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2019-2020 Offseason:
(Late-Arriving)
Latest NFL News And Views Part 3: From Respecting Race To Saving
Face To SHIELDING IN PLACE To Keeping Pace
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Part 1
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Part 2
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Part 3
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Part 4
July 27,
2020 At 10:13 PM CST
By Eric M. Scharf-
- Imagine the PPE (Personal
Protective Equipment) designed for frontline physicians, doctors,
nurses, and other critical members of a fearless, life-saving
medical team. Now envision that equipment being repurposed,
immeasurably-hardened, yet allegedly-breathable for an
almost-supercollider, collision-oriented theme.
Shielding In Place
The NFL somewhat-recently revealed a (but perhaps not THE?) face
shield prototype that product developer Oakley, league owners, and
the NFLPA hope will best contain and control the grid iron growth of
COVID-19. If the collaborative Oakley “Mouth Shield” is unable to
consistently deliver on that potential, the NFL would – of course –
be facing ONE. UGLY. SCENE.
Various players and equipment managers from the Los Angeles Rams and
Los Angeles Chargers – located in close proximity to Oakley HQ – had
been tasked with determining if Oakley’s latest product concept is
true.
Oakley’s “PLT (Prizm Lens Technology)” – for enhanced color and
contrast (much like the light-triggered, self-tinting, photochromic
lenses in a pair of glasses) – is a nice feature of the face shield
design, but it is, of course, the mouth region of such protection on
which everyone must emphatically align.
While the airways on the mouth region of the shield promote airflow
and (reasonably-audible?) communication, they do not – according to
Dr. Jeff Crandall (the chair of the NFL’s engineering committee) –
allow the direct transmission of droplets. One particular star
player (among a growing number of others) believes the NFL still
needs better design quality and that eager owners should not yet
open their wallets.
“My second year in the league, I thought it would be cool. I put a
visor on my helmet. I was like, ‘It looks so cool, I want to put a
visor on.’ I had it on for about three periods of practice and I
said, ‘Take this sucker off, I’m going to die out here.’
Just the
face one. So, now, you want to put something around my mouth? No.
YOU
can keep THAT. If that comes into play, I don’t think you’re going
to see me out there on the field.” – Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt (in telling Pro Football Talk he was prepared to balk over
a greenhouse-like shield that might make playing all for naught).
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- It is – of course – one thing to (allegedly) prevent fluid from
entering or exiting a mouth-level mask, but it remains a mystery if
Oakley’s Mouth Shield (or any other unannounced, competing
prototype) is up to the anti-claustrophobia, anti-fogging,
anti-hot-air task. The league – to the complete satisfaction of the
NFLPA – will have to find out SOON if they expect to see the best of
the best attempt to play (whether during recently-started training
camp or on game day).
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- No one wants COVID to become
the ultimate "facemask penalty," but all it takes is
one willful dummy in 2020 to ensure the virus becomes far
more challenging to teams than the "old-fashioned" 15-yard
variety.
Can Skin To Skin Do You In?
While "everyone" has understandably focused on the incoming and
outgoing challenges of a player's face, that effort may only close
part of the COVID-19 case. The remaining, exposed, porous, and
heavily-perspiring surface area of a player – depending upon the
potentially unpredictable weather conditions during a given game –
requires an entirely different protective layer. If all it takes is
but one unclean handshake (followed by touching your
eyes or mouth to make your system go south), then equally-uncovered arms and legs
may also give no
quarter and provide no break.
The "cooling fabrics" market may be worth over $3.7B by 2024, but a
variation on those fabrics that includes an antiviral element would
be the ultimate and timely score. Intelligent Fabric Technologies
North America – a subsidiary of iFabric Corp – has been hard at work
on attempting to prove their "PROTX2" treatment on fabrics is the
real deal. If PROTX2 can hold up on breathable, cooling (AND – for
that matter – heating) fabric, then sports (from amateur to
professional) might have better hope of actually performing well in
the face of a virus so tragic.
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- Though promising, the latest PROTX2 progress report (as of June
2020) has the fabric treatment lasting for a maximum of one hour (at
least two hours fewer than needed for an average NFL game to be
right on the money). Yes, some players have been historically-known
to change into a backup uniform during the game to escape a rather
visible soiling or severely-torn fabric, but without an extended
halftime or extremely-well-timed commercial breaks, there would be
no PROTX2 magic (to confidently prevent skin to skin from
potentially doing players in).
Ritual De Lo Habitual
Even with all the best, most-protective technology in the world at
the fingertips of pro sports around the planet, there are habits
(also known as “the (often blood-sucking) human condition”) that more-than-SOME players
will be unable to realistically (or even temporarily) kick, dagnabbit. The name of Jane’s Addictions’ third album
unintentionally got it right. Getting players to stop a few of their
daily routines, cold turkey – from finger-licking QBs to
snot-spitting players up and down the roster to that relative
handful (?) of fellas still addicted to dip at a routine clip –
would be a losing fight. Successfully exhaling, spitting, or
“expressing” anything from behind ANY such face or mouth buffer
simply could not be tougher.
While the NFL has an anti-chewing tobacco policy, that neither
coaches nor players can indulge on the field or during interviews
may (still) be a hard-to-enforce fallacy. Whether you are talking
about Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer or then-Buffalo Bills
quarterback Kyle Orton enjoying a generous pinch (both in 2015), the
idea that chewing tobacco has all but vanished from the NFL live
broadcast landscape is pretty lean.
Fans need only imagine the thick patches of grass and sod
forcibly-adhered to a given player’s helmet following a
particularly-punishing
takedown. Now picture that example player – (mentally) crashing
against a case of claustrophobia – with chaw spattered on the inside
of his fancy new mouth shield. Momentarily amusing . . .
only to a clown.
Will They Or Won’t They?
While the NFL is still the only North American professional sports
league (tentatively) not in immediate danger of having to cancel or
restart an incomplete 2020 season, their practice and game day
equipment challenges may still result in (failed?) enhancements
which – to an army of desperate, hopeful, COVID-captive fans – would
be none-too-pleasin’.
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- Will the NFL and NFLPA agree on equipment solutions that allow
the
vast majority of players to comfortably make game day contributions?
Will they – then – still be able to settle on proper COVID-19
procedures (like going through the significant trouble of developing
a steroidal version of the NBA’s bubble)? Or will disappointed fans
be left to imagine what it might have been like to see players
running around the gridiron wearing aqualungs and rebreathers?
We shall see. We Always do.-
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Part 1
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Part 2
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Part 3
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Part 4
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