(FORTUNE Magazine) – These are heady days for the folks at Riddell Sports, which manufactures football helmets and sells other sports gear. Three weeks into the NFL season, pro football's newest poster boy for hard knocks--San Francisco 49er quarterback Steve Young--switched to Riddell headgear after suffering his third concussion in ten months (sixth overall) in the Niners' season opener against Tampa Bay two weeks earlier. Eight out of ten NFL players already wear the more heavily padded Riddell, as do thousands of aspiring all-pros.

Young, donning his new and slightly larger helmet (as well as a mouthpiece, which he had previously never worn), threw for 220 yards and three touchdowns against New Orleans on Sept. 13 in a 33-7 rout. Most important, he could still find the locker room after the game.

Young's performance tempered, at least for now, the ongoing tempest over whether the NFL, helmet manufacturers--and even the players themselves--are doing enough to prevent serious head injuries in a game now dominated by bigger, stronger, and faster players. Both the NFL and Riddell claim minimizing such injuries is a priority. The league cites the numerous rules changes it has made in the past two years, as well as its two-year-old Committee on Mild Traumatic Injuries, which has gathered data in an area where little had existed.

Not surprisingly, sports agent Leigh Steinberg, whose cadre of clients includes just about every quarterback you've ever heard of, has a couple of ideas: improve the helmets and put a neurologist on the sidelines at every NFL game. (Currently, each team brings an orthopedist and a general medical practitioner.) "Why do we have the technology to send Voyager to Mars but not to produce a football helmet that gives better protection?" he asks. As for the sideline neurologist: "We need something a little bit more sophisticated out there than 'How many fingers am I holding up?'"

"My response to Leigh Steinberg," says Dr. Elliot Pellman, head of the NFL's mild trauma committee, "is that if we had someone on the sidelines for every possible risk, you'd need a second stadium. Besides, neurologists aren't sophisticated in the area of mild brain injuries."

Riddell officials wouldn't tell us how much they spend on R&D each year (although the annual report reveals a $2.5 million tab for liability insurance last year), but they say the company, in partnership with suppliers and engineers, is constantly testing new materials and designs. "Improvements don't fall off trucks," says CFO David Groelinger.

But PR coups do. Young's helmet switch was cause for chest pounding at Riddell, which is still beaming over another major score earlier this year--the $91 million acquisition of Varsity Spirit, which sells cheerleading and dance-team uniforms. The combined company is expected to generate $160 million in revenues this year. Gushes Groelinger: "Now we've got the players and the cheerleaders."

--Roy S. Johnson