Chubb’s Return

ESPN is reporting that the Cleveland Browns and their premier running back, Nick Chubb, have reworked their contract arrangement in a way that allows him to remain a member of the team. That’s great news for fans of the Browns, but also for anyone who wants to try to return a semblance of continuity to sports teams.

Nick Chubb is my favorite player on the Browns. He’s an “old school” player: a skilled running back who is adept at finding that little sliver of daylight that will allow him to bust a big play, but also willing to put his head down and work hard for the tough yards. He’s not a showboat, and you’ll never hear him complain about the blocking, the number of times he touches the ball during a game, or any of the other things that many players gripe about these days. I;’ve always thought Chubb’s blue-collar approach matched the attitude of Cleveland, the town. He was a perfect fit for the team and became the heart and soul of the Browns. It was hard to see him go down with an early season injury last year, and you wonder how the year would have gone for the Browns if that mishap hadn’t happened.

In any event, what is past is past, and in the NFL things move on very fast. Teams have to pay attention to complicated concepts like the salary cap as they assemble their rosters, and Nick Chubb’s contract would have required the Browns to take a salary cap hit if he had stayed on the team. Fortunately, they’ve reworked it in a way that reduces the cap impact, while still allowing Nick Chubb to do what Nick Chubb does. I think it’s great, because it shows that both the team and player recognize that there is value in continued partnership. It’s great for the fans, too, because it slows down that carousel of roster changes that seems to apply to every sports team these days, at the college or professional level. Having Nick Chubb stay with the Cleveland Browns is as welcome a development as Jose Ramirez’s decision to adjust his contract demands to stay with the Cleveland Guardians.

You never know how running backs will come back after a bad injury. All I can say with certainty based on past performance is that no one will work harder to get back into top shape than Nick Chubb, and when he puts on the uniform for a game he will continue to do his best every time the Browns decide to hand him the ball. That’s Nick Chubb for you, and I am thrilled he will be back.

Accommodating The Excesses

The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl last night. It was a tight game featuring good defenses, a few key turning points, and some last-minute heroics by Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce as the Chiefs pulled out the overtime win. I imagine the 49ers are thinking that they let the game get away from them. I thought they should have run the ball a lot more in the second half–but that’s your basic second-guessing. In any case, it was an enjoyable game for someone who didn’t have a dog in the fight.

It’s impossible to watch the Super Bowl without marveling at how exquisitely excessive and therefore exquisitely American it is, with the endless pregame hype and build-up, the photos of the sports and cultural celebrities in attendance, the ridiculous over-the-top halftime show, and the focus on the commercials. Sometimes, as happened last night, the athletic contest itself actually shines through all the hoopla. But irrespective of the game, it you wanted to give someone an idea of what America is all about, encouraging them to sit down and watch the Super Bowl broadcast from beginning to end would be a pretty good place to start.

And having the Super Bowl played in Las Vegas doubles down on that. It’s an apt place to host a wretchedly excessive cultural phenomenon, with the Strip and its fantasyland elements like the mini Eiffel Tower. In fact, Las Vegas and its 24-hour, carnival-type lifestyle is one of the few American cities where the excesses of the Super Bowl comfortably fit right in. If I were the NFL, I’d make sure that Las Vegas gets permanently added to the roster of Miami, New Orleans, and the other Super Bowl host cities.

Falling Just Short

I was sorry to see the Detroit Lions fall just short in their bid to make the Super Bowl this season, losing to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game, 34-31. The Lions are the only team to have been in the NFL for the entire Super Bowl era and not made it to the big game at least once. The Cleveland Browns haven’t made it to a Super Bowl, either, but Cleveland was without a team for several years because greedy owner Art Modell, cursed be his name, moved the original Browns franchise to Baltimore in the ’90s. 

