KCTV5 Investigation: Ahead Of The Game
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Most parents don't know a lot about the condition of their child's football
helmet.
How old is it? What kind of shape is it in? Does it fit properly?
School districts all over Kansas City are sending their helmets off for reconditioning. Experts advise parents that if they've never heard of reconditioning, they'd better make sure it's going on at their child's school.
Chief investigative reporter Dana Wright looked into the condition of the football helmets that are worn by high school athletes in the Kansas City area.
A properly working helmet is just one component involved in minimizing skull fractures, serious injuries and even possible death on the football field. This investigation took Wright and her team all the way to Ohio to show viewers what they need to know before a student athlete takes the field.
"It's just a standard helmet. It's a Riddell helmet. And the gentleman who wore it was No. 44," said Coach James Sanders.
At the end of the high school football season, Sanders goes through the same post-season ritual.
"Right now we're talking about 500 helmets and 500 shoulder pads," he said.
And while it isn't the most glamorous routine of the season, it is among the most important, as crews bag, tag and drag hundreds of banged up football helmets.
The helmets will be checked for problems, fixed and shipped back in a process called reconditioning.
"Every football coach realizes there's going to be injuries," Sanders said. "Having our equipment sent out is to minimize those kinds of things. We don't want the, 'Oh darns,' we just want to play football in a safe environment."
To be clear, football helmets are designed to prevent skull fractures, not concussions. While reconditioning helmets won't guarantee a player is safe on the field, it's the best way to make sure they work the way they should.
KCTV5 decided to follow a helmet through the process. In this case it was a purple Northwest High helmet.
Welcome to Elyria, Ohio, home of the Riddell Company. This is where 1 million football helmets will go through the reconditioning process each year. The helmets for Kansas, Missouri, Kansas State and the Kansas City Chiefs end up being reconditioned by Riddell. And so does the Northwest High helmet KCTV5 followed. It arrived along with another 500 from Kansas City.
The components are removed, including the chin straps, jaw pads and face masks. The helmets are stripped bare and sanded and then sanitized. The helmets are sanitized by putting them through a special machine.
The helmets are then primed and repainted.
But the real reason the helmets are at Riddell is not to make them shiny again. Workers are looking to catch problems or defects.
And sure enough, while KCTV5 was at the factory worker inspecting the inner padding of a Northwest High helmet finds something. One of the liners was defective so it no longer held air.
Workers fixed the problem and sent it down the line.
Mike Oliver is the head of the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment or NOCSAE based in Overland Park. The group sets standards nationwide for how football helmets should perform.
He said catching defects, such as a busted liner, is the reason helmets must be reconditioned every two years at a minimum.
How can someone tell if a helmet has been recertified?
"There will be a sticker inside the helmet, and it'll be under the padding obviously because you don't want it on top of the padding," Oliver said. "But you can pull the padding out. You will see a sticker inside the helmet that will say, 'This helmet's been certified.' It will give the name of the company that recertified it and the year it was recertified."
A sampling of the 1 million helmets at the Elyria factor goes through a scientific drop test -- the equivalent of a player running head first into a concrete wall at 16 mph.
After testing, helmets are returned to the assembly line and the hardware is replaced and workers place the certification stickers on each one.
Experts said every parent should ask about their school's reconditioning program. Coaches or athletic directors should be able to answer those questions.
Both Sanders and NOCSAE officials said a proper helmet fit is so critically important to a player's safety there are actually 15 steps to the process.
The helmet KCTV5 followed through the process weren't back from Ohio yet, but Wright said it went through the entire process and was reconditioned and ready to be recertified.
How old is it? What kind of shape is it in? Does it fit properly?
School districts all over Kansas City are sending their helmets off for reconditioning. Experts advise parents that if they've never heard of reconditioning, they'd better make sure it's going on at their child's school.
Chief investigative reporter Dana Wright looked into the condition of the football helmets that are worn by high school athletes in the Kansas City area.
A properly working helmet is just one component involved in minimizing skull fractures, serious injuries and even possible death on the football field. This investigation took Wright and her team all the way to Ohio to show viewers what they need to know before a student athlete takes the field.
"It's just a standard helmet. It's a Riddell helmet. And the gentleman who wore it was No. 44," said Coach James Sanders.
At the end of the high school football season, Sanders goes through the same post-season ritual.
"Right now we're talking about 500 helmets and 500 shoulder pads," he said.
And while it isn't the most glamorous routine of the season, it is among the most important, as crews bag, tag and drag hundreds of banged up football helmets.
The helmets will be checked for problems, fixed and shipped back in a process called reconditioning.
"Every football coach realizes there's going to be injuries," Sanders said. "Having our equipment sent out is to minimize those kinds of things. We don't want the, 'Oh darns,' we just want to play football in a safe environment."
To be clear, football helmets are designed to prevent skull fractures, not concussions. While reconditioning helmets won't guarantee a player is safe on the field, it's the best way to make sure they work the way they should.
KCTV5 decided to follow a helmet through the process. In this case it was a purple Northwest High helmet.
Welcome to Elyria, Ohio, home of the Riddell Company. This is where 1 million football helmets will go through the reconditioning process each year. The helmets for Kansas, Missouri, Kansas State and the Kansas City Chiefs end up being reconditioned by Riddell. And so does the Northwest High helmet KCTV5 followed. It arrived along with another 500 from Kansas City.
The components are removed, including the chin straps, jaw pads and face masks. The helmets are stripped bare and sanded and then sanitized. The helmets are sanitized by putting them through a special machine.
The helmets are then primed and repainted.
But the real reason the helmets are at Riddell is not to make them shiny again. Workers are looking to catch problems or defects.
And sure enough, while KCTV5 was at the factory worker inspecting the inner padding of a Northwest High helmet finds something. One of the liners was defective so it no longer held air.
Workers fixed the problem and sent it down the line.
Mike Oliver is the head of the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment or NOCSAE based in Overland Park. The group sets standards nationwide for how football helmets should perform.
He said catching defects, such as a busted liner, is the reason helmets must be reconditioned every two years at a minimum.
How can someone tell if a helmet has been recertified?
"There will be a sticker inside the helmet, and it'll be under the padding obviously because you don't want it on top of the padding," Oliver said. "But you can pull the padding out. You will see a sticker inside the helmet that will say, 'This helmet's been certified.' It will give the name of the company that recertified it and the year it was recertified."
A sampling of the 1 million helmets at the Elyria factor goes through a scientific drop test -- the equivalent of a player running head first into a concrete wall at 16 mph.
After testing, helmets are returned to the assembly line and the hardware is replaced and workers place the certification stickers on each one.
Experts said every parent should ask about their school's reconditioning program. Coaches or athletic directors should be able to answer those questions.
Both Sanders and NOCSAE officials said a proper helmet fit is so critically important to a player's safety there are actually 15 steps to the process.
The helmet KCTV5 followed through the process weren't back from Ohio yet, but Wright said it went through the entire process and was reconditioned and ready to be recertified.