Kansas Metropolis Chiefs famous person quarterback Patrick Mahomes scrambled and picked up a number of further yards within the second half of Saturday’s wild-card spherical playoff matchup with the Miami Dolphins.
Mahomes ended up taking a helmet-to-helmet hit from Dolphins security Deshon Elliott on the finish of run, which shattered the quarterback’s VICIS manufactured helmet. On Wednesday, the producer stated the helmet “did its job” by defending the two-time NFL MVP “throughout a head-to-head impression in unprecedented chilly temperatures.”
The Chiefs-Dolphins recreation at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas Metropolis was one of many coldest contests in league historical past. The temperature at kickoff was minus-4 levels Fahrenheit and dropped considerably all through the night.
VICIS ZERO2 helmet producer, Certor Sports activities, stated the frigid temperatures straight impacted the helmet.
“Excessive circumstances like these are sure to check the boundaries of even the highest-performing merchandise,” Certor Sports activities stated in an announcement Wednesday.
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A bit of Mahomes’ helmet broke off from simply above the face-mask space.
“They’re testing it proper now,” Mahomes stated Wednesday, “however I’m adamant on getting the helmet after. It’s one thing that’s cool, I’ll have the ability to maintain for a very long time. Like they stated, it did its job. I used to be completely tremendous after.”
CHIEFS’ PATRICK MAHOMES DIDN’T WANT TO COME OUT OF GAME AFTER HELMET CRACK
The VICIS ZERO2 makes use of a proprietary multilayer expertise that creates a “deformable outer shell,” the corporate stated, and that’s wrapped round a stiffer interior shell. The design is much like that of automobile bumpers, which could look like cheap plastic at first look however are in truth engineered to soak up and disperse vitality on the level of impression.
The ZERO2 line, which incorporates particular fashions for linemen and quarterbacks, held the highest 5 spots in testing this season by the NFL and NFLPA. The helmets additionally ranked extremely in unbiased evaluations at Virginia Tech.
“It’s uncommon for a soccer helmet to crack a shell, however we’ve had occurrences right here within the lab, and we usually check at ambient temperature,” stated Barry Miller, who helps direct the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab. “In the event you requested a soccer tools room supervisor, chances are you’ll discover a completely different reply as they see tons of helmets with loads of impacts.”
VICIS was based in 2017 and rapidly grew to become a venture-capital darling, elevating greater than $85 million from present and former NFL gamers, which included Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Jerry Rice. And with a give attention to innovation, the corporate produced helmets that ranked No. 1 in NFL and NFLPA testing from 2017 to 2019.
Mahomes stated he by no means had a helmet shatter earlier than: “It was a primary for me.” He didn’t instantly know {that a} shard had damaged off till he returned to the huddle and teammates pointed it out to him.
The Chiefs star initially performed with the damaged helmet earlier than officers intervened and made him get a backup from the sideline. However the backup had been sitting within the excessive chilly all evening, and it was tough for Mahomes to get on his head. It took some work with tools managers on the sideline between collection to lastly make it comfy for him.
“We have now to speak about the place we retailer the backup as a result of it was frozen,” Mahomes stated with a smile. “It didn’t look nice. We have been capable of modify it on the sideline, get it sort of warmed up a bit and get rolling from there.”
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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