hypothesis.

If all this data points to the fact that the percentage of concussions directly mirrors the amount of kick returns, I don't see how quadrupling the amount of returns will help. Dumb.

They're basing all of this on reduced speed, I would guess that most concussions happen because a player didn't see the opponent coming, didn't see the block, etc... this doesn't change that.


I like surprise onside kicks, now those are gone as well. No big deal, but it's one of those flex moves by a coach that I've always liked whether it works or not.

As a fan, I'm not complaining, should be interesting. As far as the 'concussions goal', this will likely backfire and end up as a one and done.

Mini Kickoffs!

Kickoffs will be eliminated no later than 2027 season. I'd bet on it if the fine folks at FanDuel would set a prop bet.

It would seem to me that if players can get up to full speed headed towards each other before contact on kick offs, the speed at which they collide would be much greater in effect leadimg to more and increased injury. To me this would help lower the speed of contact and help reduce those injuries.

Strength and conditioning experts say that reducing the speed of the hits will lessen the injuries. What, you don't trust them?

Yes, of course. But now we're going to triple to quadruple the amount of times these events take place. There will definitely be more injuries on kickoffs.

j/c:

May make the Nyheim Hines signing more valuable.

And the Steelers signed Cordelle Patterson as well.

I'm thinking similarly...does this make the best returner 'type' that of a RB more so than a WR?

If the NFL's main focus is to reduce concussions, why not develop a plan that helps reduce the chances of being concussed on EVERY PLAY..?

...rather than just on kickoffs..?

Improve the helmets ability to absorb the impact to the head ON EVERY PLAY should be the NFLs goal rather than attacking one particular play (the kickoff) believing that the new kickoff rules will solve the concussion problem the NFL still hasn't addressed in a meaningful way.

Changing the NFL's kickoff rules is nothing more than "another bandaid effort" meant to kick the NFL's concussion problem down the road a bit further.

FIX THE HELMETS...and leave the game of Pro Football alone..!

They've been working on and changing helmets for several tears now. Try to keep up.

The problem with the fix the helmet approach is that a helmet can't change the underlying physiology that it is meant to protect. Internally, there is always going to be a squishy brain surrounded by a hard skull. Even if you put everyone in those giant inflatable bubbles, there would still be concussions due to internal inertia. People (and thus their brains) will still be changing direction rapidly even if the things hitting each other are softer.

Bull...if your concerns are legit..why would the NFL mandate the use of a soft shell over existing helmets that began in March 2022..?



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Seeking to reduce head contact, NFL mandates use of Guardian Cap helmet for early portion of training camp

Kevin Seifert, ESPN Staff Writer
Mar 29, 2022, 02:02 PM ET

Key word; Seeking

Why don't you actually look into the way the brain works when hard contact happens. It's in a fluid and the brain moves rapidly upon hard contact regardless of anything else that surrounds it. Those aren't "concerns". That's the factual way the brain works. All the "yeah buts" and "why's" won't change that.

Can we assume that the NFL is trying to reduce the affects of hard contact...and the movement of the brain by requiring the use of a soft cap over existing helmet and MANDATING the use of the Guardian soft shell for NFL practice sessions, in 2022..?

Obviously the NFL must believe that a soft shell over existing helmets reduces the amount of brain movement during a hard hit or they would not have "mandated" the use of the Guardian soft helmet cover during NFL practice sessions...right?

Yes, they are mandating it "in practice" where they don't even play full speed. It's an experiment to see if it helps. Not any evidence that they "believe it does". Dear God man.

Not only that, but the use allows teams and manufacturers to gather data that will help improve the tech and predict it's viability in actual NFL games. Mac's link clearly explains the reason for the use of these and that fact that they help in gathering data for things beyond just concussions.

Mac, did you even read the article??

Does the NFL think this will decrease concussions? Or do they want to give the appearance that they are trying to reduce concussions?

The company that produces them is probably giving the NFL a sweetheart deal for the publicity. Plus, guaranteed funding for equipment research was part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The NFL is contractually obligated to spend money on equipment "research." They've got to spend money on something, even if they know it won't work.

