Equipment

Nine football helmets have earned five stars in the 2014 Virginia Tech STARHelmet Ratings,^TM but experts, including the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, say the results should be viewed with caution in light of a host of methodological limitations.

Youth football players get hit on the helmet almost as hard as older players but not nearly as often, says researchers at Virginia Tech.

New guidelines have been issued for ensuring that a football helmet fits properly, which a 2012 unpublished research paper found was a simple but effective step in minimizing risk of concussion and catastrophic brain injury.

Ensuring that football helmets fit properly, and that those with air bladder linings are properly inflated, may be two of the simplest but most effective ways to minimize the risk of concussion and catastrophic brain injury, say the authors of a February 2012 study.

When your son plays contact or collision sports, there is always the risk of testicular injury.  To protect against such injury, boys need to wear a cup.

The National Athletic Equipment Reconditioners Association (NAERA)has announced that it will no longer accept football helmets for reconditioning and recertification which are more than 10-years old.  The policy, adopted at the group's annual meeting, will become effective at the start of the reconditioning season on September 1, 2011, as many schools have already paid for their helmets to be reconditioned for use this fall.