Luke Kuechly is one of my favorite athletes ever. He is also the star player for my favorite sports team, the Carolina Panthers. This article, written by Jourdan Rodrigue, explains a small piece of technology that Kuechly is wearing this season to help prevent concussions using text, photographs and videos.
This mysterious piece of equipment is not seen commonly yet in the NFL and is called Q collar. Kuechly has had issues in the past with concussions which is common in the NFL. The Q collar is in prototype phase and through research of woodpeckers it has been developed. The article explains that woodpeckers tongue puts pressure on its jugular vein when pecking to limit or eliminate head trauma.
You can see how this piece of technology would be hard to visualize with out images. Furthermore, when Kuechly is wearing the Q collar in a game you can hardly notice it. The images show that it is a small collar worn around the neck. The collar presses slightly on the jugular vein of the player, this slows fluid outflow from the brain allowing the brain more cushion from fluids. An example was given by Dr Gregory Myer on the thought process behind the Q collar, “By putting a small “kink in the hose so that extra blood volume is filling that free space…we’re just filling up that free expandable space, so the brain has less room to move in the skull.” The images show how the collar attaches to the neck using a bouncy ball as an example. Other images also show Kuechly in action wearing it along with several videos.
The Q collar is still in a preliminary stage and not yet proven to decrease head trauma. With NFL careers becoming shorter and shorter due to concussions, players are willing to try extreme ideas and technology to prolong their careers and save their brain long term.