Latest news with #headgear
Yahoo
11-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GameBreaker Named Official Soft Shell Headgear Partner of the Super Football Conference
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., Aug. 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- GameBreaker, the pioneer and industry leader in soft shell protective headgear, is proud to announce its official partnership with the Super Football Conference (SFC) as the exclusive soft shell headgear provider. Recognized as the largest high school football conference in the country, the SFC is ushering in a new era of visibility, safety, and opportunity for student-athletes. This partnership aligns with the launch of the SFC Network, a groundbreaking streaming platform set to broadcast in-season matchups between New Jersey's most elite high school football programs. "GameBreaker is honored to join forces with the SFC in their mission to elevate the student-athlete experience through innovation, exposure, and safety," said Mike Juels, CEO. "As the trusted name in soft shell headgear—from the NFL to youth leagues—we are thrilled to support one of the nation's most prestigious high school football conferences as they expand their reach and impact." With athlete health and development as the top priority, GameBreaker's protective headgear will play a vital role in enhancing player safety across the SFC tackle and flag football footprint, supporting non-contact and limited-contact environments such as practices, 7-on-7 competitions, skill camps, girls flag football, and boys tackle football. The partnership reflects a shared commitment to excellence, innovation, and the future of high school football—backed by cutting-edge technology, professional-grade production, and strategic collaboration through the Accelerate Sports Ventures. To learn more about GameBreaker, visit Super Football Conference: The SFC is the largest high school football conference in the country with 112 member schools from 6 NJ counties. SFC Network: To subscribe to the SFC Network and watch live coverage of premier high school football, visit Media Contact: joshd@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE GameBreaker
RNZ News
15-07-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Headgear actually helping rugby players
sport health 30 minutes ago While some rugby players choose to wear headgear, those thin, foam caps don't prevent concussions, so many choose not to. But now, research has found isotropic materials may offer more comfort and protection for players. Nick Draper, Professor of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Canterbury chats to Jesse.
RNZ News
11-07-2025
- Sport
- RNZ News
Rugby headgear can't prevent concussion - but new materials could soften the blows over a career
By Nick Draper of Australia's captain Harry Wilson scores the winning try against Fiji in Newcastle July 6 2025. Photo: AFP Analysis - The widely held view among rugby players, coaches and officials is that headgear can't prevent concussion. If so, why wear it? It's hot, it can block vision and hearing, and it can be uncomfortable. Headgear was originally designed to protect players from cuts and abrasions. But players still hope it will offer them a degree of protection against the collisions they experience in the game. Some players adopt it after previous concussions. We're now seeing increasing numbers of professional players opting in. The Irish men's team, for example, field up to five players each match sporting headgear. In Japan, it's mandatory for juniors. And more parents in New Zealand are making their children wear it, too. The exact specifications for rugby match kit - boots, shorts, shoulder pads and headgear - are regulated through World Rugby's Law 4 and Regulation 12. In 2019, the governing body launched a trial enabling players to wear headgear with new technical specifications in training and matches. The specifications have meant manufacturers can take advantage of novel "isotropic" materials that can potentially reduce the impact forces experienced by players. Conventional headgear is composed of soft foams that flatten when a player's head collides with the ground or another player. As such, they can only minimally absorb those collision forces. Isotropic materials behave differently. They can absorb impacts from multiple directions and may offer a level of protection against the effects on a player's head of a tackle or other collision event. Given these changes, and in light of recent research, we may need to change the narrative around rugby headgear: while it may not prevent concussion, it might reduce the total contact "burden" experienced by players in a game and over a whole season. And this could have benefits for long-term brain health. Contact in rugby - through tackles, at the breakdown, and in scrums and lineouts - leads to players experiencing a number of collisions or "head acceleration events". This contact is most commonly head to ground, head to body or head to head. By having players use "smart" mouthguards with embedded micro-accelerometers and gyroscopes to capture head movements, researchers can now measure each collision