[Starman]

At the scrimmage before the Peachtree Regional, we saw a robot launch a vision tetra over the top of the center goal. Cleared it by several feet before crashing to the floor. The robot had the tetra on a long arm and did a quick rotation. Made me think just how dangerous this year's challenge is. Those tetras are 8 - 10 pounds each.

I hate to say it, but I think the playing field needs to be a hard-hat area. I know no one wants to see this as a requirement, but too many people are too close to the action and there is too much action going on to watch it all. A tetra can easily come from out of the field of view with really bad results.

Bike helmets might be enough, though no one can accept the liability for an injury with one on since they aren't designed for this application. A construction hard hat would be better, though they won't stay on the heads of fast-running human players. They would work fine for drivers, referees, etc.

How about it FIRST? How quickly can you make helmets a requirement, before somebody really gets beaned?