BYU Lineman blocking with no helmet

josh.. i believe the rule is that play stops if the BALL CARRIER loses his helmet.

I don't know. I can see it at the lower levels... but once you reach a certain age, the player can choose to protect himself. ESPECIALLY an offensive player without the ball.

I think most players will feel compelled to if you give them the choice. Isnt that a good reason to take it out of their hands and kill the play though, then its not an issue they have to answer for.

Sincerely,
Joshua Norton

I agree it seems like the last few years it happens repeatedly in almost every game I watch.

Sincerely,
Joshua Norton

I figured him getting up and throwing another block, with or without his helmet, was the least he could do for blowing his assignment so bad. I suppose there's nothing like getting owned and having everyone see your face. That would certainly be motivation for me to get up and make something happen. He could've just laid there which I believe would've been a flaggable offense. Wait...you get abused by the DE, don't wear your helmet properly so it goes flying off, and then just lay there until the whistle blows. Ouch! Sure there's a safety concern, but then again, he could've gotten his head stepped on by another 300 pounder if he would've laid there. Who knows? Great demonstration of "pride" which is not settling for anything less than your best. He didn't settle. Outstanding job young man.

Players want their helmets to come off. Why? Because the cameras immediately go to someone with their helmet off...and bam, your mug is on TV.

I doubt this lineman was thinking that...but to the comment about them coming off more often...I think this is the reason.

example - Brian Orakpu doesn't want to have to say his name in those Geico commercials...but people don't recognize his face yet so he has to. MOre recognizable face = more $$.

There is no reason for helmets to come off. THey should be on tight, two buckles. All these rules to help protect players, but I'm not seeing anything on rules on what helmets you can wear...some of these guys put them on as easy as putting a baseball cap. Shouldn't be that easy...

i've done about as much research on this as you have - as to "why" helmets come off.

we can all probably agree that not all helmets are fitted properly (this is fault of coaches)
we can all probably agree that over use, the air bladders may lose some air - which means it must be regularly check (fault of player & coach)

players wear their helmet loose because:
they don't like the "snug" feel - want comfort
they want to take them off easier, or rest them on top of their head - ease

they want to have their helmet knocked off? that sound right to anyone?

forget the NFL - we don't coach there
forget D1 - we don't coach there
forget TV - we don't play on tv

IF it is the apparent epidemic as some mentioned and your kids helmets come off to add to this epidemic ... that's on you.... fit your kids properly. have regular helmet checks. if it is happening multiple times in a game - then find a new guy to do the fittings.

let's not rule out physics here either (as reason other than want to look pretty on TV) - force, mass, acceleration, leverage, momentum. all factors in knocking someone's helmet off on a rare occasion.

i can't easily recall the last time one of our kids helmets just came rolling off. i know it's bound to have happened a time or two in recent years - just can't immediately pull up an anecdote in my mind.

all to say -

should we worry about our players losing their helmets in a game? yes - but should it be because we are disgusted with the "me" first mentality or because we are concerned about their safety & our liability?

First of all, way to show commitment dude. That's an awesome effort.
And as far as losing your helmet, it's half happened to me once while playing on d line. As the o line came to block I dropped down lower and caught his hand just under my chin lifting my helmet 3/4 of the way off (and busting my lip wide open) and my helmet is fitted properly, it's uncomfortable but it does what it's
Meant to do

Eventually football will be about toughness once again... I just got done reading the book on Vince Lombardi and he is probably rolling over in his grave right now with all of the stuff going on with the game he loved.

Same amount of damage that there has always been, but now we are looking for it so it "appears" more often. Same thing happened with cancer. Amount of cancer isn't getting worse, our ability to find it is getting better. People used to die in their early 50's of "natural causes" all the time. Now we call it one of the million cancers we know about.

The only way to eliminate the injuries is to completely remove the contact from the sport. Then the sport is over. My little brother could not play his last 8 games of his junior year and his entire senior year of high school due to concussions. He is an assistant on my staff and he is one of the first ones to say that he just had bad luck with the hits he took and for him he had to quit football. If these players do not wish to play football due to the risk of injury, that is perfectly fine by me. Play basketball and then try to make a rule to prevent knee overuse injuries. Any of those NFL players who want to make my salary and have no risk of concussions from teaching I would take their salary and be a tackling dummy for a couple of years.

High Risk = High Pay

Sorry.. i am really on one this week with all of the attacks that football is under. I personally do not watch the NFL anymore or care about any of the "records" being broken. Dan Marino could have passed for 10,000 yards in a season if the DB's weren't allowed to touch WR's and the DL weren't allowed to hit the QB. Not a surprise that rookie QB's can all of a sudden be good QB's in the NFL. The #1 learning curve used to be the physicality of the DB's with the WR's and the ferocious pass rushes.

I'm done with the soap box and hope that we can keep this one part of our culture where fighting through pain, injury, and tough times is the point. God knows that 99% of the kids I teach quit as soon as anything gets hard.

Outstanding!!! That is all.

Something that I've been harping on for a few years now - Get rid of helmets! If this game were played with no helmets on, or at least in rugby-style scrum caps, I'll bet that most head injuries would never happen, because players would not use their head as a weapon, and would learn to tackle correctly.

You all may think I'm crazy, but as a former football and rugby player for most of my life, I'll tell you that I've suffered far fewer head injuries playing rugby than football, and heads-up tackling is much more common.

CL

seriously?