Kronos American Worker Talks Football with Kyle Lamson
Kronos American Worker is a “blogzine” which features a short but interesting report about the work being done by average people and how their work impacts the lives of many of us. This blogzine reads like a contemporary magazine with its color photos and advertising copy, but the center column is filled with the reporting about a business person, or private citizen making a difference in the lives of many people. These people detailed in the Kronos American Worker are not famous, but they represent the heart and substance that has made our world great.
One story described in the Kronos American Worker discussed Kyle Lamson, Director of New Product Innovation at Xenith, a man working to make football helmets safer for the wearer. Even if you have never had your head inside a football helmet, the story of Kyle Lamson is interesting. He explains how the football helmet is designed to prevent injury and explains the great shock forces players have to deal with on game days and even in practice. Lamson has a history of injuries suffered when wearing a football helmet. As a player in high school, he suffered two concussions and decided to make it his life’s work to design and build football helmets that were safer than the predecessors.
Lamson works for Xenith, a major manufacturer of football helmets used by the NFL and Division I College Programs. Xenith also refurbishers football helmets used by high school and youth football programs. He spends his day developing and testing how new materials and combinations of different substances work to reduce the jarring effects common to football players. He relies on sophisticated testing equipment that delivers powerful impacts to helmets mounted on tracks and fitted with sensors inside the helmet that indicate the force of impact and how successfully the particular helmet design would help protect the wearer from injury. In the article Lamson explains that the fitment inside the helmet is the important component used to prevent injury. Without the proper fit, the helmet will not protect. It is the same principal as the motorcycle helmet; the helmet must be snug so that the head does not move around in the helmet in case of contact with the pavement, ground or vehicle.
His company is one of only two producers of helmets for the National Football League. Interestingly, the company also refurbishes football helmets used by high school athletic programs and even those helmets worn in Pop Warner programs.
It is obvious that Lamson has saved many professional and student athletes from the very same injuries that affected him when he was younger. It is not beyond belief to think that Lamson has even saved a human life with his dedicated study and work in engineering safer football helmets.
See Lamson at his work here:
