Canton and Rodgers

[mraynrand]

Doesn't Rodgers now wear the same helmet as Manning? I thought he mentioned that when he first used it.

Shhhhhh....it's a secret!

[channtheman]

I do think that article is kind of stupid just a few posts up. "Why are the Packers keeping this secret from all the poor little high school players who NEED this information!?" Give me a break.

[mraynrand]

Doesn't Rodgers now wear the same helmet as Manning?

I was wondering how this would work. Can the NFL guarantee that the Colts and Packers never play at the same time? Can the Helmet be repainted, re-logoed and FedExed fast enough between cities to make it happen? This whole plan seems fraught with difficulties.

[sharpe1027]

I was wondering how this would work. Can the NFL guarantee that the Colts and Packers never play at the same time? Can the Helmet be repainted, re-logoed and FedExed fast enough between cities to make it happen? This whole plan seems fraught with difficulties.

Maybe the NFL will change the schedule to be sure that they always play each other and Rodgers and Manning can agree that neither of them will play defense against the other.

[SkinBasket]

I do think that article is kind of stupid just a few posts up. "Why are the Packers keeping this secret from all the poor little high school players who NEED this information!?" Give me a break.

I thought the same thing. It's a fucking football helmet, not the cure for cancer, premature ejaculation, and childhood obesity.

[Deputy Nutz]

High school athletes have not a clue with what they put on their head. They have the coach or an athletic trainer pick one off the shelf and fit it on their head. It is the coaches and athletic directors. and the athletic trainer's responsibility to pick out the safest product for their athletes. All the helmets they have to choose from have to be mandated by High School Football association, and the governing body of the State high school athletics.

[mraynrand]

Maybe the NFL will change the schedule to be sure that they always play each other and Rodgers and Manning can agree that neither of them will play defense against the other.

Another complication is that Manning has a much larger head - at least along the Z-axis

[sharpe1027]

Another complication is that Manning has a much larger head - at least along the Z-axis

The would also need to change the wireless play calling equipment. Or I suppose they could just let one coach call plays for both teams.

[Bossman641]

Excellent deduction! That would explain why they won't mention what helmet it is. I wonder if they had to get special permission from the league if it is not "official" equipment?

I remembered reading all this before and found the follow-up article.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/110208_tuesday_morning_quarterback&sportCat=nfl

What You Need to Know About Aaron Rodgers' Helmet: Last week, I took the Green Bay Packers to task for refusing to say what kind of helmet Aaron Rodgers switched to after his early-season concussions. Rodgers has said the new helmet protected him in a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit in the NFC title game. Across college and high school football, many players, coaches and parents aren't sure which helmets on the market afford the best protection. I asserted that with concussions an issue of wide concern, the public needed to know what Rodgers would wear in the Super Bowl. For that matter the public needed to know what the other starting quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, would wear -- Roethlisberger switched helmet types this past spring, hoping to avoid another concussion.

In the Super Bowl, Rodgers wore the Schutt Air XP and Roethlisberger wore the Riddell Revo Speed. Both helmets have advanced features that reduce -- but surely do not eliminate -- concussion incidence. These, and a few similar models, should be on the heads of every high school, college and pro football player. Unfortunately, even many NFL players continue to wear helmets with inferior engineering.

Here's a primer. Until 2002, almost all football helmets were "shell" designs -- smooth globe shapes, with the outer part fairly close to the player's head. Shell helmets did a good job of protecting the skull -- as recently as the 1960s, football deaths from fractured skulls were distressingly common -- but not such a good job of protecting the brain inside the skull. Concussions, long a problem in many contact sports (and in other sports such as diving), became more of an issue as football players grew stronger and faster, colliding with increased force.

In 2002, Riddell, the NFL's official supplier, began to sell the Revolution, the first helmet designed with concussion reduction in mind. The Revo had more "standoff" than traditional helmets -- more distance between the player's head and the outside. More "standoff" means more space for cushioning. Research found that players wearing Revos were about one-third less likely than other players to suffer concussions. So the new helmet idea was an improvement, though no panacea. Nobody has yet come up with a panacea for concussions, not even on paper.

