“[Riddell’s] helmet concept and design is certainly unique,”
says Joseph Maroon, a professor of neurosurgery at the
University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and the team
neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers. “But the problem is
that there is a lot about concussions and head injury that we
don’t fully understand.” This is a key issue for those
researching ways to protect football players. A study published
in the Journal of Athletic Training in December 2010 found that
brain trauma can be caused not only by hits that leave a player
woozy, but also by the accumulation of smaller hits. “The
discussion that is happening now is, which hits do you want to
protect against? The huge catastrophic concussions, or the
smaller hits that a player takes 50 times a day?” says Chris
Nowinski, president of the Sports Legacy Institute, a nonprofit
organization based in Waltham, Massachusetts, that studies brain
injury in athletes. “Frankly, I don’t think people know which
way to go at this point,” says Nowinski. Rick Gree