New Helmets Approved! Help for Tua?

Can a new type of helmet give Tua and edge in health?

NFL football is an ultra-violent sport and even though the players have taken their bodies to the peak of human condition and resilience, it’s still not enough. The only way to close the gap to further safety is reduce the violence of the game or increase the protection with technology– I guess a third option would be create genetically enhanced supermen, but we’ll shelve that one for now.

For the most part, fixing broken bodies has been the majority of this technological ‘protection’. Today though the NFL and NFLPA have agree on a new type of helmet that offer much greater protection against head trauma and concussions associated with that trauma.

They are ugly ass heck– NO DOUBT, but who cares if it offers greater protection for players brains.

This also could be amazing news for Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who had a horrific rash of concussions last season.

Maybe the cavalry arrived just at the right time!

The helmet helps, but isn’t a cure-all

NFL executive Jeff Miller said to Associated Press’ Rob Maaddi, “We’ve now analyzed with our engineers and with the Players Association more than a 1,000 concussions on field, we have a pretty good database of how these injuries occur. This helmet performs better in laboratory testing than any helmets we have ever seen for those sorts of impacts.”

He also said, “The helmet, manufactured by Vicis, reduces severity of helmet-to-ground impacts, which league data says account for approximately half of quarterback concussions, including the one suffered by Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa last season when his head slammed violently against the turf during a Thursday night game against Cincinnati.”

Guardian Caps are the name of one type I’ve heard mentioned, the NFL said last September that they helped reduce concussions by 50 percent during the 2022 preseason. Forbes gave a lower estimate at 7% reduction.

You can bet with the best pay per head that even 7% is a winning wager since that would keep almost 1 in 10 players from getting a concussion.

Will Tua decided to wear it? Who knows. At least the kid gets an option to have an edge for himself to stay healthy. While this doesn’t stop the brain from sloshing around with impact as Michael Powell has spoken about, it does decrease the force that makes the sloshing! Since every little bit counts, I’ll take this as a win. Go Phins!!!