Einstein

He definitely got there early. But I have seen FAR more egregious PI’s not called on last second heaves. That is my largest issue. Lack of consistency. Remember this? Two offensive players mugged - no call. Happens all the time on those last second gotta-have-a-miracle plays. It seems like it’s called when they want it called. And that means it’s less about the rule and more about what they feel like doing in the moment.

Yeah, that’s true.

Ehh… The defensive player has just as much right to the ball as the offensive player. Its all about perception.

Studies should be done on want Lou Anarumo does when he faces KC. It is like magic.

And its one of my favorite things about him.

Definitely didn’t see Baltimore starting 0-2. First time they have started 0-2 in almost a decade.

I say this with kindness: Your understanding of physics is deeply flawed and it’s preventing you from seeing how far off-base your suggestions are. When you squeeze or hit a glove filled with air, the air simply moves - it’s redistributed, not absorbed, dissipated, or dampened. Redistribution of air does nothing to negate energy; it just shifts the energy to another area. In the context of a helmet, this would be dangerous. Redistributing all that impact energy to specific points on the head means certain areas could take much more force, increasing the risk of injury. The point of a helmet is to absorb and dissipate energy across the entire surface, preventing it from reaching the brain. Redistribution, on the other hand, does nothing but move the risk to a different area without reducing it. As you and Sierra are finding out, this is a very complex problem. We have many PhD’s working on this issue and it’s difficult for them as well. There is no simple answer.

The problem with pressure relief valves are three-fold: 1) The existence of such valve mitigates the cushioning effect of the air bladder. Thus why the Zorb balls you posted above don’t have them. If they did, the human inside would feel the hit of the person upon them, rather than being cushioned. 2) Another problem with a pressure relief valve is, even if you found some benefit (which is doubtful), you would have to find a way to reinflate to specification after each collision. 2) The next idea you will likely think of is a pressure relief valve that slowly dissipates energy. The problem with that is energy does not wait for you to dissipate. The kenetic to potential energy will spring back faster than you can relieve it over time.

And then where does that compressed air go?

Padding on the outside of the helmet doesn’t use air displacement. The padding functions by absorbing and dispersing impact energy through the padded outer layer. It compresses on impact, which reduces both linear and rotational forces that reach the head. This in turn helps to slow down the impact by spreading the force over a larger area and increasing the time of deceleration, thus reducing the peak force that reaches the brain.

Justin Jefferson my goodness. Hindsight is 20/20 but imagine if we drafted him

The Saints offense has been absolutely explosive through 2 weeks.

Titans lost to the Bears last week. Im shocked at how bad the Jets look.

Are you trying to reduce concussions or increase the risk? I assume you mean external air displacement. How familiar are you with the physics involved? If you introduce air displacement into a helmet, you’re converting the kinetic energy from an impact into potential energy stored in the compressed air. When that air decompresses, the stored energy is released, which could cause the head to spring back after an impact. Now, picture a football player falling backward and hitting their head on the turf. The energy from the impact would be stored as potential energy, but when that energy is released, it could cause the head to rebound off the turf. This ‘bounce-back’ effect would increase the risk of concussions or other forms of traumatic brain injury. Managing impact energy is about absorbing it, not releasing it back into the head. Sounds like a good way to sever brain stems.

There is zero evidence of this. Due the mechanism of concussions, the hard shell is not meant to prevent them. It is meant to prevent TBI’s and skull fractures. They were developed because humans were dying, right on the field and in emergency rooms, from head hits before helmets. Someone else in this thread mentioned crumple zones and helmets similar to motorcycle helmets. But those are one-time use. You are supposed to throw a motorcycle helmet away after a collision. NFL would be throwing away between 240 and 300 helmets every game.

The “problem” (so to speak) of donating to these player foundations is that they are often the least effective way of helping. 1) The players often have little to nothing to do with the foundation outside of lending their name and maybe a minuscule portion of their time (mostly for photo-ops). The management firms that actually run these foundations do so in order to make money off of donations. For example, of the ~$400k that was donated to Andy Dalton’s foundation, ~$100k of that was paid to a management firm. 2) These management firms, after taking their cut, divvy up the funds to organizations or causes of their choosing. Tua’s foundation, for example, has a very wide-spread and generic focus which means they can pretty much donate their funds to anywhere and anything. With these two facts in mind, it is easy to see that it is far more beneficial for a fan to donate directly to a cause that uses their funds for a purpose that is meaningful to the fan and and is wholly used for that purpose, rather than donate to a middle-man player foundation that dilutes the money and then chooses where to send the funds. My final concern with the donation trend is that it is ego-driven. This is why we often see updates “Up to X amount” and “Keep it going, we are almost over XX amount”. All that being said, I have no problem with people donating. Especially if Tua matches it, like he did last time. I genuinely think Tua is a good human being and I think the money will end up with a good cause, but I believe that it is undeniably the least-effective way of donating due to middlemen.

For perspective, Marv’s win % in Buffalo was .615

Tying Belichick’s win % is something I never thought I’d see a Bills head coach do. That is incredibly impressive.

They really are in a pickle, aren’t they? They just paid a concussion-prone QB who has never won a playoff game, or any big game for that matter, an obscene amount of money. And 2 games after giving him that contract, he is concussed again, on national TV.

Those big balls are funny. Yes, the safety of the ball works by dampening the the energy that transferred. When you hit something, the ball compresses and stores potential energy. It then decompresses and releases the stored energy which compels the person backward. It is actually a great analogy of why helmet design is so difficult. The energy has to go *somewhere*. In the ball, that energy is released by sending the human inside it flying across the field. Physics doesn’t allow energy to simply be absorbed and then disappear. Unlike the air ball, where potential energy is released via the bounce-back, a helmet distribute energy without projectiling the brain. This is what makes the challenge of helmet design so tricky. How do we manage that energy?

Just FYI—Helmets don’t “absorb” energy, at least not in the way most people think. They dampen, disperse, and dissipate it. During a hit, the energy from the impact is primarily kinetic energy, which is the product of one-half the mass of the player, multiplied by the velocity squared (KE = 1/2 mv²). When two players collide, some of this kinetic energy is transformed into thermal energy as the materials in the helmet (or body) compresses and deforms. Some of the energy is also converted into mechanical energy (sound), which is why you hear the “pop.” If the helmets or players bodies deform during the hit, that’s also energy being transformed through deformation, meaning the force is spread out and thus reducing the impact on one specific location. This is the basis of impulse momentum theorem, which states that the force multiplied by the time of impact equals the change in momentum (FΔt = Δp). Extending the time of impact reduces the force experienced. In more elastic collisions, this energy remains mostly as kinetic. The idea of leather helmets is ridiculous and regressive, and would lead to skull fractures.

We are up by 21 in the 4th quarter with a backup QB playing and Elam still doesn’t see the field 😮

That would be unfortunate. In many ways he is better than Tua.