Tennessee Titans quarterback Matt Hasselback has been very active in helping those with head injuries during the past year. Last fall, he visited troops recovering from brain injuries at nearby Fort Campbell, Ky. Now he has become involved in a device developers hope will help diagnose head injuries.

TitansOnline.com reported that Hasselbeck has teamed up with former teammate Isaiah Kacyvenski and MC10, the makers of a product called CheckLight.

The friends reconnected in the week leading up to Super Bowl XLVII to make the rounds on Radio Row and promote a product that they hope helps athletes, coaches, athletic trainers, doctors and even parents by providing an initial indicator that an athlete may have suffered an intense hit to the head and need further examination before returning to play.

The product is called CheckLight and is scheduled for release this spring. The CheckLight is a development by MC10, which makes high-performance technologies less invasive, and Reebok. The CheckLight will have a green light, a yellow light and a red light embedded into a skull cap made by Reebok that football players and athletes from other sports like hockey and lacrosse can wear under their helmets. There are also plans to imbed the technology in headbands for other sports such as basketball and soccer.

The product includes a skullcap, a very thin electronic monitor that slips into the cap and a charger.

Hasselbeck said he was excited when Kacyvenski called him about a year ago to see if he would be on the football advisory board for CheckLight because he thinks it will contribute significant information in trying to solve a complicated problem.

Hasselbeck said the misconception that taking a break for water was a “sign of weakness” during his father’s pro football career resulted from bad information but has been corrected by science. He’s hoping increased information will help with concussion prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

“Now we know that hydration is not only safer but helps recovery,” Hasselbeck said. “Here (at the Titans) we do a great job of immediately after practice is over, everybody gets some sort of nutrients in their body, whether it’s a protein shake or a Gatorade.”

– Bill Bradley, contributing editor