NFL health and safety chairman, a 49er, sees a future without helmets and then reverses course

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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...d-safety-chair-sees-a-future-without-helmets/

NFL health and safety chair sees a future without helmets
Posted by Mike Florio on June 18, 2015

As the NFL continues to look for ways to make the game safer, one way to make the game safer could come from a removal of one of the first significant pieces of football safety equipment.

The helmet.

Dr. John York, co-chair of the 49ers and chairman of the NFL’s health and safety advisory committee, believes that in the future helmets eventually could become a thing of the past.

“Can I see a time without helmets? Yes,” York told the BBC. “It’s not around the corner, but I can see it.”

York explained that removing helmets would require the elimination of the three-point stance, with linemen upright at the snap.

While the removal of helmets would reduce concussions that currently happen when players use those helmets as weapons, players who aren’t wearing helmets would be more prone to skull fractures via accidental collisions occurring at full speed. And skull fractures are far more likely to cause death than concussions.

The better approach would be to minimize opportunities for head involvement while still providing maximum protection from accidental contact. Switch to the two-point stance, ban all helmet-to-helmet hits, prevent players from launching in all situations, but keep the helmets on the players to guard against the inevitable elbows and knees and feet that routinely strike heads currently protected from being split open.
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Football without helmets is called “flag football”
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Works for rugby…just saying
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There’s a reason no one watches rugby
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I’d rather watch lingerie football
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The name “York” leads me to believe he is related to someone name “Jed” who is in the middle of bottoming out the Santa Clara 49ers, and now John wants to do the same thing the entire league! Get the Yorks out of the NFL …now!
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The answer is really quite simple and it doesn’t include going without helmets; just get rid of the face mask.

Players will think twice about charging in head-first if they don’t have a face mask. No deadly head-to-head hits; just a slightly uglier set of faces.
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Interesting take for someone who is not a man, according to Jim Harbaugh
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This will never happen. If you remove helmets you would have to change tons of rules. It would be completely different sport.
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No wonder the 49ers players are retiring with that guy as chair of their team.
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The helmets do exactly what they are designed to do. They prevent skull fractures. No helmet design will prevent concussions in an impact game with speed. They can minimize the impact trauma a little but the concussions in the NFL are mainly caused by the brain slamming against the skull due to the sudden stop of momentum.

Padding will not stop this. All padding will do is increase friction at the point of impact (limits glancing blows) and add more risk to neck/spinal injury. All the league can feasibly do is limit intentional head contact by hammering the headhunters with fines and suspensions.
 

jrry32

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Rather than changing the rules, they could just use money to develop better equipment and helmets.
 

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Dodgersrf

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Until they can find a way to keep the brain from slamming into the inside of a skull, it will always be a problem.
 

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Rather than changing the rules, they could just use money to develop better equipment and helmets.
Many years while in DC I was actually in charge of all helmet system development & operations for Navy and Marine Corps Aircrew. We had decades of data on helmet performance and the human body's ability to survive an accident. The bottom line is while we can build helmets to withstand greater shocks, the larger shocks than cause failures in the neck or spinal cord. So, we found it was actually more advantageous to build lighter weight helmet system that could withstand less shock, but put less stress on other parts of the body in a rapid deceleration. So, for example, in a 12G accident an additional ounce of weight actually feels like 12oz's or 3/4 of a pound of additional weight. This can be the difference between a broken neck and a survivable accident. Hence, we have to look at the human body and protective gear as an overall system, and not just isolate the helmet from it. Ultimately, if the guys have helmets that keep them below a 6G collision, we might actually have less injuries than by having better helmets that give them the feeling that they can withstand a 10G collision.
 

theramsruleUK

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Removing helmets absolutly would reduce concussions. Try tackling like they do in the NFL whilst playing Rugby and you'll just hurt yourself much more than the person your supposed to be tackling. This isn't to say i want this to happen, far from it. But just saying..

I've played rugby at a fairly good level, been on a tour to S.Africa etc, and I'm continually amazed how bad NFL players are at tackling. they just dive head first without any technique at all. So many broken tackles. I've always wondered why the NFL doesn't take any influence from Rugby techniques..
 

BonifayRam

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Guys like this just needs to go away. Yes lets just make this best American Professional sport just like the world soccer league.

Fine but just speaking for myself I will not be watching. I agree fully here with that smart little mouse who goes by jrry32....lets turn American (what's left) brain power to make the safest players equipment possible. Let the PC'ers go police & regulate elsewhere.

I love this game & am always concerned when people like Dr. John York have all these so called brilliant ideals that they want to improve this game.
 

Mikey Ram

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My feeling on this is probably a big over-reaction, but iIsee it taking a death to have them figure out that this is a real bad idea.Do they really think that rushing, pass protecting all the brutal contact at and near the line of scrimmage,age can be stopped by taking away helmets ?? I just can't understand how they expect that to work...Feel free to beat me up about my take on this at this point..Just please don't wear a helmet while doing it...
 

fearsomefour

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Removing helmets absolutly would reduce concussions. Try tackling like they do in the NFL whilst playing Rugby and you'll just hurt yourself much more than the person your supposed to be tackling. This isn't to say i want this to happen, far from it. But just saying..

I've played rugby at a fairly good level, been on a tour to S.Africa etc, and I'm continually amazed how bad NFL players are at tackling. they just dive head first without any technique at all. So many broken tackles. I've always wondered why the NFL doesn't take any influence from Rugby techniques..
Tons of concussions in rugby, just saw a good doc about the concussion problem rugby is facing in England.
 

theramsruleUK

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Tons of concussions in rugby, just saw a good doc about the concussion problem rugby is facing in England.
Every contact sport has concussions, I'm not saying it's perfect but you don't get the amount that the NFL gets in Rugby. But yeah, there's still an issue
 

fearsomefour

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Every contact sport has concussions, I'm not saying it's perfect but you don't get the amount that the NFL gets in Rugby. But yeah, there's still an issue
Unrelated but I tried a little rugby in high school after football was over one year. Football players were tough, rugby players were crazy.
 

Elmgrovegnome

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I keep picturing this 'Dr. John York' out on the training field with his bald frail self and yelling at the players, "Come on you Pussies? Take those helmets off and play like real men!"

No wonder they have players leaving in droves.