The Problem With Football Helmets

In 2024, James Daniels became likely the first NFL football player to wear a new kind of helmet during a game – an apparatus called the Guardian Cap.

2024 年，詹姆斯·丹尼尔斯 (James Daniels) 很可能成为第一位在比赛中佩戴新型头盔的 NFL 橄榄球运动员——一种名为“Guardian Cap”的装置。

The new lid was a marked departure from what fans are used to.

新的盖子与粉丝们习惯的盖子明显不同。

Guardian Caps offer an extra layer of padding, and make the player’s helmet more bulbous and large.

Guardian 帽提供了一层额外的填充物，使玩家的头盔更加球状和更大。

“It sort of looks like if you had soundproof padding in the form of a cap and stretched that over your helmet,” says Noah Cohan, a professor of American cultural studies at Washington University in St. Louis.

圣路易斯华盛顿大学美国文化研究教授诺亚·科汉 (Noah Cohan) 表示：“这看起来就像是戴上了帽子形式的隔音垫，并将其套在头盔上。”

“It’s a series of lumps made of foam within a sort of fabric covering that is then clipped to the outside of the helmet.” The Guardian Cap is designed to protect players’ heads from injury, and has been controversial with players and fans alike.

“它是一系列由泡沫制成的块状物，包裹在一种织物覆盖物中，然后夹在头盔的外部。”守护者帽的设计目的是保护球员头部免受伤害，但一直受到球员和球迷的争议。

The Cap is one of the latest developments in a nearly century-long quest to make the game of American football safer.

Cap 是近一个世纪以来致力于让美式足球比赛更加安全的努力中的最新进展之一。

In the early days of football, players were often bare-headed, before leather helmets became mandatory in college football in 1939.

在橄榄球运动的早期，球员经常不戴头巾，直到 1939 年大学橄榄球队强制要求佩戴皮头盔。

Plastic helmets became popular a few years later, thanks in part to their ability to prevent skull fractures – and their appealing design, which helped make the football helmet into a symbol for the game itself.

几年后，塑料头盔开始流行，部分原因是它们能够防止颅骨骨折，而且其吸引人的设计使橄榄球头盔成为了这项运动本身的象征。

More recent helmets have used more flexible materials and 3D printing to create equipment that manufacturers tout as more technically advanced than ever.

最近的头盔使用了更灵活的材料和 3D 打印来制造制造商声称技术比以往更先进的设备。

However, recent concern around concussions and CTE have raised the question of whether it’s technically possible to develop a helmet that can totally prevent injuries during gameplay.

然而，最近对脑震荡和 CTE 的担忧引发了一个问题：技术上是否有可能开发出一种可以完全防止游戏过程中受伤的头盔。

“I remember chatting with a doctor who said, unless you strapped the helmet to a player’s shoulders so that your head couldn’t move around on your neck, the helmet really can’t do all that much to prevent a concussion,” says Kathleen Bachynski , an associate professor of public health at Muhlenberg College.

“我记得和一位医生聊天时他说，除非你把头盔绑在球员的肩膀上，这样你的头就不能在脖子上转动，否则头盔真的无法起到预防脑震荡的作用，”穆伦伯格学院公共卫生副教授凯瑟琳·巴钦斯基 (Kathleen Bachynski) 说。

“I do think you can tweak design around the edges, but I think you’re up against the law of physics.” As debate rages around the safety of America’s most popular sport, helmets will continue to be a flashpoint.

“我确实认为你可以在边缘调整设计，但我认为你违反了物理定律。”随着围绕美国最受欢迎运动的安全性的争论愈演愈烈，头盔将继续成为一个热点。

This episode featured interviews with: Noah Cohan, whose book about the history of football helmets will be released next year; Kathleen Bachynski, the author of No Game for Boys to Play , about the history of youth football; George Visger, a retired NFL player and author of Facing Giants: My 38 Year Battle ; and an excerpt from Chuck Klosterman, author of a recent book simply titled Football .

本集采访了以下人士：Noah Cohan，他关于橄榄球头盔历史的书将于明年出版；凯瑟琳·巴钦斯基（Kathleen Bachynski）是《男孩没有比赛可玩》一书的作者，讲述了青少年足球的历史；乔治·维斯格 (George Visger)，退役 NFL 球员，《面对巨人：我的 38 年之战》一​​书的作者；以及查克·克洛斯特曼 (Chuck Klosterman) 的摘录，他最近出版了一本名为《足球》的书。