This is not strictly related to the Buffalo Bills. Hence, it'll be a short post. I'm still touching on it because of its ties to Rochester - where the Bills hold training camp every year - and a highly important issue in the NFL.
The NFL has donated $99,000 to the University of Rochester Medical Center in an interesting research initiative aimed at pinpointing the possible source of dementia in retired players. This is part of an ongoing surge into head injuries that the league began a year ago.
U of R football players will wear helmets starting this August equipped with sensors that will track the force and location of every blow to the head that a player sustains during a game (or practice). From a football perspective, the location data will allow coaches to refine a player's technique to keep them safer, such as if a player is repeatedly leading with his head while tackling. Over the long haul, doctors at the URMC will be analyzing the data to try to determine if brains heal fully during the off-season, and if repeated low-impact blows to the head are a root cause of the dementia, as opposed to simply those blows that cause concussions.
Check out the full report at 13WHAM.com.