Lawsuit over helmets.

[Tom]

Okay.....football helmets but it got my attention too.  Looks like class action suit.  I don't think it could happen on a motorcycle helmet because of the fragmentation of the riding public but what do you guys think?

http://www.athleticbusiness.com/law-policy/ex-nfl-players-sue-helmet-manufacturer.html?eid=96660005&bid=1468452

[drlapo]

Helmet manufacturer 6D is applying their new design to athletic helmets as well as motorsport helmets.
Looks promising

[kirkemon]

Helmet manufacturer 6D is applying their new design to athletic helmets as well as motorsport helmets.
Looks promising

humm...I thought that soft shell helmets were the future. The idea being to asopb shock on impact and stop the helmet from bouncing when hitting the pavement, thus preventing brain injury. Dainese is ready to sell their soft helmet called Flex using their proprietary foam.
It seems that most F1 drivers are wearing Arai models made especially for F1. 

[Guzzistajohn]

I'm good with improving helmet technology. But anyone who thinks stopping your skull at a rapid rate won't shake your brain around and cause some damage is an idiot. There is too much emphasis on pro sports in this country influencing kids to play these games and get hurt at an early age. What a bunch of overpaid whiners.

[Muzz]

Rugby football is played without helmets. however, the organising body has become very pro-active in dealing with concussion. Any head knock at all and the player is off and must pass a concussion test before being allowed back on. If they fail there can be a long stand down period with regular testing before the player is allowed to play again.

The cynic in me thinks that if a gridiron player does not know about the dangers of concussion and thinks that the helmet protection is infallible, then they must almost be brain dead anyway.  All I see is lawyers getting rich.

[ITSec]

One distinct difference between motorsports helmets and those for sports is the history of government and non-profit testing - DOT, Snell et al have been around a long time, have been tested (either directly or indirectly) in lawsuits, and have set some baselines in terms of their testing methods and levels of protection provided. It's also hard to successfully sue a company that makes a product that meets a government spec, unless you can show the company knew their product would still not do the job and ignored that fact.

A good example is the current airbag situation - Takata had reason to know that some of its airbags had a problem, so they are susceptible to lawsuits.

[LaMojo]

.................The cynic in me thinks that if a gridiron player does not know about the dangers of concussion and thinks that the helmet protection is infallible, then they must almost be brain dead anyway.  All I see is lawyers getting rich.

 :1:

[toaster404]

A crucial distinction between sports helmets and motorcycle / bicycle helmets is that the sports helmets are required to take multiple hits over a relatively long lifespan, while our helmets are disposable items that are considered destroyed after a good hit.  Very different things.  Litigation doesn't seem as likely because of the design and use differences.

[Toecutter]

The cynic in me thinks that if a gridiron player does not know about the dangers of concussion and thinks that the helmet protection is infallible, then they must almost be brain dead anyway.

Or poor, with no other options when some pimp backs up to their front door with a truck full of money.

We're both cynics, just in different ways.

[redrider90]

The cynic in me thinks that if a gridiron player does not know about the dangers of concussion and thinks that the helmet protection is infallible, then they must almost be brain dead anyway.  All I see is lawyers getting rich.

Sports at all levels are just now coming to terms with concussions, be it football, basketball and other contact sports. The pressure from coaches to push through injury is mind boggling high. I have spent a great deal of time working with elite athletes, mostly at the NCAA level but also the pros. Pros have much more pressure on them to ignore injuries and press thorough. Those who follow Kevin Durant's multiple surgeries should know it was  debacle only because the Thunder medical staff was pushing him through without full healing resulting in multiple failures of the bone fracture. I worked closely with one all star NBAer who had 5 surgeries as a result of being pushed thorough a severe ankle sprain. He went on to have a severe stress fracture that needed multiple surgeries all as a result of trying to play through a severe ankle sprain and as result he ended up with bone issues.
The same has been happening for a long time on the gridiron. Blaming the athletes for feeling the pressure to play through is like blaming the patient when the doc is ignoring the symptoms. The cigarette industry fooled us for many a decades and so did major pharmaceuticals when it came to hormone therapy for women.
Today we are now seeing some guys walk away from millions due to concussions. Then there are a few who try to hide their symptoms but they are fewer and father in between in part due to sports management  taking seriously concussion protocols and also because athletes are embracing these protocols even if it means not playing.
The law suit from the link posted are loaded with older players who are claiming (probably rightfully so) that Riddle purposefully hid medical documentation on concussions the same way cigarette companies lied about cancer and adding addicting drugs to tobacco.
So blaming those older guys for not knowing about concussions is not correct.

[oldbike54]

 American football will go into a slow decline , and that decline will accelerate until the sport is no more . There is no way to protect the players from multiple blows to the head . Lineman can suffer 4 or 5 impacts to their heads on every play . We are already witnessing parents not allowing their kids to play football . As an aside , all of this MMA stuff is getting too brutal also , witness the skull fracture that occurred recently . And we hear all the time how dangerous motorcycles are 

 Dusty

[Cool Runnings]

Kids even wear helmets riding a bicycle on a designated bike path nowadays 

[Tom]

IIRC it's a County ordnance for those under 18 to wear bicycle helmets with registered bicycles.  The police don't really enforce compliance till there's a reason to. 

