Quarterback’s helmet ‘did its job,’ manufacturer says

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The manufacturer of the helmet that Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes shattered during their AFC wild-card game with Miami says it “did its job” by protecting the league MVP “during a head-to-head impact in unprecedented cold temperatures.”

The game Saturday night was the fourth-coldest in NFL history. The temperature at kickoff was minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit, and winds gusting to more than 25 mph made the wind chill approach minus-30 during the game.

“Extreme conditions like those are bound to test the limits of even the highest-performing products,” Certor Sports, which makes the VICIS ZERO2 helmet that Mahomes was wearing, said in a statement Wednesday.

Mahomes was scrambling toward the end zone in the second half of the Chiefs’ 26-7 victory when he was hit by Dolphins safety DeShon Elliott. Their helmets clashed and, likely because of the extreme cold that made the outer shell brittle, a fist-sized chunk went flying from Mahomes’ helmet just above the facemask covering his left eye.

“They’re testing it right now,” Mahomes said Wednesday, “but I’m adamant on getting the helmet after. It’s something that’s cool, I’ll be able to keep for a long time. Like they said, it did its job. I was perfectly fine after.”

The VICIS ZERO2 uses a proprietary multilayer technology that creates a “deformable outer shell,” the company said, and that is wrapped around a stiffer inner shell. The design is similar to that of car bumpers, which might appear to be inexpensive plastic at first glance but are in fact engineered to absorb and disperse energy at the point of impact.

The ZERO2 line, which includes specific models for linemen and quarterbacks, held the top five spots in testing this season by the NFL and NFLPA. The helmets also ranked highly in independent evaluations at Virginia Tech.

“It is unusual for a football helmet to crack a shell, but we’ve had occurrences here in the lab and we generally test at ambient temperature,” said Barry Miller, who helps direct the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab. “If you asked a football equipment room manager, you may find a different answer, as they see tons of helmets with plenty of impacts.”