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GoRout, Mobile Virtual Player, Windpact Win NFL’s Super Bowl Startup Competition

HOUSTON — The New England Patriots-Atlanta Falcons game wasn’t the only competition Houston hosted during Super Bowl weekend.

Nine different startup companies went head to head in a contest called “1st and Future,” pitching what they say are game-changing technology products that were evaluated on commercial viability, innovation, and how they would improve the game of football.

Each of the companies had four minutes to explain their products to a seven-member judges panel, which included medical doctors, business leaders and a current and former NFL player.

The three winners included GoRout from Rochester, Minn. in the Communicating with the Athlete category; Mobile Virtual Player from Lebanon, N.H. in the Training the Athlete category; and Windpact of Leesburg, Va. in the category of Materials to Protect the Athlete.

GoRout combines wearable technology and real-time playmaking software that helps football teams practice with coaches able to communicate with their players. MVP is a motorized mobile training dummy that has been tested by eight NFL teams. Windpact is a company — with former NFL player Shawn Springs as its CEO — that launched the Crash Cloud system of airbags in helmets with the aim of reducing the rates of concussion.

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Each received a $50,000 check from the NFL, two Super Bowl game tickets and acceptance into TMCx, the Texas Medical Center’s incubator for health care and life science startups.

Other companies competing included:

The event, held Super Bowl eve on Saturday was hosted by the Texas Medical Center and followed an informal discussion with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and GE CEO and chairman Jeff Immelt, who say technology is key to making football — and all sports — safer.

“I believe kids today are playing the game a lot safer than we did,” Goodell said. “(New technology) gives us great optimism about how we’re going to change sports and brain health.”

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