NFL Explained: Innovation in Player Health & Safety

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it's like no other sport touchdown

every ounce of preparation to achieve

that extra edge

it's that same relentless pursuit of

perfection that's helping fuel a

revolution off the field to improve

player health and safety with cutting

edge technological advancements

a revolution that is being driven by

data more of it than ever before is

collected to better help the nfl

understand exactly how injuries are

happening on field

it's a commitment that we're going to do

everything to make sure our players are

safer that we make our game safer and

that we actually lead in innovation

y'all know what we're playing for today

man so let's go get it man

innovation is at the core of everything

the nfl does to make the game safer

through its engineering roadmap and

other health and safety initiatives the

nfl has committed tens of millions of

dollars in both the lab and on the field

in stadiums and on players to gain

deeper insights into player injuries

that are improving protective equipment

driving safety related rule changes and

informing coaching and training

didn't i tell you it's hard to block me

the engineering roadmap was a

large-scale investment made by the

league to better understand concussions

on field and head injuries more

generally is experienced by nfl players

and so we hired a number of

biomechanical engineers experts in the

field who came from the automobile

industry understanding injury

biomechanics and we asked them what can

we do with the information that we have

here to analyze and better understand

what's happening on field and then

hopefully begin to prevent it and one of

the primary goals that came out of the

engineering roadmap has been ways to

transform the helmet industry to build

equipment that better protects players

the nfl has recruited engineering

experts like dr jeff crandall from

virginia-based biocore to help guide the

work

automobile safety has been one of the

most successful injury prevention

initiatives worldwide literally millions

of lives saved a lot of these sort of

approaches technology crash test dummies

crash testing that had been used in

automobile safety we said well how can

this be applied to the nfl environment

and how can we prevent injuries in the

nfl

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let's go

what's different about that approach and

translating it to field is in a car

crash you don't have video

we have video of every injury

if we can take those injuries on field

like a concussion and with the forces

and the impact we can build that in

laboratories so that has truly advanced

the way in which helmets are now

designed manufactured and then how they

translate to field

today's football helmets are products of

engineering and design that can take

years to innovate test optimize and

manufacture dr crandall's team built a

scientific model to test a helmet's

performance that opened the floodgates

for innovation and improvement in the

helmet industry the rate of innovation

today is nine times what it was before

the leak started testing helmets

we develop a performance score

which is based on 15 tests

five different locations three different

speeds that have all been identified for

what happens on field we put it on a

crash test dummy we measure through

sensors in the head what the

accelerations of the head are

and we give what's called a helmet

performance score which relates to how

well that helmet can actually manage the

forces and motions of impact

thank you once we have that helmet

performance score we put those on the

poster we rank them from top to the

bottom so the best performing have the

best helmet performance score

when i am fitting a helmet and talking

helmets with players i do recommend with

the save the star i do reference this

poster we do have the darkest green

which are the safest the lightest green

which is the next best and then the

yellow

we've done this for for many years now

and so our predictions of how helmets

are going to perform in a lab has

actually panned out on the laboratory

and so we hear things from players that

i trust the science which makes us happy

you put facts in front of them and they

come to us for recommendations and for

advice and and with the backing of this

data they are really starting to listen

and turn hey let's be smart let's put

this game away let's be smart

the nfl is not only testing existing

helmets but they are also incentivizing

entrepreneurs small businesses and

universities to develop better

protective equipment including helmets

through its series of head health tech

crowdsourcing challenges which have

granted over 4.5 million dollars since

2017 to advance 17 new technologies for

use in the nfl including its most recent

and largest challenge yet the nfl helmet

challenge

this is really about the innovators and

making sure that we're engaging with the

best and the brightest to make our game

safer for the next generation of players

one way to improve innovation even

further is to bring in new competitors

new entrepreneurs new ideas from

different sectors of the world for

example new engineers people from the

aerospace industry maybe from the

