Today’s health and safety news around football — and other sports:

* UnEQUAL Technologies, which has made a name creating Concussion Protection Technology, has a new invention that could make baseball pitchers feel safer. UnEQUAL has developed special padding for caps worn by baseball pitchers, according to ESPN.com. The idea is to protect pitchers from the type of hits that sent Brandon McCarthy to the hospital with life-threatening head injuries.

Rob Vito, president of Pennsylvania-based Unequal Technologies Co., said MLB has examined caps containing Unequal’s CRT padding and requested and received modifications, as well as the results of laboratory testing. Vito said he’s encouraged by his communications with MLB and is now sending caps lined with the padding to pitchers for their examination and experimentation. “We help reduce the possibility of head injury and its severity,” said Vito, adding that although the CRT name comes from concussion reduction technology,” Unequal doesn’t purport to prevent concussions with its padding. Its padding also is used to line helmets for baseball, football, hockey, lacrosse and other sports. Vito said Unequal’s padding for each cap weighs 4.3 ounces, is one-eighth of an inch thick and is made of a three-layer synthetic composite that includes military-grade DuPont Kevlar and a polymer with the properties of rubber. He also said Unequal could mass-produce the cap padding and sell it as an insert for about $60 apiece retail.

* ABC News radio in Australia talked to sports doctors who said the injury rate in the country’s cricket games is getting too high.

* The Memphis Commercial-Appeal reported that Memphis Grizzlies guard Darrell Arthur is close to returning from a concussion.

* DigitalJournal.com updated readers on a sports-related head injuries conference scheduled for Buffalo next month.

* The Denver Post wrote about a near-fatal concussion that helped to bring a Colorado high school football team together.