What characteristic do Junior Seau, Mike Webster, and Dave Duerson share? These three football players, among many others, had a neurodegenerative disease, called “Chronic traumatic encephalopathy” or CTE for short. The disease is the result of having multiple concussions over many years. Since people had never heard of this disease decades before, so when a player got hit in the head it was natural for the coach to leave the player in the game. As time goes on, society continues to learn what this disease is and its harmful effects such as depression and increased risk of suicide. In turn, the NFL improved how it combats CTE because of rule changes, the introduction of new tackling techniques, and the implementation of new technology to keep …show more content…
17). Although the NFL co-created this program for the youth, the hope is that this tackling technique is deeply embedded in their minds by the time they get to the highest level of football in America. Furthermore, in 2014 the Seahawks and the NFL released a video that is in connection with its Heads Up Football program. The video demonstrates a tackling technique called “Hawk”. In detail, the author says that with this technique players, “… track the near hip of the ball carrier… lead with the near shoulder in the thigh of the ball carrier… wrap and squeeze, and then “drive for 5”- push the ball carrier back five yards when necessary” (Bedard par. 11). The concept of this kind of tackling was influenced from how rugby players have to tackle in such a violent sport, but without wearing a helmet, and rarely sustaining concussions. The benefit of this type of tackling is that players can still play aggressively, such as forcing a fumble because of the impact of the tackle, while still avoiding vicious hits since the head is positioned next to the thigh and pointed …show more content…
For one thing, the author explains that with virtual reality, “Players watch pre-record scrimmages filmed by players sporting 360-degree cameras, helping them to prepare for similar scenarios in future games” (Plumber par. 15). Virtual reality is to bring a person to an event, place, or time and interact in a 3-D world, when in reality the person could be standing in a room. In the same sense, players can go through the plays and practice like they would on a normal field while staying out of danger at the same time. Although the NFL doesn’t directly make the helmets that are worn in games, they do invest millions of dollars in different companies like “Bio kinetics”, who research head to head impacts. Afterwards, football helmet companies, like Riddell, use that information and newer technology to improve their helmets. For example, several authors note that In 2014 Riddell Inc. developed the SpeedFlex helmet using the research data taken from head impact monitoring technologies and made several improvements to previous helmets (Abreu, Marcos A., et al 1). The main feature of the helmet was that it was designed to reduce the forces that cause concussions, while still dispersing the forces around the helmet so that one area of the head is not getting all the impact. Also, the chin strap was designed like a steel cage, so that the helmet would stay in place if players ran into each other the