Helmets

I recently looked into the types of helmets the NFL is using.  Obviously we all know what the helmets are used for but I wanted to look at the different types the league has to see some of the differences one type may have over another.  I found this article on ESPN's website that looks at the three most used helmets by players.  Here is a link to the article.

Courtesy of Riddell Sports

The article showed that 75% of the players mainly use Riddell brands.  They are known for having the helmet render data from its Head Impact Telemetry System (aka HITS), kind of ironic acronym don't you think, "which uses sensors to measure the intensity and location of blows, informed the design."  This is some classy stuff.  The helmet actually has sensors that measure the blow?  That's seems pretty advanced for a helmet, which in turn can only lead to better things for the NFL from this.  The helmet also has "more protection in front, where 70% of concussive impacts occur."  This gives the players that use this helmet more protection towards concussions or just hard blows to the head in general.  Riddell just introduced a new helmet called Revolution 360 that debuted in January that featured this new technology.


Another helmet the article looked at was Schutt's Air Series helmet.  This is a helmet that players like Eli Manning, DeSean Jackson, and Chris Johnson wear for protection.  Even though Jackson suffered a rememberable concussion in October that I talked about in an earlier blog post, this helmet focuses on materials inside the helmet that are labeled as more "shock absorbent".  The helmet contains "a conical padding system made from thermoplastic urethane (TPU) is more shock absorbent and resilient than foam. And a thicker shell helps to deflect impacts."  This helmet focuses more on absorbing the blow or deflecting it all together.

Courtesy of Schutt Sports Inc.

The third and final helmet this article mentioned was the Xenith X1 model.  This is a helmet that focuses on absorbing hits that come at all speeds.  "To address repeated lower-impact hits, it has implemented a shock bonnet lining that attaches to the interior of the shell and features 18 shock-absorbing, puck-shaped pads."  So basically this is a helmet that is trying to reduce the impact of hits that come at all speeds.  Some notable players that use this helmet are Dallas Clark, Josh Cribbs, and Ricky Williams.

These are just three of the helmets being used in the NFL.  But it gives you all some insight on what they do to help protect the players.