terrierbob
January 15th, 2008, 04:08 PM
http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/sports/4212171.html
http://media.popularmechanics.com/images/football-tackle4-0207.jpg
It happens about 100 times a game in the National Football League: a bone-jarring tackle that slams a player to the turf. On the play shown in the photo above, Seattle Seahawks defensive back Marcus Trufant (23) drilled Philadelphia Eagles receiver Greg Lewis (83) with such force that Lewis couldn't hang on to the ball. (Seattle won the Dec. 5, 2005, game at Philadelphia 42-0 in the most lopsided shutout ever broadcast on Monday Night Football.) Incompletions and fumbles aren't the only consequences of such tackles. More than 100 concussions are recorded each season in the NFL. Given the size and speed of today's athletes, it's surprising that more gridiron warriors aren't carried off the field on their shields. For that, they can thank high-tech gear that protects them from the physics at play in the sport's fearsome collisions.
HALF A TON OF HURT
At 5 ft. 11 in. and 199 pounds, Marcus Trufant is an average-size NFL defensive back (DB). Those stats don't stand out in a league where more than 500 players weighed 300-plus pounds at the 2006 training camps. But a DB's mass combined with his speed — on average, 4.56 seconds for the 40-yard dash — can produce up to 1600 pounds of tackling force, according to Timothy Gay, a physics professor at the University of Nebraska and author of The Physics of Football.
http://media.popularmechanics.com/images/football-tackle4-0207.jpg
It happens about 100 times a game in the National Football League: a bone-jarring tackle that slams a player to the turf. On the play shown in the photo above, Seattle Seahawks defensive back Marcus Trufant (23) drilled Philadelphia Eagles receiver Greg Lewis (83) with such force that Lewis couldn't hang on to the ball. (Seattle won the Dec. 5, 2005, game at Philadelphia 42-0 in the most lopsided shutout ever broadcast on Monday Night Football.) Incompletions and fumbles aren't the only consequences of such tackles. More than 100 concussions are recorded each season in the NFL. Given the size and speed of today's athletes, it's surprising that more gridiron warriors aren't carried off the field on their shields. For that, they can thank high-tech gear that protects them from the physics at play in the sport's fearsome collisions.
HALF A TON OF HURT
At 5 ft. 11 in. and 199 pounds, Marcus Trufant is an average-size NFL defensive back (DB). Those stats don't stand out in a league where more than 500 players weighed 300-plus pounds at the 2006 training camps. But a DB's mass combined with his speed — on average, 4.56 seconds for the 40-yard dash — can produce up to 1600 pounds of tackling force, according to Timothy Gay, a physics professor at the University of Nebraska and author of The Physics of Football.