Football player safety goes high-tech in Polk County

WINTER HAVEN (FOX 13) - A Polk County high school football team will be wearing new helmets designed to reduce the force of a hit to the head.

Starting this fall, members of the All Saints Academy football team will only wear the so-called soft helmets.

“Safety is always our number one concern when it comes to kids,” All Saints’ Athletic Director Stuart Weiss told FOX 13.

The exterior of the helmet is not rigid like traditional football helmets. When a player gets hit, the exterior of the soft helmet gives. Baffles inside the helmet absorb some of the shock, as well.

Vicis, the helmet's manufacturer says the helmets absorb close to 75 percent of the impact.

Each one costs about $1,000, which is roughly triple the price of a traditional helmet. Despite the price tag, more of these helmets may show up on more fields across the country.

The technology could also show up in other places - like the battlefield.

Vicis says it just signed a contract with the US military to see how this type of helmet would do during battle.

Back on the football field, the helmet is just one of the new pieces of safety equipment players will wear this fall.

They just got new high tech mouth guards. When a player gets hit, the mouth guards transmit vital information to coaches on the sidelines, like where, how hard, and how fast a player was impacted.