A group of sports science professors agrees that it is impossible to produce a helmet that completely eliminates the risk of concussions.
Helmets "certainly help to mitigate forces that are distributed by impact to the skull and the intracranial cavity and the brain," said Kevin Guskiewicz, a professor of sports science at North Carolina and an expert on football helmets. "But the brain is still going to move inside that cranial cavity regardless of whether there's a helmet on or not."
With improved soft materials inside its hard outer shell, a modern helmet can lessen the effect of a straight-ahead, "linear" impact, but can't do much to prevent the effects of the head rotating from the impact, Guskiewicz said Monday at the National Athletic Trainers' Association convention.
"They do dissipate some of the forces but not to the degree that's required or would be required to manage the energy for preventing concussions," he said.
It kind of feels like common sense. Safety measures no matter how advanced cannot eliminate every bit of risk.
This is why I think the league is right to crack down on headhunting. People's lives are at risk. Spare me about football being a physical game. There is a difference between hitting hard and carelessly putting others at risk.