I answered my main inquiry, the answer. My qustion is How does football gear protect a football player and how can we improve it? I got my anwser in a diffent way because I couldn’t anwser it strait up, but I got Football gear can be improved in many ways. Helmets can be improved by adding harder shells which will deflect the power of a hit, but improved padding is what will protect a player’s head. So padding is the only way to keep NFL players from having concussions and head injuries. Their design can be improved by adding more padding but padding should weigh less so that a player can run faster and be more protected. Lots of people think knee pads interfered with the player’s running and movements. Chest protectors can be improved by adding more padding and some stronger outer protection. Understanding how football gear is designed to protect players is an important subject. Padding can be improved by adding more padding but makking it weigh less. It took a long time to find out all of this infomation and I worked really hard on it. I got information for many places and Vito Contento who interviewed helped me alot to anwser this qustion. It was hard make the eassy because It was hard to make it sound like an eassy. It took a while but I got it and here it is:
Have you ever watched a football game and wondered why football players are so safe from injuries? Well, you are in luck because this essay answers, “How does football gear protect a football player and how can we improve it?” The football gear I will be focusing on to answer this question includes helmets, chest protectors, and football pads. Helmets are good for protecting a player’s head, chest protectors protect a player’s chest, and football pads protect their shoulders, knees and other parts of their body, too.
Helmets are one type of protective gear. They protect a player’s head. This is important because football players often go head-to-head and concussions are very likely to happen if they didn’t have a helmet. The outer portion of the football helmet is made from a polycarbonate alloy that is strong, flexible and durable. The outside of the helmet is designed to deflect the force of impact to a player’s head. Football helmets are designed to minimize the risk of player concussions and prevent such injuries as facial lacerations, bone fractures and tooth loss. The padding inside the outer shell helps deflect teh impact and is what plays an important part in preventing concussions. How can a helmet be made better? Adding harder outer shells would make it harder but extra padding is the only way to keep NFL players from having concussions and head injuries. I agree with Vito Contento, the Jets equipment manager, the person I interviewed. He says the Jets and other NFL teams “let the helmet companies fight against each other to making the better helmets so they’re much better.” He and and the company he works for, The New York Jet, mostly try to push their industry so they make better helmets and they can protect their players better. He also said that “we only try to keep the player safe from injuries.” I really agree with the part that we should push the industry to make better football gear.
A second type of football protective gear — chest protectors — are good for protecting players’ chests. Chest protectors — like helmets — are designed to absorb and distribute the force from a striking object so that the individual wearing the protective gear experiences less of an impact. Chest protectors can reduce the risk of “traumatic structural injuries” to the chest, like rib fractures. However, chest protectors have not been proven to be effective in preventing sudden cardiac death from commotio cordis. The typical chest protector plate is made of molded layers like plastic. It usually has a central layer of a high-impact polymer pad, such as a dry polyurethane gel; and two layers of high impact resistant fabric, preferably para-aramid fibers, with the polymer pad being sandwiched between the two layers of impact-resistant fabric. Do chest protectors need to be improved? Yes. Chest protectors have to be improved because as a fact, studies have shown that about 30% of the athletes who died from commotio cordis during a sporting event were wearing some type of chest protector. This shows that their design should be improved. Also, we need to make sure that every football player wears the same reliable chest protector. How can chest protectors be improved? Chest protectors can be improved by adding more padding and some stronger outer protection. As Vito Contento thinks that NFL teams can put pressure on companies to make better protective gear. The Jets, Vito said, “let the brands do all the making and engineering work to make it better.”
A third type of protective gear — pads — are good for protecting players’ shoulders, knees, and more. Football players’ shoulders, knees and many more bones would be broken without football pads. Football pads are made of strung-on tight webbing and, on impact, distribute the shock through a larger pad that protects against injury. All football players need to wear pads. The thickness and type of pads may vary depending on the position played. For example, quarterbacks, place kickers, and punters generally use lightweight shoulder pads that stay in place and don’t affect line of sight or head movement while other players may go with heavier pads which stay in place after taking a big hit. Pads and protection that should be worn include shoulder pads, collar pads, hip pads, thigh pads, knee pads, neck rolls, athletic supporters, rib pads, forearm pads, and tailbone pads. It can be tempting for a player to avoid certain pads in an attempt to be lighter or more flexible, but they won’t be a very good player if they are on the sidelines injured. Shoulder pads protect players by absorbing some of the energy of an impact through deformation of the exterior shell, while at the distributing the energy through a larger area so there is less pressure at the point of impact. The weight of the shoulder pads and level of protection often varies by position group. According to Vito Contento, shoulder pads are the most important type of padding a football player should use. He said, “We worry about the shoulder pads. Those are the things that really matter the most because not many football players use their chest as much as their shoulders, and when they fall it’s mostly on the shoulder not their chest and that really hurts the football players. Also rim protectors are also very helpful for shoulder pads because they cover around/near their shoulders which really helps them and some rib protectors are on their shoulders.” While Vito thinks shoulder pads are most important he thinks all pads are necessary. As Vito added, “You should put every single pad possible on yourself because the more protection the better. ” Most people don’t wear hip pads so Vito says that “no one ever asked him for hip pads and he thinks that’s not very good because every single part of your body should be protected and you want as much padding as possible.” Can football pads be improved? Yes. The design of football pads can be improved. For example, it should weigh less so that a player can still run fast without being weighed down by the protective padding.
In conclusion, football gear protects a football player because helmets protect the head, chest protectors protect the chest, and pads protect shoulders, knees, and more. Football gear can be improved in many ways. Helmets can be improved by adding harder shells which will deflect the power of a hit, but improved padding is what will protect a player’s head. So padding is the only way to keep NFL players from having concussions and head injuries. Their design can be improved by adding more padding but padding should weigh less so that a player can run faster and be more protected. Lots of people think knee pads interfered with the player’s running and movements. Chest protectors can be improved by adding more padding and some stronger outer protection. Understanding how football gear is designed to protect players is an important subject. Padding can be improved by adding more padding but makking it weigh less. I learned that while football teams don’t make football gear, they can and do push the football gear companies to make better football gear.
It took so long and hope that you liked it alot. Here is my final project under neath it is a wevideo.
