It’s no secret that concussions and head injuries are a big concern in football, especially after Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered multiple high-profile head injuries last season. In response to the concern, the NFL is making a major move this season to help protect its quarterbacks.
The NFL and the NFLPA have approved a brand new quarterback-specific helmet created by Vicis that is designed specifically to protect quarterbacks when they hit their heads on the ground while being tackled during games. Those types of hits account for about half of the concussions suffered by quarterbacks, according to the NFL.
“We’ve now analyzed with our engineers and with the Players Association more than a 1,000 concussions on field, we have a pretty good database of how these injuries occur,” NFL executive vice president of communications, public affairs and policy Jeff Miller said according to Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press. “This helmet performs better in laboratory testing than any helmets we have ever seen for those sorts of impacts.”
Obviously, this is a big move for the league as it makes continual efforts to make the game as safe as possible for all the players. It’s especially helpful in protecting quarterbacks, who are among the most vulnerable players on the field.
