CTE, targeting, equipment, etc

Aug 13, 2025, 5:07 PM

First off I could be dead wrong but I'll make my statement and pose questions.

I believe that "targeting", some injuries, concussions and other problems are due to modern equipment. It seems to me that with the equipment moving to smaller or non existent, we've made the game less safe. Specifically, shoulder pads.

These "barely there" shoulder pads, I believe l, are at least a part of the problem. Back in the day shoilder pads stood about 6 inches off the shoulder, usually rising to the level of at least the ear hole of the helmet. Many players, especially on defense wore neck rolls. When a player ducked their head to take on conract or initiate contact the shoulder pad was much more likely to make contact first. With much more padding, standing much higher, that pad dispersed the impact to the opposing player. The pads had much more give. This put a much bigger space between the (hard) bone in the shoulder and the point of contact.

These small, barely there, pads have much less "give", leave much less space between bone and point of contact and make it MUCH more likely that the helmet will make first contact with the only 'give" being the neck.

It seems to me that if we go back to the taller pads, maybe some type of gel padding inside the helmet, an outer soft layer over the hard material, and neck rolls we could really reduce some of these issues.

I truely believe these tiny shoulder pads are a huge problem. The older, taller pads used to bear the brunt of most hits. Now, even if the player tries to make contact with the shoulder there is not a whole lot there and the helmet is going to make meaningful impact in most cases.

I could be totally wrong here but this is my observation and thought. Anyone else have an opinion? Do you think we should do some experimentation and see if these new, tiny shoulder thongs (yes i said thongs) are to blame for some of the problems we see?

Sorry so long but I've been thinking about this for several years now. I would also like to see a study done of the +/- of neck rolls. I would think that the neck being stopped from violently snapping rearward would be much better.