James Collins, at that time the football coach at my kids' high school, followed sports medical research; when he heard about the Revo, in 2004, parents staged a fundraising drive to equip the football team with those helmets. That put a high school ahead of most of the NFL and NCAA, which did not rush to embrace the Revo. Why? Compared with traditional shell helmets, players thought the Revo looked funny, giving them a space-alien appearance. At the high school level, you wear what you are handed. But in the NFL, players are allowed to choose what they wear, and many would not place a Revo on their heads. The most common NFL helmet continued to be the Riddell VSR4, a 20-year-old design that is outdated but offers a smooth shell appearance players find stylish.

Schutt, the other leading helmet manufacturer, soon began to sell two advanced models, the DNA and the Ion, with concussion-resistant engineering, including improved cushioning material. Same problem: These helmets' large "standoff" made players think they looked funny. Glenn Beckmann, a Schutt official, told me, "The DNA and the Ion absorb more impact than other models, but there is a tradeoff and, in the player's mind, an important one. It's the 'mirror test.' One of the first things a player does when he puts a helmet on is walk to the mirror to see how it looks. Current players in the NFL grew up with the traditional standoff helmet shells. From the time they started playing as a kid, that's what they've been comfortable with. They're not accustomed to seeing larger helmets on their heads. So when they try on one of the large standoff helmets, they don't like the way it looks. It's a reason the most widely worn helmet in the NFL is still the Riddell VSR4, a traditional helmet. It looks the way players think a helmet should look."

Why would NFL players not want to reduce concussion risk? Many muscular young men believe they are invincible. Others are fatalistic -- believing that if a concussion is going to happen it will happen, regardless of headgear.

Aware of the aesthetic issue, Riddell introduced a new model, the Revo Speed, with advanced concussion resistance but more similar to the traditional shell look. Schutt's response was the Air XP -- better concussion protection, traditional appearance. The new Rawlings Quantum, out soon, has the same set of design goals -- better concussion resistance in a traditional fashion look. Bucking the trend is the Xenith X1, made by a startup firm, which is proudly bobblehead in appearance but aims for maximum protection.

Today, many NFL players continue to wear the obsolete VSR-4 and similar models: The NFL encourages use of advanced helmets but won't mandate this. The NFL appears to believe that mandating any particular helmet would make the league liable for any harm someone might suffer after donning a helmet of that type. As TMQ detailed here in November, this view is likely to be incorrect, in legal terms. But the belief is common in the NFL. The NCAA won't mandate helmet types either, though many colleges simply require players to wear nothing but advanced Schutt or Riddell helmets.

As for Roethlisberger, after having concussion problems in 2009, he switched in 2010 from the VSR-4 to the Revo Speed. He's had no problems since. After Rodgers suffered two concussions this past fall, he switched to the Air XP. This helmet is not quite as advanced as the same company's DNA and Ion models, but the Air XP looks cool, so players will put it on their heads. When DeSean Jackson suffered a concussion early in the 2010 season, he switched to an Air XP.

TMQ's contention is that the NFL should mandate that only advanced helmets -- the Revo and Revo Speed, the Schutt Ion, DNA and Air XP, the Xenith and the upcoming Rawlings Quantum -- be allowed. Hines Ward of the Steelers noted at Super Bowl media day that if the NFL really means what it says about reducing concussion incidence, why doesn't it require players to wear the safest helmets? That the NFL will not require maximum safety because it seems to fear liability more than it wants health reflects very poorly on the league. Yes, NFL players are grown men who are aware of risks. But the league doesn't allow them to choose what color socks to wear. Why does it allow them to choose inferior helmets?

If the NFL switched to mandating that players wear the safest headgear, this would set a positive example for the high school ranks. Far too many high schools buy whatever helmet's cheapest, in part because equipment salesmen can say, truthfully, that the NFL doesn't mandate helmet safety. Time for that to change.

Parents of football players -- the Riddell Revo and Revo Speed, the Schutt DNA, Ion and Air XP, the Xenith X1 and the forthcoming Rawlings Quantum are designed to reduce the chance of concussions. Other helmets are not. What more do you need to know?

The article still doesn't address how he eventually found out what helmet Rodgers wears or why the Packers were keeping it secret in the first place, but it seems that the Packers and Rodgers were worried about indirectly supporting a specific helmet and did not want to set themselves up for any kind of liability.

NFL players are free to wear any helmet they wish without special permission btw.

Discussing Rodgers' helmet....Is it the offseason?? Hahah

[mraynrand]

Bucking the trend is the Xenith X1, made by a startup firm, which is proudly bobblehead in appearance but aims for maximum protection.

Pride goeth before a Bobblehead.