National Football League

Goodell hopes for lighter helmets

Published Mar. 11, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell imagines a day when football players could be checked to determine whether their genetic makeup makes them more likely to develop brain disease.

He also envisions players being required to wear helmets containing sensors to detect hits that cause concussions. Those helmets might be lighter and ''less of a weapon'' than today's.

Those are the kinds of advances the NFL and General Electric are hoping to produce in a partnership that could funnel up to $60 million over four years to research on head injuries.

Goodell says Monday that concussion lawsuits brought by thousands of ex-players had ''no impact'' on such efforts.

One influential NFL owner, Robert Kraft of the Patriots, says he wishes these kinds of projects ''happened sooner.''