Because of this shared futility, and the fact that both teams have endured embarrassing winless seasons, there’s a certain kinship between Browns fans and Lions fans. Back in the ’50s, both teams were powerhouses and often played in the NFL championship game; in fact the Lions’ last championship, in 1957, came at the expense of the Browns. In that era, the teams were rivals–but that was long ago, and as Browns fans know all too well, in the Super Bowl era pre-Super Bowl championships and rivalries don’t really seem to count. Now Browns fans and Lions fans form a kind of mutual aid and encouragement society.

So I was rooting for the Lions yesterday, and held out hope when Detroit dominated the first half and built a 17-point lead. Unfortunately, the game turned in the second half, and with a botched interception, an untimely fumble, some dropped passes, and some failed fourth down conversions, the 49ers came roaring back. It’s the kind of cascading scenario Browns fans know all too well. You can debate whether Detroit coach Dan Campbell should have tried some of those fourth-down attempts, but he’s taken that approach all season long, and you have to be true to yourself. At least the Lions showed they belonged.

So this year’s Super Bowl will feature the Kansas City Chiefs, who’ve been the Super Bowl six times, and the San Francisco 49ers, who’ve been the game eight times. For the Browns and the Lions, hoping desperately to make just one Super Bowl, these are unimaginable numbers. Next year, we can hope to see a Lions-Browns “Get Off The Schneid” Super Bowl. It likely wouldn’t involve Taylor Swift, but we’d take it anyway.

The NFL Without Angst

After the Browns took their spanking in Houston and were knocked out of the playoffs, I retreated from the NFL for the rest of that weekend–thinking, correctly, that it would just be too painful to be repeatedly reminded by the commentators and pregame shows that the Browns had fallen short. 

I didn’t know at the time how long my voluntary retreat from the NFL would last . . . but when this weekend rolled around, the lure of watching a few games proved to be irresistible. And as I watched the two games yesterday, I realized that checking out an NFL playoff game when you don’t have a dog in the fight is pretty entertaining. The games were close, the stakes were high, the hits were bone-jarring, the football took some funny bounces, and the speed, athleticism, and power of the players was awesome. High-level football is a sport that is made for American sensibilities, and when you don’t have a particular connection to any of the teams you can appreciate the game and the players in all their glory.

Congratulations to the winners, and condolences to the losers. After it became clear Kansas City was going to beat Buffalo, CBS showed a shot of an obviously anguished Bills fan moved to tears by the impending loss–and I knew exactly how he felt. Eventually the fans of all but one team will share that feeling. I’m past that point and can now just enjoy the spectacle as the remaining teams fight it out. 

On The Nine-Year Plan

This week a University of Miami football player, tight end Cam McCormick, was granted a ninth season of college football eligibility by the NCAA. By the end of the 2024 season, McCormick will stand alone as the longest-tenured player in college football history.

McCormick was a member of the University of Oregon 2016 recruiting class. To provide a sense of how long ago that was, a key Ohio State recruit that year was Nick Bosa–who’s been a big star in the NFL for years now. McCormick redshirted his first year and then played as a redshirt freshman. Thereafter, his playing time was affected by a series of injuries that caused him to miss a few entire seasons, and he was granted an extra year of eligibility due to COVID. Then, after seven years at Oregon, he transferred to the University of Miami, where he has been for two years. McCormick is now 25 years old and still harbors dreams of playing in the NFL.

When I was in college, we sometimes referred to classmates who weren’t exactly taking crippling course loads as being on the “five-year plan.” What would it be like to be on a “nine-year plan,” and spend almost a full decade in college? At least McCormick has used his time productively: he’s got a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Communication and a master’s in Advertising and Brand Responsibility from the University of Oregon, he’s completed a number of internships, and he’s currently enrolled in the University of Miami’s post-baccalaureate program.

It’s hard to imagine nine years in college, following a football dream, but you have to give McCormick props for dedication and determination. Whether he makes it to the NFL or not, he’s given his dream his best shot–and nine years on campus.

Uncharted Territory

This weekend, the Cleveland Browns play their last game of the NFL regular season. It is a meaningless contest.

