FSU to use protective helmet shells during spring practice
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Gene Williams/Warchant
As Florida State experiments with new players, the team will also be testing new protective helmet covers during spring practice.
The covers are designed to help reduce the amount of concussions and/or head-related injuries. FSU opened spring camp last Monday with its defensive and offensive linemen wearing them.
By Thursday, before the Seminoles broke camp to go on spring break, the team's linebackers were also wearing the protective headgear.
"We’re seeing how they work," Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher said. "A lot of people started going to them and looking at them, so we’re going to experiment with them and see how they do."
Concussions and head-related injuries such chronic traumatic encephalopathy -- the degenerative brain disease known as CTE -- have led to more preventative measures throughout multiple levels of football.
The NFL reported a 58 percent rise in concussions from 2014 to 2015 while a five-year NCAA study from 2004 to 2009 revealed concussions accounts for 7.4 percent of the injuries in college football.
