Should A Player's Helmet Rules Be Banned?

Have you ever been watching a college or NFL football game and see a player’s helmet fall off, but continue to play? The National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA, has since invented two rules to prevent players from continuing a play once their helmets have fallen off due to concerned viewers and team’s staff. While many were concerned about the safety of the players and their chance of receiving traumatic brain injury from head to head or any head to object contact, others believe the rule should be modified or completely taken out of the rule book. Most incidents that cause a player’s helmet to fall off are due to helmets not being tight enough, the wrong size or shape. Viewers and even NFL spokesman say that helmets flying off of

a player is not a significant issue that needs to be dealt with. Every sport should take the precautionary measures needed to protect and further prevent the athletes from receiving traumatic brain injury; whether it is played at high school, collegiate, or professional level. There are stats that show the negatives effects retired NFL players experience after they’re done playing; including the degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), symptoms include suicidal thoughts, depression, memory loss, loss in motor skills along with personality changes or erratic behavior. If the players do not play with caution and awareness of the effects of strong impact between players more will be likely to suffer traumatic brain injuries and brain diseases such as CTE.
Football player’s helmets tend to be loose, not the right size or shape when they fall off during contact plays. One of the new rules the NCAA implemented back in 2012 was that if a player’s helmet fell off due to a contact play they must stop playing immediately and return to play after the following down. When the helmet falls off, the player must step off the field for a concussion evaluation if needed and reevaluate the fit of the helmet. If a helmet falls off due to intentionally hold another player’s face mask you do not need to step out of the game. The second rule is that if you are not the ball carrier and your helmet falls off you must stop playing the game immediately. If the player continues to play the team will receive a 15 yard penalty for not complying to the rules. The number of times a football player’s helmet has fallen off during a game has increased in recent years. The average number of times a helmet falls off during an NFL football game is two times, and averaged at 200 times over the course of the season. The National Football League spokesman, Greg Aiello, did not have much to say over the topic through an interview with USA Today saying, “We require chin-straps to be buckled for safety reasons, and I do not think flying helmets is a significant issue for us.” The flying helmets epidemic is a real problem and for the NFL spokesman to speak so lightly of a subject that has hurt players and affected many of them even after their NFL careers are over. Many viewers and team’s staff may take the issue just as the NFL’s spokesman did.
Many viewers would agree that football is a very entertaining sport that would have much less viewers if it was played safer and by the rules.

From personal experience of viewing football at the high school level, whenever there has been a collision so strong that has caused the player’s helmet to fall off from impact I have never seen the athlete or coach to instruct them off of the field to check the helmet for its fit or evaluate the player for a concussion. Bleacher Report's Michael Felder believes that the rules implemented in college and NFL football are ruining the game. Felder says in his article How College Football’s New Helmet Rule is Hurting the Game for All that the new rule is hurting football because instead of getting to the root of the problem coaches and trainers will automatically turn to tightening the helmet than figuring out how the player’s helmet should be changed in order for it to stay on., Felder says, “When that helmet is too tight, you're compromising its ability to distribute impact and for the interior to move with the head as it is designed.” While Felder has a valid point that the rule will be causing more issues than helping figure out the root of the problem, the NCAA and NFL will need to enforce and follow through with the precautionary measures of following up with the athletes when their helmets come off. If those cautionary rules were being followed properly then these rules would not have needed to be

created.
The amount of traumatic brain injuries occurring because of football is astonishing.

CNN stated in an article about concussions in the NFL, NFL Concussions Fast Facts, that in 2012 there was the second highest amount of concussions recorded during the pre-season/season time period at 261 concussions compared to 275 concussions in 2015. Parents and athletes starting at the youth and high school level must be aware of the helmet issues in order to properly know what will work best for their athlete and be prepared to teach their child how to properly get a helmet fitted and adjusted so that it fits their shape and size in order to prevent further

injury.
When taking a step back to wonder how these athletes helmets are flying off during a play and how it should be corrected in order to protect the players the isn’t a hard answer to obtain. At the end of the day the athlete’s safety should always be a priority to the coach's and team’s staff.