Better Protective Gear
The helmets of football players have come a long way. In the beginning of the 1920's, they were made from soft leather. Following ten years, made out of hard leather. By the 1970's, they began being made of plastic (Garcia,2016). Now, decades later and football players are still wearing the same plastic helmets and no improvements have been made. Therefore, for one of my proposed solutions is to improve the protective gear for college football players, such as their helmets. Perhaps more protection on that area that the concussion affects the most, would be an important part of this improvement in their protective gear. Current helmets of football players should be closely examined and improved. For instance, the NCAA should look into the helmet called the VICIS Zero1. In an article published on CNN written by Ahiza Garcia in 2016, she presents a new potential helmet that although it is expensive; it can help improve the lives of these athletes. There is multiple layers to the helmet that better protect the athlete's brain from further damage. For example, there's an outer layer that deforms to absorb shock and then rebounds, a layer of polymer columns that move in multiple directions to reduce force, a hard inner shell to prevent skull fractures and brain bleeds, and a layer of memory foam for comfort (Garcia,2016). The NFl is already in the process of considering this option after years of denying the consequences of poor protective gear for football players. It is time that the NCAA does the same for its student-college athletes. The sooner we are able to protect our athletes, the sooner we can see progress in the neurological problems that these athletes are facing. The price of the helmet is $1,500. Although it is pricey, the NCAA is able to fund this gear, and here is how. According to the NCAA's website, they state how they receive most of their money from Division 1 Men's Basketball($797.9 M) and championships and ticket sales ($123.5 M). They claim that most of their money goes to scholarships ($205 M) and giving back to the universities so that they can better their programs (NCAA,2008) . However, in an interview according to Sales Huddle Group CEO Sam Caucci, he further explains where the NCAA spends their money. According to Caucci, the average division 1 athlete for the NCAA is worth $250,000 to the university's program (Caucci,2015). Despite all the money rolling into these universities programs, there has been zero changes to the football player's helmets. With the money that the NCAA provides the schools with, they should invest in the zero1 helmet, as it can save the brains of these student-college athletes.
