January 24, 2025
QUINCY (WGEM) – Although football players wear protective gear to help prevent them from suffering traumatic brain injuries, sometimes helmets still aren’t enough to protect the players.
With new helmet technology evolving over the last decade, one company developed a device to prevent concussions, but some doctors are skeptical at the effectiveness.
“I don’t think there’s anything you can put on the head, around the head, around the helmet that’s going to protect from this injury anymore,” said Dr. Anthony Biggs, a physician with Quincy Medical Group Sports Medicine.
Biggs deals with athletes of all ages who suffer from sports-related brain injuries and knows what to look for if one is suspected.
“A change in mood or a change in a person’s, maybe, activity level, you know, if they’re a very highly active person and they’re always on the go, you know, if there’s a change in that where, you know, they’re more fatigued or they don’t wanna do much as far as being active,” Biggs said.
Biggs also stressed kids may get snappier, which he said stems from them not understanding they’re injured.
Guardian Sports said their technology aims to help consecutive non-concussing hits, rather than one big hit.
“It’s the accumulation of all of those non-concussive hits over a player’s career. You know, the average high school lineman can take up to 1,000 hits to the head in a three-month season,” said Guardian Sports Co-Founder Erin Hanson. “So, what happens when you start it, you know, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, you know. And so, we, we feel the beauty of our product is reducing the impact of all of those hits.”
In an experiment at Stanford University, Associate Professor David Camarillo and colleagues tested these caps.
Using crash test dummies with motion sensors, they pounded dummy heads at various angles and speeds with and without the caps.
They found the cap offered protection when the head rotated, or at angular impacts, but not so much for straight on blows, which tends to be the main suspect for concussive hits.
“The problem is the brain is inside the skull case and it’s bumping up inside the skull case,” Biggs said. “So, unless you can somehow put airbags inside the brain between the brain and skull case, you’re not going to decrease the concussion.”
Hanson said he realizes this and wants everyone to shift their focus from the big concussive hit.
“You can have a guardian cap on your helmet and be hit in the chest,” Hanson said. “You can be hit face mask to face mask and still concuss. We really believe that it’s that reduction of impact over time on all of those non-concussive hits.”
Quincy Notre Dame Head Coach Jack Cornell said he saw no problem if one of his players wants to wear one.
“If a player came to me and asked if he could wear one, I would say absolutely yes. I think it’s totally up to the player, I wouldn’t put it against him. It would need to be our school color, obviously, but it’s not anything I’m interested in buying for all of our guys at this point,” Cornell said.
Although the caps don’t prevent concussions from big hits, there are still ways to strengthen your body to take the hit better.
“I think that when you have somebody that’s trained, when you train the right muscle groups over and over again, that is at least being somewhat proactive,” Cornell said.
“Work out your traps, work out your neck muscles, get your neck muscles big and that might help decrease the likelihood of having a head injury or concussion,” Biggs said.
Biggs said he is also an advocate of learning techniques with helmets off at a slow and controlled speed.
If your kid is suffering from any concussion-like symptoms, you can visit Biggs at Quincy Medical Group and the free sports concussion screening clinic, located at 1118 Hampshire St.