Tua Tagovailoa used as “poster-boy” for the announcement.
In an announcement first made by the Associated Press and then confirmed by ESPN Thursday morning, we learned that the National Football League and the NFL Players Association approved of a new quarterback specific helmet designed to reduce the amount of concussions suffered by signal callers around the NFL.
Unsurprisingly, Dolphins’ quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was used as the poster-boy for the league’s announcement — which included the use of a graphic photo from Tagovailoa’s concussion against the Bengals showing a clear case of what is known as the fencing response.
“The helmet, manufactured by Vicis, reduces severity of helmet-to-ground impacts, which league data says account for approximately half of quarterback concussions, including the one suffered by Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa last season when his head slammed violently against the turf during a Thursday night game against Cincinnati.”
NFL executive Jeff Miller talked with the Associated Press about the impact this new helmet could make around the league.
“This helmet performs better in laboratory testing than any helmets we have ever seen for those sorts of impacts.”
According to the ESPN article, Vicis’ new helmet — an upgraded version of the helmet Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes wears — performed 7% better than the most popular helmet worn by quarterbacks in the NFL last season.
Vicis attributes this performance increase to the new helmet’s ability to “deform” or “dent” in the location of impact to absorb the contact caused by the helmet hitting the turf.
Each player will have the choice whether or not to switch to Vicis’ new design, so it remains to be seen if Tua Tagovailoa will use this as an opportunity to increase the chances that he can put his concussion issues behind him, but we will keep you updated on his decision when that news is made available to the public.
To read the entire article released by ESPN this morning, click here.
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