-
-
-
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
-
-
Part 1
–
Part 2
–
Part 3
–
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).
 -
-
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).
-
- 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.
 -
-
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’.
 -
-
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.-
-
Part 1
–
Part 2
–
Part 3
–
Part 4
|
