
Anti-concussion collar draws inspiration from woodpeckers - tokenadult
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-23/preventing-football-concussions-lessons-from-bird-brains
======
PhantomGremlin
People interested in how the NFL has been trying to ignore the concussion
issue for decades should watch the Frontline program League of Denial.
[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/league-of-
denial/](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/league-of-denial/)

It ties directly into the film Concussion. Will Smith stars as the Dr. who
first noticed CTE in retired NFL football players. Smith is not quite the box
office attraction that he used to be, but, nevertheless, the NFL is probably
not too thrilled about the release of this movie.

------
exDM69
This looks somewhat similar in idea to the HANS head and neck support device
used in motorsport but a lot smaller. It was invented about a decade before
its widespread, initially drivers thought it was clunky and restricting. It
was adopted and officially mandated (in both, FIA and major American
motorsports) after another preventable death from a basilar skull fracture
caused by a rapid jerk on the head upon impact.

Some professional athletes sacrifice their health for the entertainment of
others (in injuries as well as unheatlhy training regime and doping). I'm all
for making sports safer but as the audience we should also align our
expectations to reduce the demand for dangerous feats in sports and
entertainment.

~~~
darkmighty
If you think about it, in principle, the best you could do is make a device
that 1) controls the acceleration of the head assuming it will reach a certain
displacement e.g. d=10cm with final velocity v=0 ) transfers the forces from
the skull to elsewhere.

So the absolute best protection you could get would be some kind of cage
around the head not linked to the head at all -- maybe you couple this cage
directly to a vest akin the HANS device you mentioned, and actuate a separate
mechanism smoothing the head movement, with the largest radius possible around
the head to provide the least maximum acceleration ( a_maxmin = initial
velocity^2 / 2 * d ). Normal head movement could be completely unhindered.

Now since this is a sport this could devolve into a bunch of people just
bashing pieces of plastic into each other, which may or may not be desirable
over the current situation; how much such a device would cost (not accessible
to amateurs); and as others mentioned it's also possible their velocities will
increase to compensate, maybe not changing the number of injuries at all.

------
marincounty
I wish guys weren't trained to hit so hard. I've played contact sports, and
most hits to sensitive areas can be lessened. I accidentally clipped(once I
knew I made contact in the wrong area, I instinctively pulled back, but the
hit still stung the guy). And maybe even that semi hard, cheap hit was
Freudian. Never liked the dude.

When Joe Namath knees were inflamed Cantalopues; even the hardest hitting,
most aggressive plyers would pick him up, and put him down. As a kid I knew
guys were treating him differently. As an adult watching the replays--I knew
what they were doing.

If you claim you don't have the ability to pick and choose--get out of the
sport. I've met some uncoordinated clods who shouldn't be playing contact
sports.

------
Zarathustra30
I can't help but be reminded of the "Neckbelt Recall" clip.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiuOQHTsNg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiuOQHTsNg)

The engineers will have to fight Murphy tooth and nail to make this safe.

------
intopieces
Will this not lead to even harder hits, just like the advent of helmets did?

~~~
schiffern
Solution: light-up accelerometer helmets, and a new rule that if the helmet
lights up it's a penalty (one designed so as to disinentivize both teams).

Football coaches and teams will very quickly determine the best way to tackle
without rapid skull acceleration.

~~~
jamesfisher
How do you disincentivize both teams in a zero-sum game?

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
In American football at all levels there are already severe disincentives for
dangerous hits such as helmet-to-helmet collisions; these usually start at a
15 yard penalty and escalate to ejections and suspensions.

~~~
jameshart
You can't give both teams a 15 yard penalty. How do you set up a rule so you
don't incentivize teams to 'draw the foul'?

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
One question to ask is, given the history of the existing 'unnecessary
roughness' / 'illegal hit' rules (which have been around for decades), why
haven't teams been incentivized to 'draw the foul' already? (in the nfl,
faking an injury at critical times is already disincentivized, see
[http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/p...](http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/pdfs/7_Rule4_Game_Timing.pdf)
section 5 article 4 page 18)

Also given how much time is spent going over videos of games after the fact
(at all levels from high school on up), someone trying to draw the foul stands
a pretty good chance at being caught out at it, which opens them up to, say,
getting a multi-game suspension.

------
o_____________o
Interesting parallel to occlusion training/KAATSU, which restricts veins
during weight lifting and physical therapy.

------
rijncur
> A standard test in brain damage research involves dropping brass weights on
> the heads of anesthetized rats, then inspecting their brains for tearing in
> the connections between nerve cells.

Yeah, not nice.

------
calibraxis
> He recruited about 60 high school football players, gave half of them
> collars, and measured changes in their brains over the course of a season.

Incidentally, that will likely be evidence of child abuse.

~~~
gruez
Why? Because one group got protection but not the other?

