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My daughter's middle school has a football team. Full contact tackle football, not flag football or whatever. 12-year-olds going down the road to CTE and Parkinson's. It's nuts. They don't have a boxing team, nor would they.
If you're an adult and you want to take the risks that come with playing football, go for it. That's your choice.
We shouldn't be risking kids.
There's some genetic aspect but it doesn't seem to run in families like a real genetic disease, so it's probably a result of damage (physical trauma and/or toxins) and the genetic component is just a predisposition.
It's not the helmets, it's the hits to the head and the tackles to the ground. Those sudden jolts are what cause concussions.
Do rugby players suffer concussions as frequently as American football players? If they don’t, could the helmets be making the problem worse - encouraging players to hit with their heads more, like a false sense of security? Sorry if this is a stupid question, I don’t know anything about American football and not much more about rugby!
EDIT: it seems like rugby players are more prone to concussions than NFL players, but I might not be completely off the mark about helmets offering a false sense of protection:
“Rugby players are believed to play more aggressively when using scrum caps; however, studies have shown these make no difference for protecting against head injuries.”
Yes, merely having the helmets does increase the risk of concussion. Partly because a player feels natural need to protect their head so they're willing to take risks, and partly because a helmet converts what would have been a really bad injury into just a concussion.
Ultimately, if they are serious about reducing concussions and other injuries, they'll ban leading with the head (already done, I think) and hits to the head (already done for "defenseless" players, not sure what that means). Hopefully next is eliminating the three-point stance to further reduce head hits. Ideally they'd also find a way to eliminate hard tackles to the ground, but I can't think of a way to do that without banning tackles entirely.
Reduce the weight of the helmet and you'll reduce the amount of momentum involved in the hit, drastically reducing concussions. Science!
Reduce yes, drastically probably not. You're still going to have rapid acceleration and deceleration causing concussions.
The person wearing the helmet is still 2-300 lbs, I don't think a reduction in helmet weight would make the slightest difference.