There was a noteworthy football debut that took place during the NFL’s opening week. It could be seen as Kansas City quarterback Alex Smith led his team to an upset over New England, as Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson sat in the pocket against Green Bay and as Dallas running back Alfred Morris took a handoff from Dak Prescott on Sunday night.
All three players were wearing a new high-tech helmet, available for the first time this season, that league officials hope provides a preview of how technology and innovation could help make the game safer.
Smith, Wilson and Morris were among 70 or so players who wore the VICIS Zero1 helmet, the product of a Seattle start-up that might look like the traditional football helmet from afar but has a completely different design just beneath its exterior shell.
The helmet incorporates engineering principles more commonly seen in the automotive field. The outer shell is softer and more pliable, made from flexible thermoplastic. Beneath it is a layer of more than 500 small columns, each measuring an inch or so long, which absorb force and also twist and move laterally, lessening the impact of rotational acceleration, a major concussion culprit.
