I submitted this for fun of course, but still......
I have been giving serious thought to the whole concussion business in the NFL, and wrapping my head around the what's and how's of the way they occur.
I'm no doctor or engineer but I like to think I have a good head for figuring things out in a solid, easy to understand fashion. (My dad was a structural engineer, and almost all of my uncles were doctors so at least I've been around the mindset my whole life, if that counts...)
I know the experts have probably thought of everything but I never see the public discussion about a couple of things that I know unequivocally will impact the state of the cause of concussions in the NFL.
Layman's terms is all I know, so don't expect any Latin terms or fancy medical speak....
First, you have to see the root cause of a concussion. It's the brain slamming against the inside of the skull due to impact from the outside of the skull, basically "bruising" the brain. (The brain swims in fluid so it has a kind of 'wiggle room' inside the skull...)
When you have a high impact strike the skull is quickly and forcibly moved in a direction, while the brain in it's cozy little self contained swimming sphere can't move with it at said quick pace so the skull smacks into it. If you were looking at a fast, hard impact like this on a line graph you'd see a low horizontal line, then a quickly ascending spike (probably nearly vertical) then a very slightly more gradual dropping back down to the original horizontal line. It's that spike that's the root cause of a concussion. The spike happens because of the speed at which the skull is moved when it is struck.
Now, knowing that you cannot slow players down in this game, what you have to try to slow down is that spike of impact when they make contact with helmets. I know a lot of you have real NFL helmets (probably with team or individual signatures on them, you lucky $^&&##$%&**'s) so you can see for yourself the amount of padding that is inside them, it's a LOT. It's also rather stiff. If you'll 'test' the outer shell of the helmet, you'll see it's much stiffer yet. Football helmets are really rather hard, all things considered.
And that's where I see the whole of the problem.
Sure, tons of stiff padding = protection. Hard, stiff shell = protection
But also....
Stiff = energy transfer
Stiff Energy transfer = energy spikes at moment of impact
spikes at moment of impact = concussions
So you've got to round off those spikes. Make them take longer to develop, thereby lessening their transfer of energy to the skull.
The helmet design I've got in my head is comprised of 2 shells. A more flexible outer shell (roughly half the stiffness of one of today's helmets) and a normal inner shell to assist in distributing any sudden impact that makes it through the outer shell.
Now, between the 2 shells is a 1/4" gap filled with non-fastened sorbothane balls 1mm smaller than the 1/4" void itself. They don't roll around or anything because they are placed in a single layer that completely fills the void between the 2 shells. The advantage I see here is that you've got an outer layer that has more 'give' and will absorb that 'moment of impact' in a lazier manner than a stiff shell, and a second layer that is essentially a blanket of kinetic energy absorbing foam that would further dispel that 'energy spike' before the wearer's skull even moves.
Think of the difference this way, it's a little of an extreme example but it should get the point across.
You've all seen those executive time wasters that involve a row of ball bearings hanging by wires all in a row, and when you pull an end one back, let it go and it strikes the other steel balls the impact and transference of energy travels all the way through the line popping the ball at the far end off about the same distance the first ball was dropped.
Imagine the same item but with softer, plastic balls hanging from the wires. Pull back the end one, let it go, and the energy transference you'll see at the other end will be far less.
I expect on that graph we talked about earlier you wouldn't see that almost vertical spike of energy anymore, but instead one smaller in height and more angled out or rounded.
I firmly believe that a helmet of this design (perhaps done by REAL engineers though) would successfully curb the concussion rate this game currently has.