High tech takes on football

(continued from previous page)

of its players. As a result, trainers are monitoring high-risk players who may be overweight or previously exhibited heat problems on the field.

The radio pill actually was developed in the 1980s under a grant from NASA, which wanted to use it to monitor the body temperature of astronauts. HQ bought the patent in the 1990s and began manufacturing it for use in the research community. Scientists have used it to test and measure body temperatures as drugs interact in the body or during marathons.

Commercial use of the technology has come into favor by sports teams in just the last year few years, thanks to increasing safety concerns for large--some would say overweight--football lineman practicing in summer heat. Four years ago, when Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Korey Stringer died of complications brought on by heatstroke, that danger became all too real.

The Philadelphia Eagles and teams at schools including the University of Florida, the University of South Florida, Ohio University and the University of Notre Dame are using the CorTemp pill this year. The Jacksonville Jaguars are in their third year of using it. Next year, Virginia Tech, among others, plans to test the technology.

Improved technology is also finding its way into what football players wear and what they play on. For example, a technology known as UnderArmor is designed to prevent the natural but slight weightiness that players gain when they sweat into porous clothing and lose heat. UnderArmor takes sweat from the skin and evaporates it.

And covering many fields this season is FieldTurf, a high-tech synthetic earth designed to emulate natural grass and better absorb shock over regular artificial turf. FieldTurf has been around for nearly 10 years, but it has gained increasing acceptance on the field. The University of Florida's athletic trainer, for example, said that the school expects to replace its field next year with the artificial greenery. And at least 20 of 32 teams in the NFL have FieldTurf at either their stadiums or their practice facilities. FieldTurf is also in use at colleges including Nebraska, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The new artificial turf is made up of a polyethylene fiber that mirrors the texture of grass. The process of creating the turf includes making sheets of the fiber and cutting them into strips. Then a pattern of fibrillations, like a honeycomb, is cut into the fiber, which is then twisted. It goes into a tufting machine before being anchored into its backing. The effect is an absorbent artificial surface that's softer and less abrasive.

And just maybe, turf burn may become a thing of the past.

[Zupie]

Wrong team dude

It was the University of Utah Utes the Tarheels played in Salt Lake City, not the Aggies.