Patent Application
20190022510
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The disclosure and prior art relates to cushion devices and more particularly pertains to a new cushion device for reducing the likelihood of brain injuries in American football.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a helmet that is worn during athletic activities to absorb impact energy. A pair of shoulder pads is provided and the pair of shoulder pads is worn during athletic activities. A cushion is provided and the cushion is worn around a neck when the helmet and shoulder pads are worn. The cushion is positioned between the helmet and the shoulder pads when the cushion is worn. Moreover, the cushion is comprised of a resiliently compressible material. In this way the cushion transfers impact energy from the helmet to the shoulder pads to reduce the likelihood of a brain injury that could result from the impact energy.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
A cushion 16 is provided and the cushion 16 is around a neck 18 during the athletic activities and the cushion 16 is positioned between the helmet 12 and the shoulder pads 14. The cushion 16 is comprised of a resiliently compressible material such as foam rubber or the like. Thus, the cushion 16 transfers impact energy from the helmet 12 to the shoulder pads 14 to reduce the likelihood of a brain injury that could result from the impact energy. The cushion 16 has a first surface 20, a second surface 22 and a perimeter edge 24 extending therebetween. The perimeter edge 24 has a first lateral side 26, a second lateral side 28, a front side 30 and a back side 32.
The front side 30 curves toward the back side 32 between the first 26 and second 28 lateral sides to define a neck space 34 on the front side 30. The neck 18 space is positioned around the neck 18 when the cushion 16 is worn. The first surface 20 has a first depression 36 extending toward the second surface 22 and the first depression 36 has a first bounding surface 38. The first bounding surface 38 is substantially spaced from the perimeter edge 24 and the first bounding surface 38 is substantially coextensive with the perimeter edge 24. The first depression 36 accommodates a bottom edge of the helmet 12 when the cushion 16 is worn. The first bounding surface 38 has a pair of terminal ends 40 and the terminal ends 40 are spaced apart from each other. Thus, the terminal ends 40 forms a channel 42 that intersects the back side 32 of the pad.
The second surface 22 has a second depression 44 extending toward the first surface 20. The second depression 44 is positioned between the neck 18 space and the back side 32 and the second depression 44 has a second bounding surface 46. The second bounding surface 46 is continuous such that the second depression 44 has an ovoid shape. Moreover, the second depression 44 accommodates the shoulder pads 14 when the cushion 16 is worn. The second bounding surface 46 frictionally engages the shoulder pads 14 to retain the cushion 16 on the neck 18.
In use, each of the helmet 12, the shoulder pads 14 and the cushion 16 are worn while playing American football and any other athletic activity involving physical contact between players. The cushion 16 is compressed between the bottom edge of the helmet 12 and the shoulder pads 14 when a front side of the helmet 12 is exposed to impact energy. In this way the cushion 16 transfers the impact energy from the helmet 12 to the shoulder pads 14. Thus, the cushion 16 reduces the likelihood of a brain injury that may result from the impact energy.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
