Auto racing safety pioneer discuses new football helmet aimed at concussions

He says the problem is the standard does not directly address concussions.

"Most of the helmet standards today were designed around, how do I keep the head from breaking?" Halstead said. "We're measuring the acceleration of the skull and we hope that is directly related to the damage in the brain."

That's because most brain scans, including traditional MRI, can't detect the tissue damage caused by a concussion. Another problem, Halstead says linear collisions, replicated during drop tests, aren't what cause many of the concussions in football. Instead, Halstead says they are the result of rotational forces on the head and neck.

"That kind of event that causes the head and helmet to be accelerated as opposed to causing the head and helmet to stop," Halstead said.

New tests at the Southern Impact Research Center using high speed cameras and more life-like equipment are just beginning to replicate those rotational forces, but so far no helmet stands out.

"They all manage the linear aspects of this quite well and none of them manage the rotational aspects differently enough for us to really measure," Halstead said. "It may be that you can't ever manage them with a helmet."

"If you have a five pound mass on the head versus a one pound mass on the head the rotation is not going to be near as severe," Simpson said.

Simpson hopes to eventually prove that theory through more research and by outfitting even more players. In the meantime, he's testing new materials in hopes of creating a one pound helmet.

"We're not there yet," Simpson said.

Maybe not, but he's already partnered with prolific race team owner Chip Ganassi, and begun developing plans to manufacture the helmet in Indiana. Simpson says he expects to open a new facility and begin rolling out a new version this coming spring.

It's a strategy one expert calls risky, considering Austin Collie is the player people associate with it.

"(Simpson) has a significant challenge ahead of him because the way in which he's chosen to do this is to start with those guys who really are at risk," Halstead said. "These are the guys who are most likely to be reinjured."

Simpson says that's exactly why he's so passionate.

"In my heart Austin Collie is protected as well as he could be protected and if something does happen I would still sleep that night knowing that what he has is far advanced from what I believe the others are," Simpson said. "I'm taking a lot of heat for saying that, but you know what that's what I believe."

Though Simpson and Ganassi plan to begin manufacturing the helmet in the spring, it's unclear whether it will be widely available. Simpson says they originally planned to produce a helmet for NFL players, but he says he'd like to do what he can to go beyond that in the near future.