We're seeing more kids come over to wrestling that would have played football because of the injuries.  On the girl's side more ex-soccer players.  Of course as a coach it's nice to see kids exploring and competing in the alternative sports. 

[Rough Edge racing]

 Let's see, 250 pound men crashing into each other at full speed for 100's of games and they get brain damage even though they wear helmets? None of the players ever gave thought about the long term risk? 

[Tom]

They tend to ignore that with the financial carrot hanging in front of them.

[Rough Edge racing]

They tend to ignore that with the financial carrot hanging in front of them.

 Oh yeah, that carrot ( relatively speaking) got me to do some pretty dangerous stuff in construction... So  I know how it goes and also in sports there's the competitive/showman aspect makes some take more risk than they need to...

 

[Tom]

The unfortunate thing is that high school athletes that are stars on their teams think that they can do the same thing without a reality check.

[oldbike54]

The unfortunate thing is that high school athletes that are stars on their teams think that they can do the same thing without a reality check.

 There in is the problem . There have already been cases of CTE in high school football players . I experienced a couple of concussions in JR High School , the coaches referred to it as "getting your bell rung" , and treated it the same as a cramp , meaning you were expected to walk it off . One was pretty bad , blurred vision and a bad headache for a couple of days . The attitude back then was concussions were part of the game . Of course back then the "experts" still clung to the idea of no hydration during practice or a game , that is another story .

 Dusty

[Rough Edge racing]

The unfortunate thing is that high school athletes that are stars on their teams think that they can do the same thing without a reality check.

 Yes for sure.....Myself and many here I suppose have done really dangerous stuff on bikes just to do it.....And some get don't get a second chance.....
  One of our grand daughters just graduated from college..She had a lacrosse scholarship for the 4 years plus she played it in HS.Female lacrosse players do not wear helmets.....She had injuries, play injured and there will be physical payback in the future...I asked her while she was playing if the thought of problems down the line bothers her...She shrugged it off and and said " You ride a motorcycle, sometimes really fast, do ya think that might be problem some day?"   

[SmithSwede]

There have been class action lawsuits involving motorcycle helmets.  E.g. Fulmer.

And there are certainly lots of individuals who file suit alleging defects relating to motorcycle helmets.

[Tom]

Makes me wonder on how a class action suit would be filed since all the helmets are now made overseas.

[charlie b]

Injuries and sports go hand in hand.  Just about every sport has problems with one part of the body or another.  Some get to compete a bit longer than others.  Soccer players and head trauma, knees, etc.  Rugby.  Gymnastics.  Running.  Bicycling.  etc, etc.

Warren Miller (the skiing film maker) used to say that there are only so many bumps in a knee.  You can use them all up in a few years or make them last a lifetime.

Football will continue on just as boxing has.  And boxing had even morphed into the UFC kinda stuff despite the trauma issues.

[Tom]

This popped on the same website.  Schutt is making soft caps to go over football helmets.  That way it's a softer helmet rather than a hard shell.

http://www.athleticbusiness.com/equipment/schutt-nearing-deal-for-padded-youth-football-helmets.html?eid=96660005&bid=1472564

[charlie b]

Interesting.  At school the intramural football helmets were padded on the outside.  That was in the 70's.

[Tom]

Something old, maybe new again??? 

[oldbike54]

 Concussions and TBI's were less common in the days of no helmets and later leather helmets , because players tended to NOT lead with their heads . Same in boxing , the gloves are actually designed to protect a boxer's hands , not his head , modern fighters hit a lot harder than they did back in the bare knuckles days .

 Dusty

[charlie b]

Less common, but, my uncle was a fullback in the early 50's.  He broke his nose almost every game and was knocked out every other game.  Some smelling salts and they'd put him back in the huddle.  But, yes, they did not use their helmets/heads as weapons back then.  Same with Rugby.  Can get vicious, but, heads are not broken as much as arms/legs.

Maybe for those sports go back to no padding or helmets and let it sort itself out.  The direction they are heading it will end up being armored suits against armored suits.  Not a bad idea as far as I'm concerned.  Let the engineers fight it out :)

[twowings]

As a nurse, one of the saddest experiences I've had has been to console frantic parents and relatives after they've just been informed that their teenaged son who 30 minutes ago, was healthy and happy and the darling of the hometown crowd is now a paraplegic or quadraplegic and in some cases fighting for his very life...no parent should have to go through that...

[Tom]

 :1: on Charlie b's assessment on tackling with the head leading first.  Supposedly, some of the tackling techniques is teaching the kids to tackle with their heads to the side of the opponent's body.  They make the initial contact with their shoulders.