That, in and of itself, is not unusual. Since returning to the NFL in 1999, the Browns have had many games at the end of their regular season schedule that have been meaningless–but always because the team has long since been eliminated from the playoffs. We Browns Backers have been conditioned to endure meaningless last games that are bitter exercises. If you watched them–and many of us, admittedly, had already thrown in the towel by that point and stopped inflicting pain on our sports psyches–the last Browns game of the season was a dismal event, filled with welling anger at the football fates and what-could-have-been and what-never-was rationalizing about what the Browns could have done differently.

But tomorrow’s game is meaningless in a different way. It’s meaningless because the Browns have already clinched a playoff spot, and the outcome of the contest can’t affect their seeding or where they might play. Browns fans don’t know what to do under these circumstances, with no drumbeat of failure and futility sounding. We haven’t developed the football fanship reflexes needed to deal with this situation. 

Being Browns fans, of course, we worry about the anvil dropping on our heads, which in this case means an injury to some crucial player that wrecks the Browns’ postseason hopes. But beyond that, what are we supposed to do? Scout the teams that the Browns might play in the wild card round? Argue about which of the Browns stars should absolutely not see the field under any circumstances? Care about the performance of the backups who will be getting most of the playing time during the game? Wonder how the Browns picked the quarterback they added to the roster this week who will be starting the game?

Don’t get me wrong: I welcome this new scenario that the team has presented to the loyal Browns Backers across the globe. We’re up to the challenge of learning a new way to watch a meaningless end-of-the-regular season contest. But could the fans of one of the perennial playoff teams, like the Chiefs, give us a primer on what we are supposed to do this weekend? 

The TV Year In Review

We’ve reached the point in the year where we’re seeing the retrospective, “what happened in 2023” stories. One of the traditional year-end articles identifies the most-watched prime-time TV shows of the year. That’s always of interest to me, as kind of a measuring stick of popular American culture and also how familiar–or, more accurately, unfamiliar–I am with mainstream TV viewing.

The Variety article on the most-watched prime-time TV broadcasts of 2023 has some clear messages. First, the National Football League is a mainstream TV powerhouse. Fourteen of the top fifteen most-watched TV broadcasts of the year were NFL games, with the Super Bowl, of course, topping the list. The NFL also was responsible for nearly half of the top 100 broadcasts, with 45 NFL games making the list. The NFL’s dominance in the year-long list is particular striking when you consider that the NFL season encompasses less than half of the calendar year. 

In short, there’s a reason why the NFL continues to spread out from its traditional Sunday afternoon setting to now feature broadcasts on Sunday night, Monday night, Thursday night, and increasingly Saturday night. I’m sure the networks and streaming services would be thrilled if the NFL scheduled a prime-time game for every night of the week, and stretched the season out even longer.

Second, it’s pretty clear that many of the people who watch a primate-time NFL game on TV are going to watch other TV shows that night, too, after the game has ended. Many of the standard, series-type TV shows that made the list did so because they were strategically positioned to air following an NFL game broadcast. If you want someone to see your show, you’ll therefore want to beg the network to put it right behind a prime-time NFL game on the schedule–and then hope your storyline and characters grab the football game holdovers so they might watch your creation again without an NFL lead-in. 

And finally, the list confirms my increasing lack of contact with network TV. I’ll watch some NFL broadcasts, for sure, but I’ve never seen, and frankly have no interest in watching, most of the series whose episodes made the top 100 list–shows like NCIS, Bluebloods, Accused, Fire Country, FBI, Chicago Fire, Young Sheldon, or Next Level Chef. I didn’t watch the Oscar or the Grammy broadcasts, either. In fact, I would bet that in 2023 I watched less network TV than I have in years . . . and perhaps ever. It’s a far cry from a ’60s childhood where most evenings were spent camped in front of the TV, switching channels and watching whatever CBS, NBC, and ABC chose to broadcast that night. 

Testing The Improbability Factor

With every passing week, the Cleveland Browns seem to prove that the inexorable laws of probability either don’t exist, or don’t apply to them. It’s not clear what is more improbable at this point: the fact that more and more Browns players become injured and are lost for the season, or the fact that the team somehow keeps winning notwithstanding having been absolutely decimated by virtually every kind of injury football players can get. 

