Concussions are a big issue throughout sports. In fact, Dartmouth University has taken drastic measures towards preventing concussions during practice. For the past five years, the head football coach at Dartmouth, Buddy Teevens, did away with tackling during practice. Instead, he used dummies during practice as a preventive measure for concussions. At first, there was skepticism, but Teevens used this method to eliminate the risk of severe injury. However, two students at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering, Elliot Kastner and Quinn Connell, decided that there was need for change. Soon after, the MVP was created.

The MVP, or Mobile Virtual Player, has the potential to become something widely used throughout the football community. After two years of being worked on as a capstone project by Kastner and Connell, funded by Teevens, two MVP’s were revealed on August 26th, 2015, with a third one soon to come. Kastner is a former defensive lineman, and he says that concussions are very serious injuries that the MVP can help prevent.

Some may wonder how the MVP is any different from a stationary tackling dummy. The MVP takes the stationary part of the dummy out of the picture. It is remote controlled, and can travel 40 yards in 4.8 seconds. When it gets “tackled,” it goes with the force of the player tackling it, and it provides a much more cushioned body for players tackling it as opposed to dummies. However, some are critical of the MVP, despite what it does for concussion prevention.

It’s still a dummy. A robotic, moving, much safer dummy. Danny Nakamura ’19, states, “It still doesn’t replace an actual player, no matter how realistic it may be.” More voices of concern were raised about the MVP. Daniel Adebi ’18 adds, “It sounds like a really good idea, and I think it’s great that it’s being developed. But what if something goes wrong? What if the robot malfunctions?” These are issues that may concern a lot of people, and Kastner and Connell are currently working more on creating a safer and bug-free robot.

Thanks to the MVP, people need not worry whether or not it’s completely realistic, as it is not meant to be anything more than a safer moving target for practicing football players. Devon Adams, the Head Athletic Trainer at Friends, says, “I’m looking forward to seeing the MVP become programmable. By having it run predictable routes, players will have an effective tool in practice that can potentially reduce risk of concussions. By having a robotic, predictable ‘athlete,’ athletes will be able to safely learn tackling, new plays, and eliminate human error.” Hopefully as the MVP is further developed, new features like programmability can be added so that it can become both  safer and more useful. Morgan Taylor, WFS’s Junior Athletic Training Student from the University of Delaware, says, “I feel that it’s a good stepping stone for people who are new to football. Allowing them to practice on a robot rather than a human will allow them to be able to mess up and cause no harm.” The MVP could spread to more schools and have more advanced technology. Despite the current minor flaws of the MVP, if development continues, the MVP can go from a safe robotic tackling dummy used in a couple schools to a fully programmable robotic training dummy in schools around the country.