VIDEO: MSU Researches Safer Helmets to Prevent CTE & Concussions

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- Pro-football player, Aaron Hernandez’s family is suing the NFL over the player’s diagnosis of CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

A disease that hundreds of football players succumb to after enduring multiple hits throughout their lifetime.

Researchers say their biggest concern is for younger players and the hits they receive in pee-wee and high school football.

“What I’m trying to do is help the young ones, help the high schoolers, because all of those number hits they add up in terms of damage to the brain.” says Dr. Mark Horstmeyer with Mississippi State.

He continues to work on helmet research in order to help fight brain damage in contact sports..

Concussions and CTE have been a hot topic in the sports field. With new rules coming out every year.

Horstmeyer says there’s a major difference between the two.

A concussion is one big overload- you get hit, they’re eyes are doing this, they’re ringing their bell, that sort of thing but the CTE is a bunch of hits but at a low level,” says Horstmeyer.

“The issue with CTE is hit after hit, after hit, it’s an accumulation and they don’t have to be big guys. So the idea is how many of those hits from eight years old, all the way up to when they finish NFL, you know- how many of those can we reduce so those shock waves don’t go to the brain?”

He and his team have been using bio-inspiration to apply to their research.

“We looked at the rams horn and we started studying the ram’s horns and asking, well why is it curve like this? Well what happens is when I just hit that there’s a wave that went through and its a longitudinal wave but because of its curvature it makes it off shearing because when the wave gets here it vibrates out, so it basically sucks all the energy out,”says Horstmeyer.

Horstmeyer and his team are also looking into technology players can wear, that reads just how hard a player is hit each time.

“It’s an objective, not a subjective way of diagnosing this now. I’m just trying to make football safer, because they’re not going to stop playing it,” says Horstmeyer.

Chief Medical Officer for the NFL and Mississippi State Alum, Allen Sills, will be visiting State in the upcoming months to discuss the schools research.