Helmet Safety

[Summo]

The latest hot button topic is helmet safety and development and as you know some of the world’s best inventions were originally radical or abstract ideas that were eventually refined to the product we use today. In that vein I think it would make a good discussion to see what radical helmet designs or ideas you guys have that might seem farfetched now but maybe an actual feasible concept in essence. With that said here is mine.
As you have seen a lot of concussion occurs when the head is whipped violently in one direction. The neck acts as the fulcrum of the head and there probably isn’t much you can do about it other than softening the blow to the head. You can look at what NASCAR has done with the HANS device which limits the movement of the head which wouldn’t work for most of the players on the field, maybe just the lineman and linebackers but certanliey not the WR’s or backs.
There are scientist researching ways to make football helmets more effective in preventing concussions and one idea is to make the shell less rigid with more give in order to cushion the blow as seen in this article: Dean Sicking turns attention to football - NFL Racing NASCAR - ESPN
My concept is to go a step further by making the helmet in two layers, an inner layer that is closely fit to the players head and an outer shell that moves independently with a sort of suspension in between the two, see sketch below.



It’s kind of like the Nike Shox system, where you have the lower sole of the shoe then those big rubber “Shox” then the sole of the shoe where your foot is. If the outer shell moves first which I believe would lessen the blow directly to the head and lessen the blow of the brain slamming against the player’s skull. Unfortunately concussions are inevitable and you can only hope to lower the number so here is my concept let’s see yours.