The NFL and the National Football League Player Association both approved the first helmet specifically designed to reduce concussions suffered by quarterbacks, the Associated Press reported.
Manufactured by Vicis, the helmet is designed to minimize the effects of helmet-to-ground impacts. These types of contact account for approximately 50% of all concussions suffered by quarterbacks, including that incurred by the Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa last season when his head was slammed into the turf during a Thursday night game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
“We’ve now analyzed with our engineers and with the players’ association more than a thousand concussions on field, we have a pretty good database of how these injuries occur,” NFL executive Jeff Miller said of the helmet-to-ground impacts. “This helmet performs better in laboratory testing than any helmets we have ever seen for those sorts of impacts.”
Vicis began designing the Zero2 Matrix QB helmet in early 2022. The helmet performed 7% better in tests than the most popular helmet worn by quarterbacks last season, the NFL revealed in a memo sent to executives on Thursday.