Thinking about concussions, I wonder if they could be an angle to look at for grass vs turf. I seem to recall most of the focus of the NFL's defense of turf being around lower extremity injury numbers being similar. I feel like "hitting the turf" causes more injuries than the initial contact of a hit in most instances. It's the sudden stop at the end, plus the full effect of gravity is also working in the same direction. If turf is harder than grass, then wouldn't switching to grass reduce concussions? Even if it doesn't scientifically work, the NFL can't claim that while using the same logic in helmets.

A single bar, you have my vote.

Though he’s missing the blonde handlebar mustache. So I’m docking 1 point.

fate..Yes I do and did...how bout you?...do you read..?


NFL Accused of Quashing Concussion-Preventing Helmets | Newsmax.com

Monday, 18 March 2013 12:05 PM EDT
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With a device called ProCap, Bert Straus says he invented headgear that could reduce concussions in National Football League games. He never got the chance.
The ProCap, which took him eight years to develop, was gaining ground among players until he brought it before the NFL committee dealing with brain injuries. The panel disparaged Straus’s invention, prompting the league to warn players they risked death wearing it. The committee was guided in part by the advice of an outside consultant who once testified for Riddell Inc. (0059072D), the league’s official helmet maker, in an injury lawsuit.

Now the NFL and Riddell face lawsuits filed by more than 4,000 ex-players, including the family of San Diego Chargers standout Junior Seau, who committed suicide last May. The litigation focuses attention on Riddell’s helmets and whether the league covered up the sport’s long-term damage to players’ brains.

In Straus’s account of frustration and failure -- exacerbated, he says, by the NFL’s relationship with Riddell -- is a tale of a road that the NFL, a $9 billion-a-year business, may rue not taking. His story isn’t the only example of the NFL spurning a Riddell competitor. The league’s rebuffs of ProCap and other protective headgear raise the question of whether the NFL’s quarter-century alliance with Riddell helped stifle competition and innovation that might have reduced head injuries.

Helmet Hostility
“Riddell was hostile toward ProCap, because ProCap pointed up the limitations of its helmets, and the NFL was biased toward Riddell,” Straus, 76, said in an interview. “That unfortunately counted for more than the welfare of the players.”

While about 68 percent of NFL players wore Riddell helmets last year, Riddell’s competitors “have always had (and continue to have) the same access to NFL locker rooms” as it does, the company said in a statement.

“Riddell’s primary mission has always been, and continues to be, providing the best protective football headgear to the athlete,” it said. “Riddell has produced state-of-the-art, industry-leading helmets for the athlete, and at the same time, Riddell has disseminated valuable knowledge to the helmet manufacturing industry” and “the independent helmet research community.”

Straus’s Story
Straus’s story begins in 1987, when the Erie, Pennsylvania, industrial designer was watching a college football game on TV. He winced when he saw two players go sprawling after a helmet-to-helmet collision. The crash jarred loose an idea: design a pillow-like buffer to fit over conventional helmets to cushion such blows.
Two years of tinkering produced the ProCap, a half-inch- thick urethane foam mold that would be worn atop conventional football helmets. Straus attached a prototype to a helmet and in 1989 had it tested at Wayne State University’s impact research lab. The results were encouraging. Dummy heads inside ProCap- wrapped helmets took 30 percent less of a jolt, on average, than those in unadorned ones.

Straus’s timing seemed propitious. Concussion concerns had begun to circulate among NFL players, coaches and executives. Straus sent ProCaps to the Buffalo Bills, the NFL franchise nearest to him. Intrigued, Bills trainer Ed Abramoski told Mark Kelso, a free safety who had just suffered his fourth concussion, that he wouldn’t be cleared to play in the next game unless he wore a ProCap, both men said.

‘Bubblehead, Gazoo’
Kelso did so and intercepted a pass against the Los Angeles Rams. He donned the device for the rest of a career that lasted until 1993 and included four Super Bowl appearances.

“It prolonged my career for years,” Kelso said. “I took a lot of kidding -- getting called ‘Bubblehead’ and ‘Gazoo’ -- because of how it looked, but I stopped getting concussions.”

ProCap gained other NFL converts, among them San Francisco 49ers lineman Steve Wallace. A 1992 All-Pro and the first offensive lineman to fetch a $10 million contract, Wallace was credited in Michael Lewis’s book, “The Blind Side,” with helping to boost the value of left tackles, who protect unwary quarterbacks from pass rushers.

