The NFL and NFLPA released the results of their annual helmet safety tests on Friday, ranking the VICIS Zero1 as the top-performing helmet for the third straight year. Models from Schutt, Riddell, and Xenith were also listed in the top 10.
This was the fifth straight season of offseason laboratory tests contracted by the league in conjunction with the players association and conducted at Biokinetics in Ottawa. Jeff Miller, the NFL’s EVP for health and safety, took a moment on a conference call to “underline the level of collaboration” between the two sides. Full results are available on the NFL’s Play Smart, Play Safe website.
Miller added that 11 new helmets were evaluated this year, and six of the top-10 ranked helmets were new versions made by existing manufacturers.
“This is demonstrating the vitality and the dynamism of the helmet industry,” Miller said.
NFLPA engineering consultant Kristy Arbogast, the co-scientific director at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said that none of the helmets in the green end of the rankings spectrum were significantly different than the top three.
In attesting to the applicability of this lab work, Arbogast said “We’ve been able to show that analysis of on-field injury rates by helmet model support the findings observed in the laboratory tests.”
Jeff Crandall, the chairman of the NFL Engineering Committee and the director of the Center for Applied Biomechanics at the University of Virginia, noted that the tests included using sensors installed on the head and neck of a crash-test dummy. He said that allowed for better measurement of both linear (or translational) and rotational motion and forces.
“There’s a growing consensus among biomechanicists and medical experts that concussions have a component of their injury caused by these rotational motions of the head,” Crandall said.
Miller added that 74 percent of NFL players were wearing a helmet model in the higher-performing green category by Week 17 of last season. There were 32 players still using a helmet rated in the red subgroup. Those helmets are now prohibited for use in all practices and games.