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NFL Releases Finite Element Helmet Models

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Re: NFL Releases Finite Element Helmet Models

#51
Jerry Seinfeld said it best:

"Now why did we invent the helmet? Well, because we were participating in many activities that were cracking our heads. We looked at the situation. We chose not to avoid these activities, but to just make little plastic hats so that we can continue our head-cracking lifestyles."

Re: NFL Releases Finite Element Helmet Models

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with the crash safety comparison is that helmets need to withstand many impacts before being replaced since it would be crazy to replace a helmet every play or two. One possible answer is that, in order to truly solve this problem, the sport must do away with facemasks or helmets altogether. Mike Ditka has long proposed removing the facemask, claiming that it has encouraged players to weaponize their heads…

Why is it crazy to replace the helmets on each major impact? This is a multi billion dollar industry

The problem is that replacing the helmets after each play or major impact would take time, and the clock doesn't always stop after a play during football. If we stopped the clock to replace a helmet, we open up the possibility of a team using this to slow down an advancing offense, or by an offense to gain a short timeout in a sense.

Basically it just doesn't mesh well with the flow of the game.

Re: NFL Releases Finite Element Helmet Models

#53
post #19
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your advocating for an abstinence only education, when it comes to football?

Or, to not have helmets at all, or much thinner helmets. Much like bare-knuckle or thin-padded gloves contribute to less "hard" hits being thrown in UFC than in boxing, or how Rugby players don't get the kind of brain injuries because they aren't smacking their heads into eachother as hard as football players are.

Helmets were introduced because a dozen plus kids were dying every year playing it due to things like skull fractures. Football is an inherently violent game and it is because of the rules not the helmets.

Re: NFL Releases Finite Element Helmet Models

#54
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has a violence fetish, the same way that the UK has a class fetish. The football quarterback is the highest status kid in the school because he is the leader of an organization demonstrated to deliver and endure violence.

Your premise is very weak in relation to US sports being a supporting argument. It comes across as though you've never actually played football or been on a football team. Players on one team largely go out of their way to avoid injuring players on the other team. The vast majority of the game is free motion, not the application of violence. Another large fraction of the game is what can best be described as aggressi…

You sound like maybe you've played football. If so, you must recognize that it's nothing particular about any sort of violent acts that makes it so dangerous, but the technique where action at the line teaches driving up from the shoulders to the head which leads to repetitive contact.

The big open-field head-on-head hits are horrific but not the ones that lead to every single brain that's been analyzed showing evidence of CTE.

The NFL will live with having to handle the freak accidents; they can't exist in a world where playing football => long term traumatic brain injury

Re: NFL Releases Finite Element Helmet Models

#55
post #49

Safer helmets can do only so much as they are mostly a protection from external trauma. Little can be done to address the simple physics of inertia that causes the brain to crash into the skull due to sudden acceleration in any direction. The only thing that can drastically reduce that trauma is to make rule changes to the game to avoid the type of collisions that cause that acceleration.

If helmet size was no obstacle, could you add a thick inner layer of much softer foam to help gradually slow down the skull so the brain would crash into a suddenly stopped skull?

Re: NFL Releases Finite Element Helmet Models

#56
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>no one is paying millions in broadcasting rights to that people can watch me ride a motorcycle I feel like you must be aware of the professional racing scene and have just momentarily forgotten? It's a massive industry and it's driven the majority of advancements in street-bike technology.

As a MotoGP fan, I am quite aware that folks will pay tons of dosh to watch, say, Marquez. But not to watch me. That's okay, all that MotoGP tech can get me to work a few seconds faster, and a MotoGP-inspired back protector can assist in keeping me walking should it all go sideways. But it was more about the utility. Dangerous as it might be, I can at least get to work on a motorcycle. No one is dashing to work 10 ya…

Wait lol then I don't get it, the original comment is why does anybody play football professionally, doesn't the same argument apply to why does anybody ride motorcycles professionally?

Re: NFL Releases Finite Element Helmet Models

#57

I feel like removing helmets from the game entirely would actually be safer than improving helmets. The helmet just creates this false sense of safety that encourages using your head as a point of contact.

Lots of people agree with you, including one of the greatest NFL wide receivers: https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/04/hines-ward-...

Re: NFL Releases Finite Element Helmet Models

#58
post #5

Summarizing: "Because this activity is so dangerous, and results in many head injuries, we've spent $60 million developing a framework for manufacturers to make helmets that will mitigate the injuries from the this entirely voluntary activity." Umm, has anyone considered just not doing this activity? I don't mean to be trite, but that's what it looks like from the perspective of one who has little interest in footbal…

But you actually can't even say the same about motorcycling. Football players get minor brain damage in practically every game they play, which accumulates over time. On a moto you only suffer injury when something goes wrong.

Re: NFL Releases Finite Element Helmet Models

#59
Sorry, but I really don't think fancier helmet padding is the answer to the CTE, concussion, head/neck/spine injury problem. You have to change the game to stop the type of head-leading and head-targeting hits that are glorified in the current model of the sport.

And yes, you can still easily tackle without ramming your helmeted skull into someone elses head. Just watch Rugby, or any kids play pick-up football on a field, both are entirely without pads and helmets, and tackling is a major part of the experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMHRZ8LzS7Q

Re: NFL Releases Finite Element Helmet Models

#60

You really need accurate material models for this to be any use. Without being able to validate the baseline condition using the same non-linear, anisotropic, material behaviour profiles, there's no way to develop new geometry and/or use novel materials, and actually prove it's better than before. They would ideally release their own, repeatable analysis files of their own benchmark condition. I suspect the best helm…

The issue with the crash safety comparison is that helmets need to withstand many impacts before being replaced since it would be crazy to replace a helmet every play or two. One possible answer is that, in order to truly solve this problem, the sport must do away with facemasks or helmets altogether. Mike Ditka has long proposed removing the facemask, claiming that it has encouraged players to weaponize their heads…

as an increasingly reluctant football fan, this has always been my take on it as well. though the short-term effects of such a change might be kind of wonky, if you remove the super heavy padding the problem of hitting people with impunity because they think they're immune should solve itself in the long run.
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