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Julia Catena
Ben Henderson
Rhetoric and Civic Life II
14 April 2016
Helmet Concussion Sensors Could Help NFL Concussion Crisis
Sundays for most Americans involve spending time with family and watching NFL
football. It is the traditional American pastime that everyone has experienced before, whether in
their living room or watching from the bleachers. Super Bowl 2015 attracted over 112 million
viewers, making it one of the most watched television events that year. The NFL made a
combined record of $7.24 billion in revenue from all 32 teams in the league. In 2005, the
average income of an NFL team was $82.4 million. This grew to $226.4 million by 2014 (Brady).
As a society, Americans worship this sport and the players without giving the violent
nature of the sport a second thought. The violent nature of the game is the cause of players
being repeatedly suffering from head injuries and trauma. Repeated head trauma can lead to
chronic headaches, difficulty concentrating, depression, irritability and impulsiveness (Dekosky,
Ikonomovic, Gandy). These symptoms can show immediately after the hit but can also linger
months or years after a traumatic brain injury.
The NFL concussion crisis has always been an issue, but it really came into the spotlight
starting in the 1990s when doctors and specialists started to publish research on the effects of
repeated head trauma. In 1994, star quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, Troy Aikman, took a
knee to the head and ended up having to be hospitalized. After he recovered he claimed that he
had no recollection of any of the game. Later that year the NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue
dismissed the concussions concerns claiming that the media was making a big deal out of
nothing. As time went on, more studies from the American Academy of Neurology and other
sources began to be released on the topic of head injuries in football. According to concussion
expert Bennet Omalu, 90% of NFL players have a brain disease; more specifically, they have

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been discovered to have CTE, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (Gregory). CTE is a
degenerative disease of the brain that is caused by repeated head trauma and has recently
been found in mostly athletes. This was first discovered in the brain scan of the player Mike
Webster, who claimed football gave him dementia. Webster later committed suicide after a long
battle with depression.
Since the 1990s, six players have committed suicide, and a study of their brains
determined they all had CTE. In another study of traumatic brain injury, Acute, single-incident
traumatic brain injury is found in 20-30% of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients (Dekosky,
Ikonomovic, Gandy). In the 2000s, the NFL began to fund research into the effects of repeated
head trauma. The league also began to instill tougher concussion protocols and changed the
rules of the game slightly to make players more safe. In 2013, based on the recommendation
from the Head, Neck and Spine committee of the league, the NFL employed a concussion
protocol that included a symptom checklist, a limited neurological exam, and coordination and
balance tests (Ezell). Despite this stricter protocol, concussions and their diagnosis of them are
still a problem in the NFL. In 2015, there were 271 diagnosed concussions during preseason
and regular season games and practices, proving head injuries are still a very prevalent
problem in professional football (NFL Concussion Fast Facts). With the convincing evidence of
the long term effects of brain injuries surfacing, the NFL must rethink the way concussions are
treated and diagnosed.
The league's concussion protocols have improved drastically since the 90s but there is
still much room for improvement. According to official NFL rules, if a player is suspected to have
a concussion, he must be removed from the field and immediately have a physical exam.
According to the Madden Rule, if a player is diagnosed with a concussion, he is not allowed on
the field or to talk to the press until medically cleared. The physical exams are conducted by
professional physicians, and sometimes the teams will bring in neurospecialists. Even though
the protocols have been drastically improved, there is a limit to the knowledge one can obtain

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about a hit from just a physical exam, which could cause a player to be sent back into the game
with a concussion (NFL Head, Neck and Spine). To solve this problem, the NFL needs to turn
their attention to the advanced technology that is available to them to improve the detection of
concussions.
To insure that the players are getting a more accurate diagnosis, the NFL should slowly
implement the concussion monitoring system InSite by Riddell that puts sensors in the helmets
and sends data about the severity of hits to monitors on the sidelines. Riddell already supplies
two thirds of the NFL with helmets. Before the 2014 season was ready for kick off, Riddell
released their SpeedFlex helmet, a regular helmet with the sensor already built in. The device is
simple: if a player sustains a more forceful than normal hit, the sidelines will be notified via a
wireless monitor. There are a few other companies that make such sensors, but it costs the
average division one team $60,000, so they are not widely used. These Riddell helmets are
immensely cheaper, coming to a total cost of only $13,000 for an 85 player team. The
concussion monitors have been implemented at division one schools including LSU, Alabama
and UCLA.
According to Virginia Tech Engineering Professor Stefan Duma, the sensors are
extremely important for having an idea how many times a player was hit, how hard they were
hit, thats huge in terms of answering the ultimate question that were all trying to figure out. How
much is too much? Youre never going to answer that unless you can quantify that exposure
(Kaufman). Coaches are notified immediately of a potential debilitating hit. This way, the player
can be immediately evaluated with evidence other than just a physical exam.
There are many youth football programs that use these sensors since kids are at a
greater risk for brain injury because their brains are still developing. Coaches can thus have
more confidence in the safety of their players. Of the programs that have implemented the
helmet sensors, the feedback from the parents and coaches has been positive. Danny
Crossman worked with youth sports coaches to develop a similar concussion sensor helmet for