military or others who have different

ideas from the incumbent helmet

manufacturers so what we chose to do was

to put out a pretty substantial prize

see if people had new ideas that they

could bring into the fold and outperform

the currently best performing helmets

teams submitted their helmets for

testing after two years of research and

development the nfl awarded three teams

nearly 1.6 million dollars in grant

funding to continue to advance their

innovations

the first awardee collide is based in

montreal the team came from the medical

device industry and had never

manufactured a helmet before

the prototype that we have produced it's

really look like a standard helmet but

what is interesting is the liner that is

inside it's made of 3d printed pads with

a mesh structure and we were able to

calibrate this mesh so it can absorb and

redirect the energy so hopefully it can

better protect the players our mess is

made of 95 different pads with mesh

inside and each pad is different each

mesh is like optimized to absorb the

different type of impact that a player

can receive during the game

so as you can see the helmet looks

pretty standard for a football helmet

but we really worked on the different

aspects so it behaves the best during an

impact so we worked on the shell this

one is a demo shell but our shell can

deform quite a lot so it can distribute

the impact on most of the liner they are

hanging on the sling kind of a net

so it also it gives some flexibility and

it can really be conformable during an

impact we were super excited being

recognized by the nfl i think it shows

that the technology that we have

developed has some potential

to be worn by player and also the nfl

trust us that we can bring this

prototype even further

in the next year

the second awardee impressio is based in

denver colorado that was no stranger to

the nfl having won previous innovation

challenges for their revolutionary

energy-absorbing material

i'd always thought inside the body could

i use it to dissipate shocks and impacts

in joints but then i thought well all

the same concepts maybe principles

should apply turns out a helmet it's a

system of components it's a pretty

difficult one to solve but it really

kind of got us started and got us down

that pathway to say we have a great kind

of shock and impact dissipater why don't

we try to use it for head protection

so here is an example of our nfl helmet

challenge prototype submission you can

see it looks like a pretty normal helmet

and then our main focus was

changing the insides so if i pull this

back we can kind of see the lattice

structure we have these buckling columns

which their whole goal is to buckle in

the impact and then next is the lce

inside they will absorb

the energy as well and we can mold these

into different sizes and different

shapes this is the material that's

inside the 3d printed liner that is

helping with the energy dissipation

so the two are working in a system to

help reduce the severity of the impact

none of the materials that we put on the

inside are used in a traditional or

commercially available helmet right now

these are just brand new materials that

have never been used before

the third helmet challenge awardee

zenith was the only current helmet

manufacturer that received funding for

their design the team brought in new

partners and aimed to build upon the

zenith helmets worn by nfl players today

the ability to work with the nfl for

over a decade has been great for zenith

it allows us to get into the locker

rooms talk to players understand

what their needs and wants are from

any type of equipment that might go on

the field

team zenith's helmet prototype starting

from the outside of the shell in we have

a variable stiffness shell which allows

it to perform soft

in some areas under impact and firmer in

other areas moving inward the variable

stiffness shell is complemented by the

rheon labs material when we got the

chance to partner with zenith and

actually go for the head health

challenge award we jumped at the chance

and what we've done here is we've got a

material that behaves very differently

soft and flexible at low speeds and then

they stiffen up for medium speed impacts

and they stiffen up even more for high

speed impact the second technology on

the inside of the helmet shell is really

the lattice that we've developed this

lattice structure as you can tell is

very porous it's also been designed

for supreme comfort the combination of

all of these different technologies

really allow the helmet to perform

supremely well as a system and provides

optimal comfort for that on-field

experience

collecting and analyzing data to inform

helmet design is just one part of the

nfl's engineering roadmap another big

way the nfl uses this data is to guide

rule changes

i've been on the competition committee a

long time and i think one of the things

i learned early on in the committee was

don't ever be afraid of change and don't

ever be afraid of innovation if it's in

the name of player health and safety the

game will adjust the coaches will adjust

the fans will adjust and the game will

still be great

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football is a tough sport and played at

