Author: Judith McMinn

The largest NFL mortality study found nearly four times higher neurodegenerative mortality and greater risk with longer careers.

Raúl Jiménez survived a major traumatic brain injury and skull fracture. At the World Cup, he wore a strip of padded head protection described in media coverage as "medically approved" and "medically mandated"; then continued playing without it. Judith McMinn asks what football is teaching millions of players and parents about what head protection means in sport.

AFL’s CTE crisis shows why sport must move beyond concussion symptoms and protocols. The real issue is repeated rotational forces, sub-concussions and youth exposure.

A new 2026 brain imaging study strengthens the case for taking repetitive head impacts seriously in youth sport. Judith McMinn explains why sub-concussions, cumulative exposure and rotational force matter for brain protection.

A new study in Science Translational Medicine has found that retired contact-sport athletes can show persistent blood-brain barrier disruption years after leaving sport. The findings add weight to a growing body of evidence: repeated sub-concussive head impacts matter, even when they are not diagnosed as concussion or with concussion signs and symptoms present.

Five years after Rezon set out to distinguish head protection from brain protection, the science, legal pressure and player welfare conversation all point in the same direction: sport must move from reacting to concussion to reducing force transmission before injury occurs.

Robert Sanchez wearing a rugby headguard in the FA Cup final shows how football still confuses permitted equipment, scalp protection and real brain protection.

As Rezon has grown, families, carers and clinicians began asking whether the same brain protection principles could help beyond sport. They were looking for practical, discreet medical head protection for adults and children.

Much of the criticism of head protection relies on outdated assumptions and legacy products never designed to protect the brain. Here is why modern biomechanical testing, cumulative-load science, and advanced neuroimaging matter more.

The FA has denied a proven link between heading, repeated head impacts and long-term brain damage. But “no proof” is not a player welfare strategy. The science now points to cumulative exposure, rotational forces and prevention.

Sport is still focused on concussion when the bigger threat is cumulative brain injury. Why head protection is not the same as brain protection.

What the Wake Forest study revealed about brain changes in children after a single season of sport; why sub-concussive impacts matter; and how parents can better protect a child’s brain.