It’s been a good year for the Alabama Crimson Tide. A month after wrapping up yet another national championship season, Alabama has successfully secured a patent for one of the growing trends seen around the world of football on all levels. The medical tents seen on more and more sidelines from high school to college and even the NFL are now patented by Alabama.
The SidelineER made its debut on an Alabama sideline during the 2015 season, and now after a 15-month process, the university has been awarded a patent for the innovation which was created by Alabama sports medicine director Jeff Allen.
The University Of Alabama has been granted a patent for its portable sideline tent, first developed at school under SidelinER name in 2015 pic.twitter.com/OetMNyphRm
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) February 12, 2018
The basic idea of the medical tent is to be able to provide medical assistance as quickly as possible. Rather than take a player back to the locker room, the ability to do whatever may be needed on the sideline with the privacy allows for quicker medical assistance and, potentially, may allow a player to get back in the game quicker if possible. Don’t overlook that advantage to a medical tent, even in an age of evolving awareness about player safety. Since making its debut in 2015 in Tuscaloosa, the medical tent has spread to at least 70 high schools, colleges, and NFL teams and more will likely join the trend in the fall.
“I think it has unbelievable potential,” Allen told AL.com last year. “Certainly, I knew it had potential within the sports world. But, now, to think where this could evolve to based on calls that we’ve gotten and interest that we’ve had from paramedic groups, EMS groups, the military, groups that we never envisioned getting interest from, I think there’s endless potential.”
It is somewhat amazing it took so long for these medical tents to make their way to the sideline considering tents have been around for decades, if not centuries. Tents are even used in tailgating parties on game days. At some point, somebody was going to cash in on this idea for a football purpose, and now Alabama has done so.