full speed but we should be in the

business of when we're given data and

given information that there's an

unreasonable risk of injury that we can

fix by rule we should do it

we're collecting all of this information

on field taking a look at what happens

when athletes get hurt and if you

examine enough of them you begin to see

patterns you begin to pick up trends you

might not otherwise see if you only look

at one individual circumstance at a time

so the aggregation of those different

data points an aggregation of those

different incidents on field is going to

lead a trained observer to reach some

conclusions you can share that both the

data as well as the insights with people

who make the rules changes and we've

talked to the competition committee

about this on an annual basis and in

fact much more frequently than that to

say hey these sorts of behaviors are

leading to these sorts of results or

this set of rules has a higher incidence

of this sort of injury

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one of the opportunities we saw is with

kickoffs we looked at kickoffs a number

of years ago and we saw there were

certain scenarios related to a wedge

block that's where two people come

together or three people come together

they basically go shoulder to shoulder

and they form a wedge we knew that that

play looked bad but we had no data

behind it as to what the wedge was

actually causing and then came the data

once we saw the wedge it was creating

all these problems we went back and

looked at the video confirmed it passed

a rule that said you can't have a wedge

recent rule changes have resulted in a

30 percent reduction in kickoff

concussions it's part of an overall

strategy the nfl has implemented through

more than 50 rule changes to eliminate

potentially dangerous tackles and reduce

the risk of injury

if you knew what we were looking at in

the old days with what we're looking at

today it's a lot easier to work with and

it's a lot easier to convince people

that whatever change you're gonna have

to make there's a reason we're making

the change right it's not just because

somebody told us something or people

think maybe this might work it's because

we have data and we can show them if we

change this this is the result if you

look at our injury numbers and look at

what we've done as a league you've seen

progress and that progress is by rule

changes that were driven by data so

that's a good story

but the innovation doesn't stop there

what the nfl's learned from his

concussion reduction efforts is now

being applied to reduce lower extremity

injuries this process looks at

everything from the cleats player's wear

to the weather and uses a machine

affectionately called the beast

we'll light this place up let's go

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the nfl's work at reducing head injuries

brought about a model that the league is

now applying to any injury that happens

on the field

we're always trying to find ways to

reduce overall injuries and so we look

at those hot spots what are the areas

where we really see those injuries

occurring and what can we learn about

those injuries and ultimately of course

prevent them

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the nfl uses radio frequency

identification or rfid tags embedded

within equipment to collect information

on which piece of equipment players are

wearing including the component parts of

each from a helmet's chin strap to its

face mask

as soon as the players step out of the

locker room and onto the field the tags

are activated by radio waves that send

data to a central digital inventory

management system this data is collected

for every player for every practice and

every game

the sort of data that we're collecting

now whether it be through the engineers

and breaking down some of the on-field

injuries in our frame by frame basis and

capturing it whether it be some of the

sensors in mouth guards or in shoulder

pads that didn't exist five or six or

ten years ago

an instrumented mouthpiece has a linear

accelerometer and an angular

accelerometer it has on-board memory and

it has some processing units in it so it

can basically measure the head impacts

that happen to players it can record

that locally and then when it gets back

to its control case it can download that

data to the control case

many of these player mouth guards are

fit using itero's custom 3d scanning

technology

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all of these new technologies and the

