QB gives form-fitting helmet big thumbs-up

Bo Levi Mitchell and Deron Mayo probably can’t get any drastic changes made to their hairstyles this season.

But so far, that might be the only disadvantage to the new helmets the two Calgary Stampeders stars will be sporting this year.

Mayo and Mitchell were selected as the two Stampeders players who will be testing out the new Riddell Precision Fit helmets for the 2017 season, and Mitchell doesn’t have anything bad to say about what he’s experienced so far.

The helmets required Riddell representatives do a three-dimensional scan of the players’ heads in the off-season so that they could use that data to build personalized padding that is moulded and contoured to the shape and size of the athlete’s head.

The technology is so precise the helmets won’t fit anyone else on the team, and if a player with dreadlocks were to cut off their hair, they’d need to start the entire — expensive — fitting process all over again.

“It’s definitely comfortable, it feels amazing on your head,” Mitchell said. “It feels like almost putting on a tuque, it forms to your head every single time.”

The idea behind the helmets is that they drastically reduce space between a player’s head and the padding of the helmet. That means that when a player moves their head, the helmet moves, too, which could help reduce concussions.

“Any time you turn your helmet, no matter how good a job we do in the equipment room, there’s going to be a slight lag where the head’s going to move and a split second later the helmet follows it,” said longtime Stampeders equipment manager George Hopkins. “That doesn’t happen anymore.”

The helmets have been slowly making their way into NFL and NCAA locker rooms, and Hopkins said the CFL is allowing each team to try the helmets out with two players.

In part, that’s because the helmets are still expensive, and the Stampeders chose Mitchell and Mayo as the team’s players to use them because they are players with roots in the community who have long-term contracts.

CAPTAINS NAMED

Stamps head coach Dave Dickenson surprised his players at the end of Monday’s practice by announcing his team’s four captains for the season.

The team named QB Mitchell, safety Josh Bell, fullback Rob Cote and kicker Rene Paredes as its four captains after a player vote.

“It’s kind of like last year after Mayo got hurt,” Dickenson said. “Deron’s still fighting it, those are our four guys. It worked last year, so hopefully it works this year.”

SHORT YARDAGE

As the Stampeders’ third option at quarterback last season, Andrew Buckley performed the majority of the team’s short yardage QB duties.

With Buckley getting bumped up to the second-stringer job this year, though, it’s a little unclear if the Calgary native will be abandoning those duties and allowing Ricky Stanzi to take over.

“We haven’t really gotten into that, (Buckley) is our No. 2 quarterback,” Dickenson said.

“We’ll let Ricky at least work it and see, and Andrew obviously knows it so he could do it very easily, as well.”

Buckley did pretty well with his short yardage duties last season, tying a record for most rushing touchdowns in a season by a Canadian-born quarterback when he scored his eighth of the year and then becoming the first Canadian QB to score a touchdown in the Grey Cup since Russ Jackson did it for the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1968.