After suffering three concussions in the first half of the 1994 season, Wallace concluded his Riddell helmet wasn’t giving him enough protection and began wearing a ProCap. He incurred no more concussions and won his third Super Bowl ring. A number of variables can affect concussion rates, including playing style and plain old luck. Still, from his place in the trenches, Wallace became a believer.

Technology There
“The technology was there for ProCap,” Wallace said in an interview. “It was working.”

Kelso said he felt so strongly about ProCap that he invested in the product, joining a group assembled by Straus that pooled $200,000 to form a company, Protective Sports Equipment, and crank up production of ProCaps. Some of Kelso’s teammates, including receiver Don Beebe, began wearing ProCaps, as did a smattering of players on other teams. College football programs, including Alabama and Washington State, started ordering ProCaps, as did a rising number of high schools.

An independent 1995 study by George Washington University’s sports medicine department looked at data from the St. Albans School in Washington, where half the team wore ProCap. It found no concussions among users -- yet six among those who didn’t attach ProCaps to their helmets.

‘Clear Findings’
“It’s unusual to have such clear findings in a small group,” said Kenneth Fine, an orthopedic surgeon who co-ran the study. “We didn’t find ProCap created a danger of neck injuries; we found it reduced cervical strain.”

Straus thought he was on the cusp of a breakthrough when he was invited the same year to make a presentation on ProCap to a concussion study panel, formally known as the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee, which the NFL’s then-commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, formed in 1994. It turned out he wasn’t.

Since 1989, the NFL had developed a deepening commercial relationship with Riddell, a Rosemont, Illinois-based athletic gear maker whose founder, John Tate Riddell, invented the plastic suspension helmet, adopted first by the U.S. military, in 1939. By the time Straus came before the concussion committee, Riddell helmets donned about 80 percent of NFL player heads, according to a company filing.

Not Experts
When Straus addressed the NFL’s concussion committee about ProCap in 1995, not all its members were head injury experts. Chairman Elliot Pellman, team doctor for the New York Jets, was a rheumatologist; Joseph Waeckerle, physician for the Kansas City Chiefs, was an emergency medicine specialist.

They relied for scientific advice on non-football experts, one of whom was a consultant to the committee named Albert Burstein. This Cornell Medical College biomechanics professor had served as an expert witness for Riddell in a federal court case in Wichita, Kansas, in which a paralyzed high-school football player was awarded $12 million.

At the end of the presentation, according to Straus, Burstein asked if ProCap had been tested for “axial loading,” compression of the neck and spine by a blow to the top of the head. He expressed concern that in a collision of two helmets, one with ProCap and one without, the hard helmet would stick to the ProCap’s softer surface long enough to cause axial loading.

Straus pledged to test for the phenomenon and did, his company paying Pennsylvania State University Biomechanics Laboratory to conduct studies on dummy heads with and without ProCaps. The conclusion: ProCap reduced impacts of collisions by as much as a third.

“It is my opinion that the ProCap should be mandatory for all football players,” Richard Nelson, the lab’s founder, wrote in a report to Straus.

Different Interpretation
Yet when Straus sent the findings to the concussion committee, the panel startled him with a different interpretation. Burstein wasn’t changing his hypothesis, according to Pellman. The Penn State results confirmed “our greatest concern regarding axial loading and catastrophic neck injuries,” Pellman wrote in a December 1995 letter to Tagliabue.

Nelson was a big name -- founding editor of the International Journal of Sports Biomechanics -- and he strenuously disagreed with Burstein, whose primary field was prosthetics.

“It is incredible that such a conclusion can be drawn when, in fact, the results show the exact opposite,” Nelson wrote at the time.

Warranty Negated
Even worse, in Straus’s view, the league in June 1996 sent players a memo warning not only that the “standard helmet manufacturer’s warranty may be negated or modified by the use of the ProCap,” but that wearers risked “catastrophic neck injuries, including possible death.”

Wallace, for one, recalls getting the message. When he played his final season for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1997, the team forbade him from wearing the ProCap, he said. Waeckerle, then the Chiefs’ physician, was a member of the concussion committee. He couldn’t be reached for comment.

Riddell salesmen gave copies to dealers in youth sports equipment and ProCap college customers, Straus said. He wrote to the NFL office, accusing Riddell of disseminating a confidential league memo. A league official wrote back, disputing the claim, Straus said.