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youth sports programs. Crossman said since [these sensors] can track the magnitude,
location, and frequency of hits over time, parents or athletic trainers can examine whether
unusual behaviors correspond with tackles. We get a lot of comments from moms that they
made it through football season because of [the sensors] (Eagleson).
These changes would be fairly easy to implement and would detect head injuries in their
early stages. These monitors also give coaches and team physicians tangible evidence of a
hard hit instead of just eyeballing it on the field. Also, the installation of this system is actually
quite inexpensive. Each Riddell helmet with the sensor costs $150 and the monitoring system
costs $200. This comes down to only $150 per player. With a team that brings in an average of
$226.4 million a season and has to buy helmets anyway, these sensor helmets would be a solid
investment (Flam). A few years ago, NFL actuaries estimated that $675 million would be enough
to cover future lawsuits. This money was set aside in a separate fund for this purpose.
According to NFL actuaries, about 5,900 retired players will develop compensable injuries. Of
these players, 60 percent are expected to file claims against the NFL. This will cost the NFL an
estimated 900 million dollars in future lawsuits, $225 million more than the league estimated.
With the employment of these concussion monitors, there will be less chance of a severe hit
going unnoticed and therefore possible brain trauma going unnoticed. With closer monitoring of
the severity of hits, the medical staff can more accurately and quickly respond to a possible
concussion. This more immediate and more informed response will lead to less undiagnosed
episodes of brain trauma in players and could end up saving the NFL money from future
lawsuits dealing with possible undiagnosed brain trauma (Belson).
Early detection could prevent further brain injuries and possibly prevent future lawsuits.
Just last year, a judge ruled that the NFL must pay $1 billion over 65 years to retired players
whose lives have been affected by brain trauma (Judge Oks 65-Year Deal). These helmets
could prevent the accidental release of a player back into a game after a big hit. These sensors
also provide the coaches and analysts with quantifiable data of hits. So even though the sensor

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themselves cannot prevent concussions, the data from them could give information about the
most damaging styles of hits, and penalties could be in place to deter this dangerous contact
with other players. Although there is only about a decade of research behind these helmets,
teams that have already installed them are giving positive feedback. The implementation of
these monitors could be done over time, installing them in the helmets of a couple teams a
season. This would give the NFL time to measure the worth of these sensors and give the
teams time to test them out at the professional level which is considered more aggressive than
the high school and collegiate level.
Concussions in sports is a big problem facing our culture. Not only is it a problem on the
professional level but also for youth involved in contact sports, whose brains are still developing.
Today, concussions are a major concern in the NFL after much evidence of brain disease in
former players have surfaced. The installation of impact sensors in football helmets is a step in
the right direction to tackling this issue, These sensors allow for faster action upon brain injuries
and provide more evidence of trauma to the existing physical evidence. These helmets have the
potential to improve the overall safety of the game.
Works Cited
Belson, Ken. "Brain Trauma to Affect One in Three Players, N.F.L. Agrees." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 12 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
Brady, James. "The NFL Brought in Enough Money Last Year to Pay for 10 Pluto Missions."
SBNation.com. Vox Media, 20 July 2015. Web. 8 Apr. 2016.
Dekosky, Steven T., Milos D. Ikonomovic, and Sam Gandy. "Traumatic Brain Injury Football,
Warfare, and Long-Term Effects." New England Journal of Medicine 363.14 (2010): n.
pag. Massachusetts Medical Society, 22 Sept. 2010. Web.
Eagleson, Holly. "Is Keeping Kids Safe From Concussions as Simple as a High-Tech Sensor?"
TakePart. TakePart, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.

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Ezell, Lauren. "Timeline: The NFLs Concussion Crisis." FRONTLINE. PBS, 8 Oct. 2013. Web.
10 Apr. 2016.
Flam, Lisa. "Helmet Sensors May Help Detect Concussions in Young Football Players."
TODAY.com. NBC News, n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2016.
Gregory, Sean. "Concussion Expert: Over 90% of NFL Players Have Brain Disease." Time.
Time, 22 Dec. 2015. Web. 8 Apr. 2016.
"Judge Ok's 65-Year Deal Over NFL Concussion." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 22 Apr.
2015. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.
Kaufman, Joey. "UCLA Joins Program Using Helmet Sensors That Monitor Head Trauma and
Build Data for Concussion Problem." The Orange County Register. The Orange County
Register, 22 Dec. 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
"NFL Concussion Fast Facts." CNN. Cable News Network, 15 Mar. 2016. Web. 9 Apr. 2016.
NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee's Concussion Protocol Regarding Diagnosis and
Management of Concussion. NFL, n.d. PDF.