governing body that oversees amateur leagues across the country. Years before the AAP paper was published, USA Football created Heads Up Football, a program designed to teach tackling dos and don’ts to youth and high school players. But Heads Up is not mandatory in all states, and critics charge that the certification requirements for coaches are too lax.
Steve Gleason, for one, has said he doesn’t buy the notion that illegal hits are the problem. Gleason, who played eight seasons for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints and has since been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease—said in a 2012 e-mail to NBC Sports that, “The increased rate of brain disease in the NFL population is caused by the way the game is played within the rules.”
Plus, there’s a great deal of physical contact on the gridiron that doesn’t involve tackling. On one hand, the AAP paper cites a 2013 study that found nearly two-thirds of concussions in high school football occur when a player is making a tackle or being tackled. But that’s difficult to square with the list of players who have received a postmortem CTE diagnosis (there’s currently not a reliable way to test a living person for the disease). That group includes Mike Webster, whose autopsy, performed by Omalu in 2002, led to Webster becoming the first former NFL player diagnosed with CTE. Along with at least five others on the list, Webster primarily played on the offensive line, meaning he rarely carried the ball.
Correcting poor tackling form could potentially lead to fewer concussions in football, but there appears to be a limit to that potential. So what else could be done? One Wisconsin physician is taking a fresh look at the equipment worn by today’s players, asking whether helmets should be constructed more like devices designed to keep drivers safe in crashes.
Air Apparent?
John Whitcomb has practiced medicine for decades. He currently works at an anti-aging clinic in the Milwaukee area. It seems fitting, then, that he’s seeking to turn back the clock to the early days of football, when helmet exteriors were made using softer materials than the hard plastic manufacturers have favored since the mid-20th century.
But instead of reverting to the leather helmets worn in that bygone era, Whitcomb is developing prototypes that use air cells to protect players’ brains. His eureka moment came in 2013 when he was watching television commentators discuss concussions, and wondering why there seemed to be few people working to address the problem, he says. Then he noticed a sheet of bubble wrap close by.
Since then, he’s formed Whitcomb Technologies and received four patents, with another four pending. He says he leaves the clinic early most Wednesdays and spends the afternoon building and testing helmets at his home office.
In order to grasp how Whitcomb’s helmet could be safer than existing models, it’s necessary to understand some of the forces at work when a person is concussed.
According to the AAP paper Landry co-authored, a concussion results when a blow to the head causes the brain to experience a rotational acceleration. “The brain is sitting within the skull surrounded by fluid,” Landry says. “When there’s a jerk of the skull, the brain bangs up against the skull on the other side.”
Whitcomb says that one way of mitigating this is by inserting shock absorbers between the brain and the point of impact. The goal is to reduce or eliminate brain rotation upon impact.
This is not a novel concept. In 1971, Gerard E. Morgan received a patent for “Energy Absorbing And Sizing Means For Helmets,” which features illustrations of padding under a plastic shell. Morgan was then the chairman of Riddell, a Chicago-area helmet maker that continues to be an industry leader today.
While most experts view the addition of padding as a logical decision, Whitcomb
