NFL imposes ban on wearing Brady helmet and 31 others

The NFL and the NFL Players Association have added 11 headsets to their joint list of approved equipment for 2019, while eliminating a grace period for other models that failed during lab tests, Friday announced engineers and leaders of both groups.

At the end of last season, 32 players wore helmets that are now banned.

Jeff Miller, executive vice president of the NFL for health and safety initiatives, said it was "eminently feasible" to convert them into approved equipment.

The equipment manager of each team was instructed to remove all the banned helmets, which are listed on a poster distributed to the teams on Friday. If a team discovers that a player is wearing a banned helmet or is making it easier to use, he will be subject to league discipline, Miller said during a conference call with reporters.

The NFL and NFLPA have been testing helmets since 2015, but last year they agreed for the first time to ban lower-performing models. Six of them were banned immediately and four others, including one often used by quarterback Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, were allowed to be worn for a year.

The list of banned helmets has not been added to 2019. Of the 11 models tested this spring, nine were new to the market, one had been significantly changed and another had been forgotten in 2018 , according to Dr. Kristy Arbogast, NFLPA engineer. consultant.

Six of the new helmets were ranked in the top 10 on the poster 2019. For the third year in a row, the VICIS Zero1 helmet came top of the list, followed by the Schutt F7 LTD and the Riddell SpeedFlex Precision Diamond.

"One of the most exciting things is to see how our multi-year test protocol is really driving innovation," said Arbogast. "You can see on the poster that many of the new headsets on the market are the most powerful, so I think that, from the point of view of the players, it is phenomenal that we stimulate innovation and that we let's push the design to launch more efficient products in the field. "

About 50% of players opted for a better helmet in 2018, according to statistics released by the NFL. In the 17th week of last season, 74% of players used a helmet rated in the top category. The NFL will send a list to the 32-player teams that were still wearing underperforming helmets in 2018 to facilitate upgrades.

Arbogast said that the players who opposed the change said for the most part that they preferred the shape, comfort and look of their old helmets. Dr. Jeff Crandall, chairman of the NFL Engineering Committee, said that many of the models added to this year's list are upgraded versions of these helmets.

"One of the things that has prevented some players from moving," said Crandall, "could have been on the comfort or fit or aesthetics of the helmet, not necessarily safety." But there are a large number of [approved helmets] which are comparable in the aesthetics now. We are optimistic that this will lead to a migration of people. "

The helmet test is conducted in a laboratory at Biokinetics Inc. in Canada. According to Crandall, the crash test dummies wearing each helmet are equipped with sensors and impact eight locations at three speeds each. The tests focus on linear accelerations, rotational accelerations and speed, he said, and lead to a performance metric that "characterizes the helmet's ability to handle the forces of impact".