Pats’ Green-Ellis to wear special chin strap Sunday
Published: February 3rd, 2012 | Tags: Super Bowl XLVI, Benjarvus Green-Ellis, Patriots, Super Bowl XLVI

The Impact Indicator sends off a red light designed to help identify potential concussions. (Ben Liebenberg/NFL)
INDIANAPOLIS — While watching Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday night, be sure to pay close attention to Patriots RB BenJarvus Green-Ellis‘ chin. Of course, that assumes your eyes already aren’t drawn to the green lights emitting from it.
According to Battle Sports Science, Green-Ellis will wear the company’s Impact Indicator chin strap against the Giants, joining now-retired WR Derrick Mason as the only NFL players to wear the device that monitors the head trauma a player sustains during a game.
“I’m extremely excited and grateful to have the opportunity to wear the Impact Indicator,” Green-Ellis said in a Battle Sports Science press release. “As a running back in this league, the hits I take are vicious. With the long-term effects and career-ending potential that non-detected concussions bring, I can’t afford to take any risks out there.”
The chin strap “measures the G-force and duration sustained by a football player’s head during player and signals the probability of concussion,” according to the company’s release. Once a player sustains a hit measured at 240 Head Injury Criterion (HIC) levels, a red light begins to flash on the chin strap, alerting coaches, players and officials to a possible injury.
Battle Sports Science worked with biomedical engineers at Detroit’s Wayne State University, which developed the HIC system. The bioengineering center determined that a hit measuring 240 HICs has a 50 percent probability of a possible concussion.
The chin strap is marketed toward high school football players, and youth football is the reason Green-Ellis became interested in the product, according to Battle Sports Science. Patriots RB Kevin Faulk‘s son sustained a concussion while playing youth football, and Green-Ellis wanted to obtain a chin strap for him.
“I wish I had the opportunity to wear a product like this when I was playing youth football and throughout my career,” he said.
– David Ely


