What would happen if football players didn't wear helmets?

(phone ringing)

(laughing)

- [Woman] Sorry!

- Hi, it's Doug.

That's about all I can do with a football right now,

given my broken arm.

I really wish I could go out and toss this thing around,

but I guess I'll have to settle for watching the Super Bowl.

Someone named Diego has a question about football.

Let's give him a call now.

(phone ringing)

- Hi, Doug.

- Hi, Diego.

- I have a question for you.

What would happen if football players didn't wear helmets?

- That's a great question.

If you've watched football,

and I mean American football,

you've probably noticed that the players

seem to wear a lot of protective gear,

like thick pads on their bodies

and big helmets on their heads.

Football is different from a lot of other sports,

like compared to soccer, where the players wear

a lot less protective gear.

Why do you think that is?

Why do football players have to wear all this gear,

but in other sports they don't?

Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.

Okay, you ready?

Well, you might know that, in American football,

the players are tackling each other all the time.

If you tried to pull that off in soccer,

you'd get yelled at by the ref.

In American football, the players are

supposed to run into each other.

It's a pretty rough sport,

which is why they have to wear

all that protective gear.

But it wasn't always that way.

When American football was first invented,

they didn't wear any gear at all.

They didn't even have to wear helmets.

It didn't take long for people to realize that,

with all the tackling that goes on,

players need something to protect their bodies.

Helmets were especially important,

so that players wouldn't be bumping their heads.

Now, you might think, with helmets and pads,

the problem would be solved,

but it turns out, even wearing a helmet,

players can still really hurt their heads.

Like, watch this player right here.

Now, he's just been tackled really hard.

He hit his head when he got tackled.

Now, from the outside, you wouldn't see anything wrong,

even if you took off his helmet right now

and checked his head.

He doesn't have any scratches, there's no bumps,

there's no broken bones.

But now watch.

Notice as he tries to get up.

You can see he's dizzy, he's a little confused,

he can't really walk right.

After getting tackled, even though

his head looks all right on the outside,

there can still be an injury on the inside.

A scientist named Dr. Bennet Omalu

was very interested in discovering what was happening.

It turns out that your brain is surrounded

by a layer of liquid that cushions it

from bouncing around too much.

Here's a helpful way to think about it.

Picture an egg.

Now think of the inside of the egg.

You've got the yolk inside of there.

It's surrounded by liquid.

Well, the brain is kind of like that.

You see, normally if you open up an egg,

the yolk looks nice and round like this.

But if you shake an egg and then you open it up, look.

See, the yolk got damaged from being shaken,

even though the outside of the egg was totally fine.

Now, to be fair, your brain is a lot tougher

than the yolk of an egg,

and it doesn't get scrambled or anything

when it gets shaken.

But my point is, your brain is fragile.

If you bump into something and the brain gets shaken,

it won't work right, at least for a few moments.

You might feel dizzy and you might have trouble thinking.

When the brain gets shaken and stops working like that,

that's what we call a concussion.

Now, getting a concussion doesn't mean

that you have permanent brain damage.

Most concussions heal quickly

once the brain has a chance to rest.

In fact, when I fell and broke my arm recently,

I also hit my head and I had a concussion.

After getting some rest, my head was fine the next day.

Lots of people get a concussion

at some point in their lives.

After all, it's pretty easy to accidentally hit your head.

That's why you should always wear a helmet

doing any kind of activity where

you might hit your head.

But what about football players?

Think about it, someone who plays football for a living

might get a lot of concussions.

They might get hit in the head

lots of times over the years.

Well, there's good news and there's bad news.

That scientist, Dr. Bennet Omalu,

he discovered that getting lots of concussions

can lead to serious problems,

like having trouble remembering things.

But here's the good news: because of

Dr. Omalu's discoveries and his hard work,

the National Football League, the NFL,

has been trying to figure out

how to keep players from injuring their brains,

and they've already made some changes,

like making it against the rules

to hit another player helmet to helmet,

and having referees immediately stop the game

if a player ever loses their helmet.

So, in summary, helmets are so important

for protecting your brain from injury.

But even with helmets, football can be dangerous

because of how often the brain gets shaken

when players get tackled.

Scientists and the NFL are working on ways

to make football safer for players.

That's all for this week's question.

Thanks Diego for asking it.

Now, for the next episode, I reached into my question jar

and found three questions submitted to me

that I'm thinking about answering.

When this video is done playing,

you'll get to vote on one.

You can choose from, "Why do we celebrate Valentine's Day?"

"How does the heart pump blood?"

Or, "Who is Cupid?"

So, submit your vote when the video is over.

I wanna hear from all of you watching.

There are mysteries all around us.

Stay curious, and see you next week.