TACKLING CONCUSSIONS
In the competition to field a safer football helmet, a startup from Seattle is the first to score
YOU’VE SEEN AND HEARD the thunderous collisions that characterize football. The lifelong effects of concussions caused by the hundreds of head hits each player takes during a season are now tragically apparent. In a recent study published in JAMA, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is linked to mood swings, memory loss, depression, dementia, and suicide, was diagnosed in 110 of 111 donated brains of deceased NFL players. Pediatric neurosurgeon Sam Browd thought of redesigning the football helmet in 2013. “I was tired of telling kids their athletic careers were over,” he says. Vicis, the Seattle-based company he co-founded with
