Meeting in his Chicago office last week, Batjer greets me outfitted in hospital scrubs, since he’ll be performing surgery later that morning. At 6-foot-4 and with a smooth Texan baritone, Batjer conveys an authority that’ll be critical in assessing how the NFL plans to actively reduce the occurrence of severe head trauma. The Safety Committee also boasts several subcommittees, all of which adds up to an unprecedented interdisciplinary research endeavor for a professional sports league.

For Batjer, the effort goes back to when he first met NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. In their first meeting, Batjer flat-out told Goodell that he had zero interest in taking a perfunctory position. Goodell replied, “Doc, we just want you to do the right thing. It’s all about the players.”

The first day of this week’s meeting is split into two sessions. Presentations by the helmet manufacturers — Riddell, Adams, Schutt, and Xenith — plus makers of sensor systems that gather helmet collision impact data — X2 Impact, Simbex, and the Cleveland Clinic — will encompass the morning, while panel discussions take up the afternoon, covering such topics as lab testing of football helmets, addressing shortcomings with regards to concussion prevention, and looking at on-field testing of helmet and head impacts, in both football practices and games. (And Batjer fully believes this last part will commence at the beginning of next season.)

There will also be a discussion of new materials for football helmets. Jeff Ling from DARPA will be on hand for that, and the plan is to discuss potential collaboration on materials science and development between the NFL and the United States military.

The second day of the meeting is for subcommittee work, which will be extensive and cover an array of topics:

• One subcommittee focuses on managing player data, overseeing the development of a comprehensive new database that would document helmet impacts, in practices and games, and associated cognitive test outcomes, something that continue after a player’s career. It would also encompass drug testing results and have relevant genetic screens as those technologies mature.

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Authors: Brad Stenger

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