Rebuttal Rewrite — dragon570

No Helmets In Football!

In football their are a lot of people who have gotten head injuries because of poor tackling. I came across a few articles and came up with an idea of having no helmets in football and just have the players learn how to tackle differently. After hearing that last sentence people may think that I was crazy and begin to think of different ways to lessen the amount of concussions in the NFL and by also keep helmets on. Having players get rid of their helmet in a sport that is mainly about physical contact on every play is outrageous. Having changed the way players tackle is the biggest factor. For example, if a player tries to tackle someone the same way as the NFL, without a helmet it wouldn’t be effective.

People would argue that if football helmets aren’t actually working the industries that make helmets should just add more padding. If helmet industries try that technique the brain isn’t the only things that they have to worry about, but also the football players neck because it will cause players to hold a bigger helmet that can put more pressure on their neck. However, having padding doesn’t help the brain from banging against the wall of players’ skull. It would just protect from skull fractures, but if we get rid of the helmets than players would be more cautious of their head on (both sides of the ball). Even now with how much padding they have now it’s very hard for a player to tackle a player without hitting his head on any part of the other players’ body at least once in one game and adding no padding can cause the helmet to become bigger and harder for the player to avoid tackling without hitting the helmet of the other player.

Another option, tackling differently but still have to helmets on. That could do the trick but the best way to make a rugby tackle is to have the helmets off because the way rugby players tackle is by leaning in with their shoulder and their will be arms the first to make contact to the other players’ body. If someone adds the same football helmets as American football and includes that same kind of rugby tackling it wouldn’t work as effectively because the football helmet is in the way of the football player that trying to make a tackle on the opposing player. For instance, If a player leans his head to the side and wraps his arms around the other player he will almost have the tackle right but the only thing that is in the way is having the helmet on which can cause the defensive player to hit his head against the offensive players’ body.

People may think that playing without helmets will cause more concussions. However, during my research I have found that their is a football league that allows players to play without helmets but the players tackle differently from how football players tackles. Players will have to learn how to tackle differently than how they were taught when they were younger because for the new tackling method to work and cause less concussions players will have to play without helmets. In the video on A7FL website Ryan DePaul talked how football players hit their helmet on every play even when they’re not tackling someone, it could just be from a simple block that causes players’ to hit their head on one another. Also, I read that players hit another players’ padding more than 1,000 times a season and adding a football players average amount of years they play pro football it will show that by the time they retire their brain is severely damage.

Doctors have come up with technology that shows the brain activity within the brain. Some people may think about the technology that doctors have today that study about the brains activity during football games. Even with this study it doesn’t prevent players from receiving a concussion, rather, it just shows the doctors the measure of the impact, where the brain made contact with the skull and how hard it hit the skull. The University of New Hampshire studied this technology. In Jenny Vrentas’ article, “Helmetless Football? It’s the New Practice at New Hampshire” she states “At first the University of New Hampshire football players were skeptical when they started practicing without helmets, but this technique is not only making them more cautious about their heads, it is also helping them improve their game.” After having this research done their are a great number of teams that are having some practice drill without helmets. It makes the players rethink the ways they use to tackle another player to the ground.

Some people may think that if the NFL gets rid of helmets it would be like watching Rugby and their is no point in watching American football anymore. It may be like watching Rugby, but there will be similarities and differences just like others sport. For example, A7FL and the National Football League. They have the same concept of scoring a touchdown, however, they are different because A7FL players don’t have helmets and the NFL does as a result, A7FL tackles differently from the NFL. The NFL may look like Rugby but their will also be differences, such as, The NFL will still have pads and the same number of players on the field as usually but the only thing that will change is that the NFL will be tackling the same as Rugby. Rugby will still have the same rules as they do now. The football players would be less likely to receive a concussion if they tackle the correct way like Rugby players do. All sports are similar in some way because they all have an objective of scoring points for their team and some rules are the same in all sports. The differences could be that their is no physical contact or lots of physical contact.

Work Cited:

A7FL. “Safety – A7FL.” A7FL. A7FL, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2016

Vrentas, Jenny. “Helmetless Football? It’s the New Practice at New Hampshire.” The MMQB. Muscles and Medicine, 4 Dec. 2014. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.