Asked why it discouraged use of ProCap, Riddell said in a statement that “we recommend against any alterations that change the fit, form or function of our helmets.” Greg Aiello, an NFL spokesman, declined to comment, saying league officials aren’t “interested in looking backward.” Burstein declined to comment, saying his work for the committee was confidential.

Headgear Derailed
The ProCap wasn’t the only non-Riddell headgear that the concussion committee derailed. In 1999, Bike Athletic Co. introduced the Bike Pro Edition helmet, endorsed by the NFL Players Association’s then-president Trace Armstrong. A Miami Dolphins defensive lineman and amateur auto racer, Armstrong had noticed that drivers’ helmets were often upgraded with new technology while football helmets hadn’t changed in decades.

He collaborated with a Bike designer on the Pro Edition, which was lighter and more flexible than earlier helmets. The theory, endorsed by several physicians, was that the reduced weight would make players less fatigued and susceptible to injuries, said Ed Christman, a former Bike marketing executive.

In 2000, as the number of NFL players wearing the Bike Pro Edition climbed to about 100, Pellman, the concussion committee chairman, stated publicly that the helmet failed to withstand hits administered by Biokinetics and Associates Ltd., a Canadian impact-testing company. Pellman’s New York Jets players predominantly wore Riddell. Use of the Bike helmet dwindled.

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST...

Posting an article from over a decade ago in an attempt to prove a point is only allowed in the Political Forum.

Everyone knows this.

NFL Accused of Quashing Concussion-Preventing Helmets...-CONTINUED-
Monday, 18 March 2013 12:05 PM EDT
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Arrogance Level
“There was a certain level of arrogance,” said Armstrong, now an agent for football coaches. The committee “thought they had all the answers.”

Pellman declined to be interviewed for this story, citing the concussion litigation. He wrote in a 2003 article published in the medical journal Neurosurgery that he wanted his committee to assess whether manufacturers were making unsupported claims to team physicians about their headgear reducing concussions.

“These claims were not based on scientific data but rather were ‘sales pitches’ made by overzealous salespeople,” he wrote.

The panel’s own reliance on Biokinetics data had a commercial tinge, according to people familiar with the committee’s activities and documents in a patent lawsuit involving Riddell.

Riddell Funding
Biokinetics received Riddell funding in 1998 for a study commissioned by the NFL’s committee. Riddell then relied on the Biokinetics data to develop a new helmet, which was touted by a 2006 study co-authored by two members of the concussion committee and paid for by Riddell. The research was peer- reviewed and there was no conflict of interest, said Michael Collins, the neuropsychologist who headed the study.

The committee’s activities are central to the current litigation against the NFL and Riddell. Most of the ex-players’ lawsuits are consolidated into one case in federal court in Philadelphia, which alleges that the NFL concealed the threat to players’ health even as its concussion committee purported to examine the medical evidence.

The suit accuses Riddell, a co-defendant, of making inadequate helmets for years and then, upon finally producing an upgraded model, exaggerating the protection they provided. The NFL and Riddell are seeking to dismiss the consolidated lawsuit, maintaining that disputes over player health issues must be decided by arbitration under the league’s collective-bargaining agreements and aren’t subject to litigation.

Obama’s Concerns
President Barack Obama expressed concern about football injuries in a New Republic interview on Jan. 27, saying that if he had a son he would “have to think long and hard” before letting him play football,” and predicting that the sport “will probably change gradually to try to reduce some of the violence.”

One such change already took place. Before the 2011 season, the league reduced opportunities for kick-off returns -- one of football’s most violent plays -- by moving up kick-offs to the 35-yard line. Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a Dec. 6 interview in Time magazine that he is considering eliminating kick-offs entirely.

Riddell is part of Easton-Bell Sports Inc., which is majority owned by private equity firm Fenway Partners LLC. Riddell had $121 million in sales of helmets, shoulder pads, facemasks and other football gear in 2011, up 48 percent from $81.9 million in 2009, according to Easton-Bell filings.

Under Siege
Riddell’s first helmets were used by American soldiers in World War II and debuted on NFL players in 1949. By the late 1980s, helmet manufacturers were under siege from liability lawsuits. Courts awarded injured football players $46 million in damages during the 1970s and 1980s, Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. (RAWL) said in a 1988 announcement, explaining why it had become the 18th helmet maker to leave the business. The biggest remaining manufacturers were Schutt Sports Inc., based in Litchfield, Illinois, and Riddell.

