Biggest Threat For NFL Players & Solutions For Concussions

Football, one of America’s favorite and biggest sports, has some serious risks for players, even more so in the NFL. Football players put themselves at great risk for knee, shoulder, spine, and head injuries.

Multiple concussions can not only be career ending, but affect a player’s entire future

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Often times NFL players tend to worry about knee or shoulder injuries because these are the biggest threat to ending their football careers. Dr. Armin Tehrany, a New York orthopedic surgeon and founder of Manhattan Orthopedic Care disagrees with NFL players. “While knee and shoulder injuries can be career-ending in the NFL, orthopedic surgeons can perform surgeries that can get most players back into the game. Multiple concussions can not only be career ending, but affect a player’s entire future.... and in some cases it can be life-ending.”, Dr. Tehrany said.

Brain injury and concussions are a major threat to NFL players and one that remains unaddressed. These threats continue to be the number priority for the NFL. The NFL concussion count is currently at 85 for 2014, and that number will likely increase before the end of the year. Scientists and doctors have been searching for answers on what can be done.

Adding magnets to helmets could reduce the risk of concussions

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New research suggests that adding magnets to helmets could reduce the risk of concussions. The magnets would help limit the amount of force felt by players when involved in head collisions; when two players collide, the magnets in their helmets would repel each other, reducing the force of the collision.

On the field, football players can run at nearly 20 miles per hour and can experience up to 150 g’s of force upon impact. Concussions readily occur at impacts greater than 100 g’s. Every year there are 100,000 concussions at all levels of play among the nearly 1.2 million people who play football in the United States. The research suggests that the magnets would drop the force that an athlete experiences to below 100gs.

Start using head impact concussion sensors

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Completely solving concussions in the NFL is a near impossible task. Hard hits are going to happen in football, and those hits will have neural repercussions, but magnets could go a long way in trying to drop the amount of reported concussions each year.

The NFL is also taking steps to concussion prevention. It is reported that by as soon as 2015 all NFL teams could start using head impact concussion sensors. While head accelerometers don't diagnose concussions, they can assess frequency, location and magnitude of impact. This provides more information for researchers and meaningful data back to the players, trainers, physicians and coaches who can match video to data and encourage high-risk players to change the way they play.

To this day there are no solutions that can help medical staff recognize a concussion on the field, but advances like magnets and head impact sensors hope to give researchers and the league greater insight into players’ safety.