The present disclosure relates to various protective headgear and helmets and, more particularly, to helmets and corresponding upper torso equipment worn for playing the game of football, where the helmet attaches to a shoulder pad or chest pad in order to reduce impact forces and bending motions transferred to the player's head.
This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Various activities, such as contact sports, and in particular the sport of American football, known generally in the United States simply as “football,” require the use of helmets to attempt to protect participants from injury to their heads due to impact forces that may be sustained during such activities. Various types of helmets have been in use in the sport of football, ever since participants began wearing helmets in an attempt to protect their heads. Typically, these helmets have included: an outer shell, generally made of an appropriate plastic material, having the requisite strength and durability characteristics to enable them to be used in the sport of football; some type of shock absorbing liner within the shell; a face guard; and a chin protector, or chin strap, that fits snugly about the chin of the wear of the helmet, in order to secure the helmet to the wearer's head.
An existing helmet design seen on players of most football teams includes a hard shell plastic helmet. This design is intended primarily to protect the wearer's head from impact. The impact is cushioned by a shock absorbing liner of foam plastic padding surrounding the head. Elaborate testing of the impact force that the helmet can sustain before failure of the hard shell is used to evaluate the design.
There are several problems with this design. First, the wearer of the helmet is somewhat protected from impact by the spreading of the impact force to the head by the foam padding to a larger area of head, thus limiting impact damage, such as a concussion. However, the impact force is still absorbed by the head itself and transferred from the wearer's skull to the brain. Second, a further problem is the effect of the wearer's helmet impacting an opposing player. The hard shell design acts as a “battering ram” against any part of the opposing player's body. This has caused various injuries to the wearer as well as the opposing player, such as a concussion, broken bones, and even spinal injury. Third, another problem is that there is no protection from an impact causing the wearer's head to rotate far enough on the spinal column to cause injury to the spine; which in extreme cases can result in paralysis. The range of motion to avoid cervical spine injury has been determined by several medical organizations. No protection against spinal injury due to motion of the head beyond these limits is offered by existing helmet designs.
It should be noted that while it is the desire and goal that a football helmet, and other types of protective helmets, prevent injuries from occurring, the helmet of the present technology, as well as prior art helmets, due to the nature of the sport of football in particular, no protective equipment or helmet can completely and totally prevent injuries to those individuals playing the sport of football. Furthermore, no protective equipment can completely prevent injuries to a player, if the football player uses his football helmet in an improper manner, such as to butt, ram, or spear an opposing player, in violation of the rules of football. Improper use of a helmet to butt, ram, or spear an opposing player can result in severe head and/or neck injuries, paralysis, or death to the football player, as well as possible injury to the football player's opponent. No football helmet, or protective helmet, such as that of the present technology, can completely prevent head, chin, or neck injuries a football player might receive while participating in the sport of football. The helmet of the present technology is believed to offer protection to football players, but it is believed that no helmet can, or will ever, totally and completely prevent head injuries or other various types of injuries to football players.
The present technology provides an improved helmet that addresses shortcomings of existing helmets.
A helmet for wearing by a sports player comprises: a bubble-shaped body having a hollow interior surrounded by a wall and an opening formed in the wall for inserting a head of the player, and a fastening device for releasably fastening the body to shoulder pads being worn by the player. At least a portion of the wall is formed of a transparent material.
The helmet includes a padded head cap adapted to be worn on the head of the player to protect the player from a head injury should the head cap contact an inside surface of the wall. A plurality of ventilation apertures is formed in the wall of the body permitting the transmission of air and sound through the wall. One of the apertures is aligned with a mouth of the player when the player is wearing the helmet and another one of the apertures is aligned with an ear of the player when the player is wearing the helmet.
The helmet may include at least one of a color, a design and a logo on the body and being visible from outside the helmet. The body can have a “light bulb” shape.
The above as well as other advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment when considered in the light of the accompanying drawings in which:
The following detailed description and appended drawings describe and illustrate various exemplary embodiments of the invention. The description and drawings serve to enable one skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any manner. In respect of the methods disclosed, the steps presented are exemplary in nature, and thus, the order of the steps is not necessary or critical.
All head protection to date has been with the football helmet separate from the rest of the player's uniform. Thus, all efforts to prevent head or neck injury have been with the helmet only supported by the head and neck of the player. Efforts have concentrated on several types of padding between the rigid helmet and the player's head. Still, severe concussion (CTE or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) to the brain and or spinal injuries continue to occur. Since ONLY the player's head supports the helmet, then only the head and neck can absorb impacts.
Although recent designs, such as the Barr system (see U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/945,948) do help to transfer impact more uniformly around the head, the HEAD, thru the neck, is the only support.
A main purpose of the present invention is to isolate the head from the helmet such that impact to the helmet NEVER impacts on the head, and the head and neck cannot be bent or twisted by the helmet.
As can be seen in
In order to enable the player 12 to see in different directions by moving his head 11 and eyes, the helmet 10 has a wall 15 formed of clear or transparent material in these sight directions. Thus, there are only a few areas around the helmet “bubble” (mostly in the rear and rear side areas) that can be opaque for application of team colors 16, logos 17, etc. as shown in
As seen in
The helmet 10 includes a plurality of ventilation apertures 20 (
The attachment device 14 is shown in more detail in
Extending downwardly from a bottom edge of opposite sides of the shell 53 are two attachment tabs 55. The tabs 55 cooperate with two receivers 56 formed in the chest pad 52 as an attachment device to releasably but rigidly connect the helmet 50 to the chest pad 52. In turn, the chest pad 52 is connected to the shoulder pads 51. Thus, the helmet 50, the shoulder pads 51 and the chest pad 52 form an assembly whereby impacts to the helmet 50 are transferred into the shoulder pads 51 and the chest pad 52 instead of to the player's head. The shoulder pads 51 and the chest pad 52 are attached to the player's upper body in any suitable manner, such as with laces, under-arm straps, etc., as discussed previously.
The attachment of the tabs 55 to the receivers 56, and the corresponding detachment, may be embodied and actuated in any suitable fashion. For example, the tabs 55 may plug into the receivers 56 with a snap-in type action, where the tabs 55 automatically latch when pressed into the receivers 56. In this case, the detachment may be accomplished by pressing a button, pulling a lever, or pulling a strap or cord, any of which may be located on an inside surface or an outside surface of the chest pad 52. A similar design could be realized where an action is required in order to latch the tabs 55 to the receivers 56, where the action could be the turning of a knob or pushing down a lever (or two knobs/levers, one on each side), and the reverse action would unlatch the tabs 55 (and thus the helmet 50) from the receivers 56 (the chest pad 52). In any attachment scheme, the requirement is to releasably but rigidly connect the helmet 50 to the chest pad 52.
The helmet designs disclosed above, along with the corresponding equipment worn on the player's upper torso, represent a fundamental change and improvement in equipment design. By isolating the player's head from physical blows to the helmet, and preventing the helmet from forcibly bending or twisting the player's head/neck, the disclosed helmets offer a new type of protection from head and neck injuries.
In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, the present invention has been described in what is considered to represent its preferred embodiment. However, it should be noted that the invention can be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described without departing from its spirit or scope.
This application claims the benefit of the priority date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/559,708, titled HELMET FOR PLAYING SPORTS, filed Sep. 18, 2017.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62559708 | Sep 2017 | US |