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NFL/NFLPA release helmet testing results, 10 models now prohibited


Woz

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10 minutes ago, N4L said:

No they don't. The FDA is actually one of the most stringent regulatory agencies in the world when it comes to testing. Other companies do this all of the time, no doubt, but not pharmacuetical companies. A family member of mine is a biotech patent attorney so I am well versed.. but this is a topic for another thread so I'll just leave it at that. 

Yeah, lets leave it at that. Cause I know it a bit differently, but yes. Leave it at that. 

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1 hour ago, mike23md said:

Sure but pharmaceuticals do it all the time. The NFL is  a business and I don't consider the league to completely ignore the money aspect if say Riddell threw 500M dollars at them. This is an annual labratory study which means the helmet manufacturers are well aware of when the study happens and who conducts it.

The disclaimers are at the bottom of the article, which usually means its a CYA. 

If it was at the front of the article, its usually meant to ensure the legitimacy of the study. Part of the exec sum if you will.

Judging by the graphic, the helmet manufacturers definitely did not impact this study.  Take Riddell for example: their "Speedflex" helmet is in the yellow caution section while the "Speed" is solidly in the middle of the green section.  Now go look at the prices Riddell charges for each helmet.  The Speedflex is almost 1.5 times the price of the Speed even though this study said it performed worse.  That's not a result Riddell wants.  They're probably going to have a bunch of angry high school coaches and athletic directors calling them about why they paid a premium for worse helmets.  They are also not going to sell as many speedflex's now when there are so many helmet's ahead of it.  

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11 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

As a nerd, this bar graph with no units or error bars is really upsetting.

Very poorly done Tableau viz. Give me about 20 minutes, I'll make that graph sing.

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Just now, ramssuperbowl99 said:

As a nerd, this bar graph with no units or error bars is really upsetting.

If you check the text to the right, it does say "The Top-Performing Group consists of helmets whose performance was not statistically different from the two top-ranked helmets." That implies to me:

  1. The unit probably wouldn't mean much to the general layperson.
  2. The general layperson wouldn't identify the minute statistical difference from a Riddell Speed Classic Icon (bottom of the green group) and a Riddell Speedflex (top of the yellow). What they can do is understand that:
    1. Color interpretation
      1. Green = good
      2. Yellow = iffy
      3. Red = bad
    2. Positional interpretation (helps with R/G colorblind people)
      1. Higher = better
      2. Lower = worse

 

However, I will admit that there is a bit of hand waving going on in that chart. It's possible the underlying paper (which I think is in the link I mentioned, but don't hold me to that) might go into more depth.

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Just now, EliteTexan80 said:

Very poorly done Tableau viz. Give me about 20 minutes, I'll make that graph sing.

Keep in mind that the audience for that picture is both professional players as well as youth coaches and parents.

While perhaps poor in its rigor, it communicates the information decently (I would have preferred not white on yellow). Pictures of "these helmets are good" versus "these helmets are iffy" versus "these helmets are not good" would probably have worked too. Perhaps even better than this somewhat misleading chart.

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4 minutes ago, Woz said:

If you check the text to the right, it does say "The Top-Performing Group consists of helmets whose performance was not statistically different from the two top-ranked helmets." That implies to me:

  1. The unit probably wouldn't mean much to the general layperson.
  2. The general layperson wouldn't identify the minute statistical difference from a Riddell Speed Classic Icon (bottom of the green group) and a Riddell Speedflex (top of the yellow). What they can do is understand that:
    1. Color interpretation
      1. Green = good
      2. Yellow = iffy
      3. Red = bad
    2. Positional interpretation (helps with R/G colorblind people)
      1. Higher = better
      2. Lower = worse

 

However, I will admit that there is a bit of hand waving going on in that chart. It's possible the underlying paper (which I think is in the link I mentioned, but don't hold me to that) might go into more depth.

Checked the link looking for more background earlier and didn't see anything.

The reason I started digging in the first place was that I'm assuming they blinded everyone on the study, but the methods weren't listed either.

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4 hours ago, Jakuvious said:

Now this actually is a step in the right direction. Amazing that it's taken them this long to finally do something here. Though honestly I don't see why they aren't going even further with it.

they are out of funds because they have to pay goodell his salary and they need to get more $ from commercials etc. Soon possibly, they might make some changes. With goodells salary alone, the league should be able to make their own helmet domestic as well :ph34r:

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I don't think they should ban helmets. For the same reasons that someone pointed out about the company with the highest bidding want to ensure they are always No.1 in safety rating. Just make it public that these helmets were found not to be safe and just leave it at that. If that player wants to risk it then let them.

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1 hour ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

Checked the link looking for more background earlier and didn't see anything.

The reason I started digging in the first place was that I'm assuming they blinded everyone on the study, but the methods weren't listed either.

Given some of the helmets have distinctive face mask patterns I wonder how the blinding was done.   

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