An infographic showing what professional athletes experience during a collision with another player. Head injuries are dangerous no matter what, but when it comes to the dangers of impacts in sports, it’s impossible to overstate the effect it can have on an athlete’s health.Take two professional-level football players. In this example, we have New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley, who weighs 234 lbs, running at 21.76 mph towards Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick who weighs 207 lbs and is running at 21.48 mph.When these two athletes collide, their combined impact energy is nearly identical to a 40 lbs cinder block falling from the top of Notre Dame in Paris (226 ft in the air). This is due to how energy is calculated in terms of mass and velocity; no matter who or what is colliding, if the factors underlying the resulting energy transference are similar, then the forces at play in both scenarios are mathematically comparable.

Infographic source: Concussions in Sports