and each player's contact load in a game - and potentially over a career. A player's total contact load is found by adding together the magnitude of the impacts they experience in a game. These are measured as "peak linear accelerations" or "peak rotational accelerations". While past research and media attention has focused on concussion, it has become clear the total contact burden in training and matches - the total "sub-concussive knocks" through head acceleration events - may be as important, if not more so. One of our own research projects involved following 40 under-16 players wearing smart mouthguards for all training and matches across one season. Peak Linear accelerations are measured as a g-force (g). Activities such as such as running, jumping and shaking the head would measure under 8g, for example, whereas heading a soccer ball might measure 31g. The results of our study showed the players differed greatly in their cumulative exposure over a whole season, from 300g to nearly 14,000g. These differences would be amplified further over an entire rugby career. Some of the variation is likely due to a player's team position, with loose forwards having a greater burden than others. But it also seems some players just enjoy the contact aspects of the game more than others. Researcher Helen Murray at the University of Auckland has highlighted the need for more research into the burden of collisions, rather than just concussions, over a rugby career. In particular, we need to know more about its effect on future brain health. We hope to contribute to this by following our existing cohort of players through their careers. In the meantime, our research has examined the potential of existing rugby headgear and new isotropic materials to mitigate peak accelerations in rugby collisions. Using the field data collected from male and female players over the past four seasons, we have designed laboratory testing protocols to compare the conventional and newer materials. The results suggest the new forms of headgear do have the potential to reduce the impact burden for players. We found 55-90 percent of head acceleration events do involve direct contact with the head. As such, collision-mitigation headgear could be beneficial. And our laboratory testing produced an estimated 30 percent reduction in peak linear accelerations with the headgear compared to without. The nature of concussion is complex and related to the size of an impact as well as its direction and angle. For instance, we observed the concussions experienced by the junior players occurred between 12g and 62g - well below the male threshold of 70g requiring professional players to be removed from the field for a head injury assessment. Currently, it seems unlikely headgear can prevent concussion. But it does appear new headgear materials could significantly reduce the total impact burden for players during their careers. And this may help safeguard their future brain health. This story originally appeared in The Conversation .
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fans React To Massive 'College GameDay' Announcement
Fans React To Massive 'College GameDay' Announcement originally appeared on The Spun. As Lee Corso prepares to sign off of "College GameDay" for the final time just a couple short months from now, one of the show's most beloved traditions will also reportedly be leaving with him. According to ESPN, "GameDay" will no longer be doing the iconic headgear picks following Corso's retirement. Which was also confirmed by longtime host Rece Davis: "No one is going to put on a mascot head ever again," Davis said. CFB fans around the country reacted to the news over the weekend. "Proud to have been a Lee Corso headgear pick ✅" Bowling Green replied. "Right move," a user said. "Can never replicate Corso." "No one else can do it like Corso. Good decision," another tagged ESPN. "This is truly a sad day," a fan admitted. "This is a bummer but totally understand the decision," another person commented. "I'll miss seeing it, but it's definitely the right and honorable thing to do," another user posted. "I have no problem with this Lee Corso is a legend," another fan shared. "I understand this move but I'm going to miss it. I made sure to tune in so I could see the headgear pick every Saturday. Without it, no point tuning in to College Gameday over other shows." "I mean no offense to the rest of the crew but the Gameday show as a whole will die out without Corso. You just can't replace what he brought with the headgear," a viewer pointed out. "Good they shouldn't," another account approved. The coach first started his headgear picks back in 1996 before they took on a life of their own and largely ended up defining the show's legacy over the next several decades. Of his 430 selections 286 were correct. But there was never a time that his picks didn't stir up a frenzy at whatever location the broadcast happened to be that week. Corso's final show will be on August 30 — 23 days after his 90th React To Massive 'College GameDay' Announcement first appeared on The Spun on Jun 21, 2025 This story was originally reported by The Spun on Jun 21, 2025, where it first appeared.
