Can the NFL Protect Heads by Dropping Helmets?

(Dec. 21) -- The NFL is partnering with Boston University to study the long-term effects of brain injuries on players, The Associated Press reported Sunday -- just days after the league suspended its own study, which had been criticized for bias. It's the latest twist in a story that has overshadowed this year's obvious story lines (the Indianapolis Colts remain undefeated, for instance) -- the preponderance of evidence that playing football can lead to significant brain damage.

In January, Boston University found that six deceased NFL veterans had developed rare trauma-induced brain damage before the age of 50. Later this year, a survey revealed that NFL retirees were reporting diagnoses of dementia and other memory-related disease at a much higher rate than the general population. The New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell brought general interest to the issue in a much-cited article in which he likened the everyday treatment of NFL players -- one blow to the head after another -- to that of the loyal, savaged fighting dogs of Michael Vick, the disgraced NFL quarterback. Like dog-fighting, Gladwell writes, the violence of football is inherent to the sport. And it's not just the concussions, it's also the accumulation of subconcussive trauma football players experience in both games and practice.

What to do? Many hope that a breakthrough in helmet technology can reduce the problem. Indeed, better helmets do exist, but there's a problem. "The better helmets have become -- and the more invulnerable they have made the player seem -- the more athletes have been inclined to play recklessly," Gladwell writes.

Perhaps we'd be better off getting rid of helmets altogether. At first, this may seem counterintuitive. But a recent study of Australian football, a rough game in which players don't wear pads or helmets, found that NFL players are 25 percent more likely to sustain head injuries than than their AFL peers.

Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Dhani Jones, who has played rugby, was not surprised by the finding. "In football, you're taught to hit with your face," he told the Wall Street Journal. "You're always contacting with your 'hat,' which is your head."

The NFL has never seriously considered dropping the helmet, and it remains focused on helmet technology. But helmets that remove the possibility of concussions would have to improve four-fold over the current models in use. And the only way to do that is to make the helmet and padding much bigger. The problem with that approach, the Journal notes, "other than making players look like Marvin the Martian -- is that heavier helmets would be more likely to cause neck injuries."

For the NFL, which has a brand to defend, even oversized helmets -- replete with oversized logos -- likely would be a preferable alternative to dropping them altogether. But football has a record of bowing to a groundswell of popular opinion. As Gladwell pointed out, President Theodore Roosevelt called an emergency summit in 1905 to address the violence of college football, at the time a grueling ground game. Out of this came the rule change that led to the forward pass.

It's unclear whether there's a sufficient groundswell of opinion today. Glenn Beck has advocated dropping helmets, and yet the game goes on. Some, including players like Pittsburgh Steelers running back Hines Ward, accept the findings of brain trauma as just one more dangerous part of the game, which tough guys accept -- even relish. Ward can't understand how his teammate, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, could skip a game because of a concussion.

Sadly, in 20 years, Ward may feel different.