NFL Is Conducting An Engineering Study On The Patrick Mahomes Helmet That Broke Apart
Anyone who saw Patrick Mahomes have his helmet break apart during a playoff game against the Miami Dolphins two weeks ago has a good idea why that thing cracked and a chunk came flying off on impact.
First, social media told us, it's because it was cold.
Then, social media said, it was because Mahomes lowered his head and went helmet-to-helmet with Dolphins safety DeShone Elliott.
Simple. But not to the NFL.
NFL Takes Possession Of Mahomes' Helmet
The league, which places a premium on player safety, has to be more thoughtful than simply dismissing the incident by blaming weather or how Mahomes acted on the play. So the league is investigating the moment.
And actually studying the helmet with a full-on engineering crew. No, seriously.
Like, with NFL engineers.
Sorry social media neanderthals, the NFL is getting all scientific with this.
"...We have the helmet," NFL executive vice [resident for communications, public affairs and policy Jeff Miller said Thursday. "Our engineers have the helmet and they are examining it and talking with the company about what may have caused that.
"Obviously the conditions were extreme and may have contributed to the potential failure in that case."
That is a logic starting point. The temperature at Kansas City's GEHA Stadium was minus-4 at kickoff with the wind chill recorded at minus-27 at one point in the game.
So, yes, it's easy to think of that helmet like a high school science experiment when the teacher freezes something with liquid nitrogen and then shatters it with a bat.
But if there's more to it than that, the NFL wants to know.
A Suggestion For The Famous Mahomes Helmet
"Quarterbacks, like most the players, have backups in place which is good," Miller said. "But obviously we want to understand not just how the helmets perform in optimal situations but how they perform in extreme situations.
"And so whether it be the NFL and the NFL laboratory testing that we do for all the helmets or whether it be the standard setting organization and its rules, which are not governed by the NFL, to test them, we will continue to take a look at those to make sure that we understand how the helmets can perform or will perform in all conditions."
And now a suggestion to the NFL: Once the "engineers" are done with their study, send the helmet to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Turn it into a testimony that football in 2024 wasn't the soft, weak-kneed descendant of the football played in the 1960s and '70s.
Yes, it definitely is that to some degree.
But a helmet breaking apart when a quarterback, of all players, lowers his head against a defender while they're playing in minus-4 degree weather is not exactly soft. And the fact Mahomes delivered a blow so hard his helmet cracked?
It's a statement.
"It happens so seldom," Miller said, "and we're grateful for that. The work the manufactures have done to create better and better helmets with each succeeding year is impressive."