Yesterday’s 20-17 win against the Chicago Bears took the improbability factor to new heights. After a week in which a slew of offensive and defensive players were ruled out, the Browns started an offensive line that featured only two starters and a number of third-stringers trying to protect a 38-year-old quarterback who was totally out of football at the start of this season. Then, one of those two remaining starters, guard Joel Bitonio, promptly left the game with a back injury. Not surprisingly, the Browns couldn’t run the ball at all, and ageless wonder Joe Flacco was under constant pressure and threw three interceptions. Cleveland trailed going into the fourth quarter, 17-7, and it sure looked like the Browns were going to suffer a devastating home loss–but somehow they pulled it out. And the improbability factor was further tested when a Bears receiver dropped a Hail Mary pass that would have won the game and broken the hearts of Browns Backers everywhere.

Browns fans have to wonder how long this can continue. There’s a reason starters are starters and third-stringers are third-stringers, and yesterday’s offensive line performance showed that. Fortunately for the Browns, the defense is tough, and the team, the coaching staff, and the front office clearly have decided that they can live with a “next man up” approach and constantly scrutiny of the waiver wire to try to find new bodies to plug the injury gaps. At some point, you figure the probabilities will work against the Browns–but for now we’ll just enjoy the ride.

The Next Big Game

The Cleveland Browns have a huge game today. The Browns travel to Baltimore to play the Ravens, who so far this season have been the best, most complete team in the AFC. If the Browns hope to contend for the AFC North title, they need to win this game, even their divisional record at 2-2, and bring the high-flying Ravens back to the pack.

Can the Browns do it? This is unknown territory for this franchise, where being in contention at the midpoint of the NFL season has been a rarity. The Browns have won some big games already this season, including beating the then-undefeated 49ers–but that win was at home. Going on the road to beat a very good Baltimore team on their home field is a more difficult challenge by orders of magnitude.

If the Browns are going to do it, Myles Garrett and the defense will need to lead the way. The offense has sputtered this season, whether Deshaun Watson has been on the field or not. The Browns aren’t going to win a shootout against the Ravens. In the first matchup of these teams this season, the Browns started a rookie quarterback who was overmatched. The defense played the Ravens tough initially, but the offensive turnovers kept the defense on the field and in bad field position. The defense got fatigued and the Ravens piled up the points and won handily.

If today’s result is to be different, the offense is going to have to figure out how to move the ball against one of the best defenses in the league, so that the defense can catch its breath after it chases Lamar Jackson around the field. Watson will need to play well, but the key will be whether the offensive line can open holes for the running game and give Watson time to throw. We’ll soon see whether the offense can control the ball and the clock, and whether the defense can corral Jackson and force him into turnovers–a problem that has plagued him in the past, but has not been an issue this season.

For teams in contention, every week is a big game. If this Browns team stays in contention, we Browns Backers will have to get used to the notion of fretting about a big game every week. It would be a nice problem to have.

Post-Victory Football

Today the Cleveland Browns, stripped of their two best offensive players, somehow beat the undefeated San Francisco 49ers. The Browns’ defense played great, the offense did enough to win, and San Francisco’s kicker missed a field goal to win the game as time ran out. The improbable win means that the Browns are 3-2 and still in the hunt.

The win also means that I’m interested in watching other NFL games today. When the Browns lose, I snap the TV off and do other things. When the Browns win, I happily revel in post-victory football and hope to catch a highlight of the win in the process. Right now I’m watching the Ram and Cardinals play a pretty boring game–but I don’t mind.

There’s nothing like post-victory football.

The 2-0 Barrier

Last week, the Cleveland Browns provoked an outbursts of giddy celebration by Browns Backers around the globe when they won their first game of the season, beating the Cincinnati Bengals 24-3. That impressive victory improved the Browns’ opening game record since they returned to the NFL in 1999 to a breathtaking 3-21-1.