The NFL struck its “official helmet” deal with Riddell in 1989 to ensure a viable survivor in the industry, according to J.C. Wingo, company president in the early 1990s. Under its terms, NFL teams enjoyed deep discounts if they equipped at least 90 percent of their players in Riddell helmets.

Licensed Replicas
In return, Riddell was allowed to sell NFL-licensed replica helmets and other collectibles and became the only manufacturer whose logo could appear on players’ helmets. The agreement gave the company “a real shot in the arm,” Wingo said.

Schutt Sports argued in a 1989 suit that the deal violated antitrust law because Riddell’s exclusive visibility in the NFL would sway the helmet purchases of college and high-school coaches wanting to emulate the pros. Schutt’s legal challenge failed and with it, according to sports concussion expert Robert Cantu, any chance of robust competition that might spawn helmet improvements.

“The ‘official helmet’ deal has given Riddell an unfair advantage,” said Cantu, a neurologist and Boston University School of Medicine professor who is on the board of the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment.

That dominance had its downside in the early 1990s, when concussions drove a rash of stars to the sidelines or retirement. Several, including San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young and New York Jets wide receiver Al Toon, wore Riddell’s VSR line of helmets.

Second Worst
Riddell had introduced the VSR line in the late 1980s. The final model, the VSR-4, debuted in 1993 and was still being worn by 38 percent of NFL players in 2010, according to Riddell. The VSR-4 was the second worst of 15 helmets tested by the Virginia Tech Center for Injury Biomechanics in 2011, the year Riddell stopped selling it. The Virginia Tech study didn’t receive industry or league funding.

While the concussion committee vetoed the ProCap, it boosted development and marketing of Riddell’s Revolution line of helmets. In 1996, the panel engaged Biokinetics to review concussive hits on NFL game videos and replicate them in its Ottawa laboratories. Biokinetics augmented its NFL support in 1998 with “partial funding” and consultation from Riddell, Riddell said.

Under their contract, Biokinetics developed a test to evaluate how helmets responded to “potentially concussive” hits, Riddell said. The test became “widely used by helmet makers and researchers when evaluating helmet designs and conducting head injury research,” Riddell said.

Riddell’s Revolution
While the test was proprietary to Riddell, the company shared the design shortly afterward with other helmet manufacturers, it said. The NFL-commissioned research became so integral to the design of Riddell’s Revolution that two Biokinetics engineers are on the helmet’s patent.

The development of the Revolution epitomized the inside track afforded Riddell by its relationship with the NFL, said Julie Nimmons, then chief executive officer of Schutt. “It was very clear what had taken place and it was difficult,” Nimmons said.

When the Revolution debuted in 2002, featuring increased side cushioning and the addition of a jaw pad, Riddell marketed it as an upgrade from the VSR-4 and the embodiment of the latest concussion research. The company’s catalog called it “the first helmet using technology designed with the intent of reducing the risk of concussion.”

In 2003, Riddell began investing $336,000 in a project conducted by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and aimed at demonstrating that the Revolution reduced concussions.

Fewer Concussions
The three-year study of more than 2,000 Western Pennsylvania high school football players -- about half of whom wore the Riddell helmet, half of whom wore others -- found that Revolution wearers had 31 percent fewer concussions. Two of the five co-authors were members of the concussion committee: Joseph Maroon, the Pittsburgh Steelers team neurosurgeon, and Mark Lovell, a University of Pittsburgh neuropsychologist.

Riddell made the 31 percent reduction claim the centerpiece of a marketing campaign that fueled the Revolution’s sales. The brand’s annual sales volume tripled from 47,466 units in 2002 to 142,949 in 2009, according to testimony by Riddell Chief Financial Officer Allison Boersma.

Maroon and Lovell referred questions to Collins of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who headed the Riddell Revolution study team. Collins said he doesn’t see any conflict between their work on Riddell-funded research and their positions on the concussion committee.

‘No Control’
“We had no control of what Riddell did with the information,” he said. “We’re scientists, not marketers.”
Cantu, the neurologist and sports concussion expert, criticized the University of Pittsburgh study in a comment accompanying its publication in Neurosurgery in February 2006.

