Riddell Helmets Dont Prevent Concussions

Protection of athletes should and are the main focus of companies that manufacture equipment. Riddell a football company spent several years developing a helmet that “protects against concussions”. They said that the helmet was 31 percent more likely to prevent a concussion from happening. But the honest truth was that no matter what football helmet you had a player was 95 percent likely to get a concussion from a strong enough blow to the head. After hearing this study thousands of former NFL players sued the NFL and Riddell for marketing a product that did not prevent concussions. The jury ruled Riddell guilty and made them liable for 3.1 million dollars out of a total 11.5 million dollars that was awarded to the family of a young man who was seriously injured after a concussion in a high school football practice. Frank Azar a lawyer for the plaintiffs said, “What it proves is that Riddell knew for sure in November of 2000 that they had a problem with their resting of these helmets and they didn’t disclose it to anybody.” The real issue is that after developing the helmet and determining the problem they continued to market these helmets falsely. Chris Withnall who was the senior engineer at the Ottawa base biomechanical firm Biokinets said, “No helmet can prevent a concussion. Full stop.” Now that Riddell has been sued and convicted guilty maybe they can help design a helmet that prevents a concussion. On top of the companies not doing what they need to, I believe that especially in a sport like football we need to stop young athletes from leading with their head when tackling. We need to teach the proper technic of absorbing a hit and giving a hit. Leading with your head will only cause more brain and neck injuries.