But now the Browns face an even greater challenge: can they win against divisional foe Pittsburgh on the road on Monday night? For most NFL teams, getting to 2-0 would be a modest goal that they have achieved repeatedly over the years. Not so the Browns. They haven’t been 2-0 since 1993, which if you’re counting is 30 years ago, during the first year of the Bill Clinton administration. Of course, it’s hard to get to 2-0 if winning your first game is rarer than hen’s teeth.

The fact that the Browns haven’t been 2-0 since I was a young buck in my 30s is pretty amazing, but there are other futility statistics surrounding the Browns’ match-up with the Steelers that are equally astonishing. The Browns’ regular season record at Pittsburgh’s home field, Acrisure Stadium, is a nifty 1-21; they haven’t won a regular season game there since 2003. (The Browns did win a memorable playoff game in Pittsburgh in 2020.) And here’s another jaw-dropper: Pittsburgh’s fine coach, Mike Tomlin, has a lifetime record of 25-6-1 against the Browns. It’s hard to even describe the upcoming match-up as a rivalry game when one team has been so utterly dominant for so long.

When your team has been disastrously bad for decades, it’s easy to cite numbers like these that demonstrate their relentless crappiness. Suffice it to say that, for the Browns and their fans, getting to 2-0 has been an impenetrable barrier for more than a generation: meaning that some adult Browns fans have never, ever experienced a 2-0 start to the season. This is why no one can ever claim that committed Cleveland Browns fans are fair weather fans. And this year, the Browns will be trying to break through that formidable barrier on the road, against a team and a coach that has beaten them like a drum for years, in a nationally televised, prime time game.

Let’s hope those cool throwback white helmets, shown above, that the Browns will be wearing Monday night bring a bit of magic into the mix on the Browns side. Facing statistics like this, they’ll need all the help they can get.

Shanking Into Football Season

Football season is just around the corner. I’ve been busy and therefore haven’t been paying a lot of attention to the training camp and preseason game news for the Cleveland Browns. What I’ve seen suggests that, as always, the credulous members of Browns Nation are approaching the coming season with their customary and incendiary mix of hope and optimism, expecting the Browns to be an offensive force and a defensive powerhouse that will roll through the season, make the playoffs, and–dare we say it?–finally allow the Browns to make it to the Super Bowl.

We’ve heard this song before. Cleveland Browns fans have a seemingly inexhaustible supply of positive thinking and an unparalleled ability to forget or rationalize away past disasters. Even those of us who have become more jaded by decades of disaster still feel that tiny tug of “maybe this could be the year” thinking.

So yesterday I watched parts of the Browns’ last preseason game, against the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs. The Browns lost, 33-32, but the first-team defense looked sharp against a Chiefs team that was playing without superstar QB Patrick Mahomes, and Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson made some plays on offense before the guys fighting for a roster spot took over the game. So, could this, actually, be the Browns’ year?

Not so fast! There was one glaring roster problem that should be obvious to any seasoned NFL observer: the Browns kicker, Cade York. Going into the game, he’d barely made 50 percent of his field goal kicks during the preseason, and he had missed two potential game-winners in the last preseason match-up. His first extra point effort yesterday was a dismal miss, too, and he had a potential game-winner blocked on a kick that didn’t look all that great, either. Something seems to be seriously wrong with his confidence, his fundamentals, and the other elements that go into being a dependable NFL kicker.

So what, you say: maybe the Browns’ defense will hold opponents’ scores down and the offense will put up huge numbers of points so the team will win every game by a comfortable margin. Regrettably, the NFL just doesn’t work out that way. In the period between 2000 and 2022, 23.22 percent of NFL games have been decided by three points or less. In a league where the margin of victory or defeat is so razor-thin, you’ve got to have a kicker you can count on to make the crucial game-winners. The reliability of the kicker will influence coaching decisions, end-of-game strategy, and countless other factors–and a demoralizing field goal or extra-point flub or two might snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and take the starch out of a team that otherwise could be a contender.