mind-blowing amount of data they are

collecting mean new opportunities for

the league to look closely at injuries

beyond concussions including lower

extremity injuries which are some of the

most complex injuries happening on field

can we replicate what we've done for

concussion for all injuries lower

extremity it's our highest burden injury

it's the most missed time by a player

but it's a very complex injury you have

the footwear you have what different

types of surfaces that you're playing on

you have climate

contact versus non-contact of that

injury so it's this different problem

set

just like the lab tests that the nfl

engineers came up with for helmets they

needed one for cleats and field surfaces

too

enter the beast

this is the beast the biomechanical

elite athlete shoe turf tester this is a

machine that is designed to characterize

the interaction between the cleat and

the surface in playing fields such as

this one the purpose of this measurement

is to verify whether excessive forces

are being applied or transmitted to

players on game-like situations

at a demonstration at metlife stadium

outside new york city this fall the

biocore team collected data from the

playing surface

really the key to it is that the loads

that we're pushing down with and pulling

with are taken from nfl athletes so we

know it's well associated with the game

and we're going to pull away from those

tests how much force did the cleat and

the surface hold together if the cleat

sticks what does that mean as far as the

forces that were transmitted through the

body and you'll see that the frame is

kind of kneeling down onto the turf the

purpose for that is it gives us a really

nice purchase we know it's not going to

move back and forth and we can put down

the sorts of loads that an nfl player

would put down

executing three two one

best way to think about lower extremity

injury is to think about lowering risk

if we can make the game five percent

safer a ten percent safer it may not be

easy to point to this injury was

prevented but we can look in aggregate

and say that we have fewer players

losing fewer days in a safer environment

this is all new it's cutting edge it's

innovative but also it's an obligation

for us to look for ways to improve the

safety of the game using all available

techniques and technologies and so

that's really what the goal here has

been it's exciting but at the same time

it's maybe something that couldn't have

been done just a few years ago and so we

really feel the opportunity to to make

some advances

let's go town let's today this train

rolling when you're trying to protect an

athlete what you really want to describe

are all the features around that athlete

that could either keep them safe or put

them at risk what is going on in the

game what is the environment sort of

what is the surface they're playing on

what is the equipment that they're

wearing all of those are going to impact

the performance and safety of an athlete

and so what we can do is we can say if

we know the features of that athlete

from each of those dimensions how can we

sort of optimize those to keep the

player as safe as possible

and that is the new frontier for the

nfl's innovative use of data it's called

the digital athlete

the digital athlete is a virtual

representation of an nfl player using

actual nfl games and data and then

analyzing it through artificial

intelligence and machine learning to

find better ways to predict and

hopefully over some period of time

prevent those injuries from occurring

with the digital athlete we can play an

infinite number of games we can have an

infinite number of seasons as opposed to

simply the real one which plays out in

the real world we can essentially run an

infinite number of scenarios and

simulate an infinite number of ideas

we believe in partnering with the best

in class aws is that they have

technologies that we obviously don't and

i think their approach to solving big

problems is something that we found very

attractive they have a tremendous desire

to be part of the solution they have

that kind of technology whether it's

machine learning that will help us take

the data that we have that they can now

analyze in so many different ways to

produce results and solutions to us that

we could only dream of many years ago

with the digital athlete the nfl is

leveraging artificial intelligence and

machine learning to make sense of all

this data and to generate new insights

that can keep improving all aspects of

the game from equipment to rehab rules

to coaching the ultimate goal injury

prediction and prevention

the way machine learning works you've

got models and those models have

algorithms and you can continuously have

more and better data and run that data

through more and better models

we have all the equipment scans we have

video and then we have the performance

tracking systems we're putting all of

those data streams together to create a

historical perspective of the player

and then now we're leveraging computer

simulation in order to generate injury

reconstructions on field and that allows

us to really understand

why did this player get injured

and then identify the things that we

could do

to change that outcome if we're able to

understand all the variables that do

happen on our fields and effectuate

change through those variables then we

would be able to advance the health and

safety of our players by preventing

injuries but also predicting

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fans may never see a lot of aspects of

the digital athlete but the fact that we

are helping players to understand the

helmets that they should be wearing in

the future maybe the cleats that they

should be wearing and we're helping the

nfl and the players to iterate on rule

changes that are good for the game while

being good for player safety will keep

players on the field more which is good

for everybody go go go

when we first started this a lot of

people were suspicious that we would

change the game in a way that people

wouldn't love that it would change the

game so dramatically so fundamentally

that it wouldn't be the game they all

love and i think we've proven that

that's not the case

we believe and we did believe at the

beginning that we could make our game

safer and keep the excitement and fun of

nfl football but it's keeping our

players safer and that had to be the

number one objective and we clearly have

achieved that

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