I've only ever had one concussion from a head-to-head hit in football but I’ve also only played for a little bit. But some people got forced to retire from the sport if they had too many concussions or other head injuries. Some of them even ended up getting brain damage from them. I think the best way to stop head injuries is to make better helmets and that's what I'm going to be talking about with my points being helmets, head injuries, better ones, and challenges.

I think that some positions should be limited to certain helmets. The best helmet I think the O/D line is the Vicis Zero2 Trench. The main reason why I think that every Linemen should use this helmet is that they take the most head-on hits with it being almost every play. The Vicis helmet would help with that because it has a little piece on the front of it to reduce the hit so it's not as bad on the head. The next helmet I think people like WRs, QBs, RBs, and other positions like that should use is the Riddell SpeedFlex Precision Diamond. The Speedflex Diamond and the Speedflex are pretty much the same just the Diamond is a little better. The Diamond is also one of the best overall helmets and it would work for linemen just not as well as the one I think they should use.

Head injuries can be some of the most common injuries and the most dangerous ones. One of the most common head injuries is a concussion, the more concussions the player gets the worse the long-term effects can be with some of them being balance issues, difficulty concentrating, trouble with eyesight and many more things. The next head injury is CTE, CTE is a brain condition that gets slowly worse over time and will lead to dementia. Players can get CTE from multiple hits to the head. Some symptoms of it are memory loss, aggression, depression, anxiety, and many other things and the average life expectancy of someone with CTE is only 51 years. And according to an article on February 7, 2023, titled “BU Finds CTE in Nearly 92 Percent of Ex-NFL Players Studied” by Doug Most at Boston University CTE has been found in 345 out of 376 players. Next is getting paralyzed, paralysis is very rare with only around 7 high school players, 1 college player, and 2 NFL players ever getting it but there have been more that got temporarily paralyzed with the most recent being Ryan Shazier in 2017. Most of the time those injuries are from head-on hits and that could be preventable with better helmets.

The NFL has the financial resources to invest in way better helmets with them making a little over 17 billion dollars this year. And according to an article on November 16, 2018, titled “NFL awards $35M in grants for brain, concussion research” by Michael Walter at Innovate Healthcare, the NFL spends around 35-40 million on brain research and more. So they could spend way more than they actually do on it and by doing that it would lead to fewer injuries which could mean fewer lawsuits and ultimately save them a lot of money. And spending more on protecting the players it could make the game more fun to watch because when the players are playing they play more conservatively to avoid an injury but if they reduce the risk of getting injured the players would play more aggressively leading to bigger hits and better plays making more people want to watch.

Making helmets will also come with some challenges. The biggest one is the cost of making the actual helmet. The NFL makes custom-fit helmets for players almost every year and they would probably cost around 1,500 dollars each and with there being tons of players it would be a big investment but they do have the money. Some players also might not want to switch to a different helmet and just keep the one that they are used to. Those are just some of the challenges I think it's still worth it to invest in better helmets the NFL should do everything they can to make sure that the players are safe and making better helmets is one of the best ways to do it. It might take time and resources to make these helmets but the long-term benefits are worth it.

In conclusion, the NFL needs to prioritize player safety and one of the best ways to do it is by making better helmets. By putting in a lot of money to make these helmets and money into research about head injuries the NFL could make the game way more safe and fun. Even though helmets have come a long way since they were first made they still have some limitations that could result in a bad injury for a player. While there are definitely going to be some challenges in doing this the long-term benefits for the players and the league will definitely be worth it.