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helmets have the most potential for technological advances that could reduce
the severity of impact so an obvious question becomes why don't manufacturers
develop a helmet that would better protect the head
in head games nowinski addresses this very issue
one problem as he explained is that thirty five years ago there were
fourteen helmet manufacturers
today there are no more than six
what happened was that in nineteen seventy five a nineteen-year-old
football player injured in a game became a quadriplegic and sued the helmet
manufacturer resulting in a three million dollar out of court settlement
this started a trend and the cost of settlements eventually outweighed the
gross income of the entire helmet industry forcing most of the
manufacturers to go bankrupt or cease operations
another problem is that one of the leading helmet makers pays for the
right to be the official league helmet
so any improvements made by other manufacturers will have a very difficult
time making inroads into the n_f_l_
one such manufacturer located in lowell massachusetts has designed a helmet that
uses eighteen airbag like shock absorbers that reduces the risk of
concussions by as much as sixty percent
players using this helmet manufactured by xenith have reported a seventy percent
decrease in headaches
but as of a year ago the most recent data available
only one to two percent of n_f_l_ players were wearing a xenith helmet
and although players are allowed to wear whichever helmet they choose if they
wear anything other than the n_f_l_ endorsed helmet they must cover up the logo
so it is not visible
requests for an interview with xenith went unanswered
this excerpt is
brought to you by the massachusetts school of law