As for the seat belt & seat belt comment, which would you rather give up in a crash, the seat belt or the air bag? I’d rather have both to protect me.

Finally somebodies doing something proactive and inexpensive to try and reduce these injuries. We should all be supportive of our young kids. If they get too many concussions, then they won’t be playing college or pro ball. Who cares if it looks goofy during practice. That’s where 90% of the concussions occur. If it protects my kid’s brain, he’s wearing it.

Friction – the obvious question mark. The outer covering of the Guardian is a polyester/lycra blend with a low coefficient of friction. Our tests proved that it glances just as much as a hard shell helmet.

Flying off – the Guardian has 4 snaps that attach it to the facemask, a Velcro strap on the back of the helmet, and PU gel on the inside to stick to the helmet. The Guardian will not fly off, even with the hardest of hits.

Hard Scientific Evidence – The Guardian was tested at three independent labs – Penn State University, Wayne State University, and Oregon Ballistics Lab and they all reported a significant reduction of the Head Injury Criteria and the Severity Index. 600 players wore the Guardian on the practice field last season and there were zero reported concussions.

For more information, please visit our website:
http://www.guardiancaps.com or contact us directly at sales@guardiancaps.com.

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Wow, finally somebody who agrees with me on performance enhancing drugs. Most sports have a two year ban for first offences, and a lifetime ban after that. Cut down on the HGH and that will start to lower the concussions. A size limit is a great idea. No linemen over 285 pounds.

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Ding ding ding. winner. But know it all won’t want to hear it.

One can design the helmet to reduced the force and decelerate the impact to the skull to some degree, but the brain will continue to slosh around inside the skull and collide with the inner table of the skull, which is the real source of brain injury.

Helmets have been developed with electronics to measure and record the number and force of impacts. Such a system could be used throughout the course of a season to measure cumulative trauma much in the same way radiation monitors are used to gauge expose over time.

There is already a good deal of technology out there to protect the players. It is time for the NFL, NCAA and others to mandate the use of better technology and to ignore the players’ aesthetic complaints.

Now, if they could just revise the Bulwark so that it pops up like the old Rock’em Sock’em robot boxing game to let everyone know when it is time for a player to leave the game.

or take the helmet away XD but that would change the game too much the NFL wants fast hard collisions all the time XD They fine players for illegal hits then boom 3-5 illegal hits on NFL.com highlights of the day/week WTF

What? And introduce common sense and scientific facts to the debate when emotions and knee jerk reactions are so much better?!? Next thing you know, you’ll want people to actually study the issues facing the country instead of just voting how their news anchor or talk radio host tells them to! You, sir, are a dangerous radical!

The Bulwark is made up of sectioned panels and the outer plates are positioned over an inner shell, and that combination of elements — the distinct panels & the 2 shell layers, with a thin layer of padding in between — is the key to the helmet’s anti-concussion design.

“The whole point of sectioning it is to isolate and dissipate an impact before it reaches the inner shell,” says Princip. He then launches into a detailed explanation studded with terms like “thermoplastic urethane” and “coronal plane” and other bits of engineering-ese, but here’s the short version: With a traditional helmet, the force of an impact can rattle throughout the entire structure, but the Bulwark is designed to localize the force in one area of the exterior paneling, so only a small amount of disruptive energy reaches the inner shell. It’s sort of like how having individual shock absorbers for each wheel of your car is better than having one big shock absorber for the whole undercarriage.

Info as well as photos is available by a google search.

Now this makes sense.

A bajillion years ago, I saw an engineering student’s prototype for a safer — note: safe-er — motorcycle outfit. It was an integrated helmet-shoulder pad rig, almost exactly as you have described (it was bright orange, as I recall). Not overly practical for everyday riding, but I thought back then that it could be used for football.

Say, that wasn’t your design, was it gabby?

“Sounds of the game?” Seriously? If hearing the ‘crunches’ and the grunts of grown men slamming into each other is a key part of your enjoyment, you may want to evaluate why you watch this game.

Also this: “I’m all for [insert socially-desirable thing here] but [insert reason why I don't really want it here]“

I do like the idea of a break away shell that forces players to be evaluated for a concussion, but the ribs in the one in the pic would certainly intertwine at some point and cause some serious whiplash injuries.

Theres no quick fix. They need to start with diagnosing and properly treating concussions before they add new equipment that may do more harm than good. An even better idea would be fining players who dont wear the Peyton Manning, Troy Polamalu style helmets that have been proven to reduce damage, as some have suggested.

They need to define the grey area between ‘flag football’ and ‘you signed up for this sport now deal with the ramifications’.

More significantly Bill Simpson of Simpson Safety Equipment designed a few helmets that were worn by Austin Collie, Dwight Freeny & others of the Indianapolis Colts last year. Simpson figured that if he can protect the heads of Indy & NASCAR drivers in wrecks, the NFL should be possible too.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20110825/SPORTS03/108250354/Collie-teammates-test-helmet-designed-by-racing-safety-guru