Brand New Helmets Collecting Dust?

Central High was given high tech football helmets for the safety of the team and they still have yet to use them.  From very generous donations from the Sherwood foundation they were all paid for and ready to be used at the start of football season. Yet, every Friday night as they have yet to be used. These helmets were given to us to help detect symptoms of concussions at the high school level and protect our players.

Right now we are using new white and purple colored helmets but they do not have the safety and technology features that the other ones we could be using have. All in America football is the sport where the most concussions happen per year. On the high school field it is said to have about 12 concussions per 10000 practices or games. A concussion is defined as a temporary unconsciousness caused by a blow to the head. Resulting in the damage of brain cells and could lead to very traumatic injuries. Most high school athletes have seen or know of the impact that causes a concussion, “I have had friends who have gotten a concussion and watching everything happen it happens so fast there is no way to control it” said Harley. So being given these helmets to help detect and to provide a safer environment to try to decrease the numbers of head injuries yet as Central High School, not using them we all come to wonder why.

One major factor concluding that question is the cost of these helmets. Each football helmet costs $400 for each player which is more expensive and not worth it to many. Although, using these helmets have a great quality of technology and could lead to better success of just keeping football players safe. At the end of the day, winning is not as important keeping players safe. When one gets a concussion it does not just go away as you create more and more contact to the head it increasingly becomes worse resulting in more and more injuries and could end up causing death. As the helmets were generously paid for all schools are planning on taking full advantage of as much as possible despite the cost of the new and improved technology that not all schools have.

It will not protect it all, but it could do a better job than they are now. Although this is a test year for schools and helmets may not be in full use for a few years the technology in this era will continue to help contribute to making the sport safer. All in all, statistics will even show that the more professional equipment the high schools can get the more likely they will be safer for players.