Critical impacts in American Football

American Football players expose themselves to big hits by the nature of the sport. For those of you who are unfamiliar with American Football, it is a team sport in which the two teams are trying to get the ball into the opposing team’s touchdown area. The defending team, may tackle the opposing team to try stop the attacking team from scoring.

Hits taken by American Football players are all over the body, however the most dangerous ones are on the head. Big hits or continuous hits to the head, which American football players both experience can lead to severe brain deterioration.

Studies on a 21 year old playing football during a season he took; 22 hits which were of a magnitude of 80g or higher. An 80g hit is the equivalent of hitting the windshield of a car driving at 32 Kph. One of these hits resulted in concussion. Another hit which was lower than 80g also resulted in concussion. In total there where 537 hits to the head. 417 had a impact of 10g or more. And the hardest hit had a magnitude of 138.1g

The ways in which players try to minimise to impact of hits are by wearing helmets, shoulder pads and mouth guards, which are all compulsory. They also get themselves into positions which are less vulnerable to a hard tackle and absorbs the impact better. They also use gloves, spiked shoes, and various pads such as knee and elbow.

In 1939 the first plastic helmet came out Polycarbonate alloy plastic helmets were commonly used through out the 80's and 90's. In 2002 a new design for a helmet called the Revolution was released and it is currently the most widely used helmet in the National Football League. A study released by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center shows that the Revolution, and others like it, reduce the chances of concussion by 31%.