He said that Biokinetics analyzed just 25 concussive hits, or 3 percent of the 787 NFL concussions reported during the study period. All 25 involved open-field tackles of quarterbacks and wide receivers.

“It is still an open question as to whether the new helmet design is truly superior to other Riddell helmets or competitive helmets in reducing concussion,” Cantu wrote.

The 2011 Virginia Tech study supported the Pittsburgh finding that the Revolution deters concussions. It rated the Revolution Speed, a more recent model, as the safest of the 15 helmets tested.

U.S. Senator Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat, asked the Federal Trade Commission in January 2011 to investigate whether Riddell’s claim of a 31 percent reduction in concussions was misleading. The FTC’s investigation is ongoing, according to a Udall spokesman. The FTC declined to comment.

The Gladiator
Under pressure from Congressional hearings on sports injuries and scientific papers that documented massive brain trauma in deceased NFL players, NFL Commissioner Goodell overhauled the concussion committee in 2010. Emerging from the NFL helmet wilderness, ProCap inventor Straus was invited to a league forum in New York that December.

For eight years, Straus had been adapting the ProCap into a whole new helmet, which he called the Gladiator. After rounding up more investors, Straus developed a prototype, which he hoped would be welcomed in the NFL’s changing concussion climate.fvindicated.

No Money
Despite Goodell’s encouragement, Straus’s company ran out of money in August 2011, and development of the Gladiator stalled. On Feb. 23, Straus and his co-investors agreed to sell the business to a West Chester, Pennsylvania-based group that wants to revive ProCap.

The buyers won’t find any marketing help in the NFL’s current manual of “policies for players.” Reiterating its 1996 memo, the league warns that ProCap could cause “catastrophic neck injury which could result in death.”

They also won’t get help from Riddell. Last year, a Riddell salesman dissuaded Jeremy Plaa, a Modesto, California, high- school football coach, from having his players wear ProCap-like devices on their helmets, Plaa said in an interview.

“He told me some NFL players used to wear ProCaps back in the ’90s, but studies showed that hard plastic helmets absorbed blows better than soft surfaces,” said Plaa, head coach at Thomas Downey High School. “He said if it was such a great thing, all the NFL players would be wearing one and they don’t.”

Wallace, the former 49er and Chief, still fumes. ProCap’s demise “wasn’t about the players’ safety, it was about the dollar bills,” he said.

Copyright Bloomberg News

That facemask is clearly insufficient. Scott Player was the last guy who could play with one of those.

The only one better is Andy Brown. He was the last NHL goalie to not play with a facemask. His nickname was "Fearless". I guess so, but am thinking more like "Crazy".

That wrister from 20 feet is on you in a blink, and forget about a deflection 5 feet in front of the net. Kind of like in baseball with those foul line drives right at you before they put up extended netting. Seeing the ball wasn't the problem, it was the person in front of you deflecting it right in to your teeth.

So has anything changed since 2013? You have gone beyond the point of absurd.

Injury Data Since 2015
Published: Feb 02, 2024 at 06:00 AM

The NFL analyzes and shares injury data as a part of ongoing efforts to advance the health and safety of players. The injury data are compiled and analyzed by IQVIA, an independent, third-party company retained by the NFL.

NFL Injury Chart Updates 020124_16x9_Page_1

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With all the NFLs studies and testing, the concussion rate hasn't improved.

So rather than improve the quality of football equipment, the NFL now decides to screw around with game rules, trying to make the NFL into the XFL.

So they shouldn't try to make the game safer? You're a hoot.

Thought about this rule change, hate it.

For linemen, padded shells are probably beneficial. They're smacking helmets repeatedly, but with less inertia/velocity. For people that actually get tackled, they are probably less useful. For high impacts like on the old kickoff where both sides had full speed built up, the two players colliding generally aren't both leading with their helmets. I think a lot of the brain damage is from more of a whiplash effect.

Most NFL players can reach full speed in just a few steps. Just saying. Hate this new rule. The NFL has screwed up the most exiting play of the game.

Meh, they had already screwed it up. Touchbacks weren't that exciting.

I'm going to wait and see how this goes before getting too worked up.

There's one very big difference. When you're that close you run the risk of overrunning the play. And, "in just a few steps"?