According to a report in The New York Times soccer headgear has become an issue.
The founder of a San Diego-based company called Full90 said he had sold 100,000 pieces of headgear. The headgear resembles an enlarged headband, weighs less than 2 ounces, and covers the forehead, temples and occipital bone in back of the head. The device is made of shock-absorbing foam situated between an outer layer of Lycra and an inner layer of sweat-absorbing polypropylene. Several models are available for $24 to $39.
Full90 does not claim that its headgear prevents concussions. But the company does say the headgear can reduce, by up to 50 percent, the peak impact forces that occur during typical collisions when a player’s head strikes another head, the ground, an elbow or a goal post.
The headgear debate is occurring at a time when some studies indicate that concussions occur in soccer at a rate similar to the rate in football.
Apparently there is a great deal of resistance to the headgear in some quarters, in part for fear people will realize soccer is dangerous and the soccer moms will stop signing up their little darlings. (The article points out that concussions are almost non-existent among players under 12. It’s the older, bigger players who could gain from the protection.)
The resistance is also similar to that which took place when baseball and other sports introduced helmets. NewMexiKen attended a game between the Kansas City Athletics and the Detroit Tigers in the mid-1950s. Vic Power came to the plate without a helmet (it was optional then). He made a show of declining it. After a close, inside pitch he made an ever greater show of going to the dugout and returning with a helmet on.