Would you count on Cade York to make a crucial kick? I wouldn’t, and I find it hard to believe that the Browns coaching staff or front-office would, either. I think it’s time for Cade to find another fan base to disappoint. There are lots of kickers out there, and if this is going to be “the year” the Browns need to find one who can deliver when the chips are down.

Jim Brown

I was saddened to read today of the death of Jim Brown. He was an enduring figure for me and for many, both for his legendary exploits on the football field and for his leadership and fearlessness off the field.

In my view, Jim Brown was unquestionably the greatest running back in NFL history, and it isn’t really arguable. He routinely racked up 1,000-yard rushing seasons at a time when the NFL played far fewer regular season games and set the record of 1,863 rushing yards in a single season that endured for years. His career statistics are ridiculous: in only nine years in the league and 118 games, he rushed for 12,312 yards and 106 touchdowns and added 2,499 yards and 20 touchdowns as a receiver. His career average of 104.3 rushing yards per game remains an NFL record. With his size, power, and speed, he was perhaps the only player of his era who could play, and dominate, in the modern NFL.

But his achievements on the football field told only part of the story. Jim Brown was a force. In a great book, They Call It A Game, Bernie Parrish, a former Browns player, recounts Jim Brown coming into the room for the team’s breakfast on the morning of the 1964 NFL title game, the last time the Browns won the championship. “Jim Brown entered the room,” Parrish wrote, “and everyone felt his presence.” He had that kind of personal magnetism, and he took no guff from anyone. When the Browns owner insisted Brown come to training camp and leave the filming of The Dirty Dozen, Brown retired–at age 30, and at the peak of his career. Who knows what records he would have set if he had continued to play?

Jim Brown was active and outspoken about civil rights, racial injustice, and other causes, at a time when few athletes took that risk. He formed what would become the Black Economic Union to encourage black entrepreneurs. He wasn’t perfect, and he had a checkered personal life that was marred by accusations of violence against women. That part of his story shouldn’t be sugar-coated, but it also shouldn’t prevent people from admiring the positive contributions he made, on and off the field.

Just as Jim’s Brown presence was felt, his absence will be felt, too. He was 87.

The $6 Billion Team

Yesterday the parties to the transaction announced that a new ownership group would be buying the Washington Commanders, a National Football League team. The announced price tag for the transaction is a staggering $6.05 billion–a new record for the sale of a professional sports team. The proposed deal now goes to NFL owners for approval,

The Commanders have been pretty dismal lately. The team hasn’t won a playoff game in 18 years, and the franchise, and its owners, have been mired in controversy. Nevertheless, the eye-popping $6.05 million price tag for the team blows the previous record for an NFL team–set by the 2022 sale of the Denver Broncos for $4.65 billion–out of the water. If you’re an NFL owner, you’d presumably be highly motivated to approve the proposed sale, if only to establish a new comparable that can be cited when you decide you are ready to cash in and put your team on the market. If an underperforming team like Washington commands that kind of price, just imagine how much might be paid for more successful franchises, like the Kansas City Chiefs or the New England Patriots?

In case you’re interested, the group that is selling the Commanders paid $800 million for the Washington pro football franchise in 1999. In less than 25 years, the market value of their ownership interest has increased by a factor of more than six–and that doesn’t account for any amounts the ownership group has received from TV contracts, ticket sales, and merchandising deals during the period of their ownership. Seeing the market value of an investment increase more than six times is a pretty good return.

It’s not just NFL teams that have been gold mines at the auction block lately, either. The $6.05 billion price tag for the Commanders edges out the prior record for a professional sports team, which was $5.3 billion paid for the Chelsea F.T. club in the English Premier League last year. Billions of dollars also have been paid for teams in the NBA and Major League Baseball over the past few years.

So, there’s no doubt that professional sports teams have been a pretty good investment recently–but you wonder how long this can last, and whether we’re simply witnessing a huge sports franchise bubble, like the crazed spike in home purchases that helped produce the sub-prime mortgage collapse that led to the Great Recession, or the infamous Dutch tulip market bubble in the Netherlands in the 1600s. It’s not as if sports franchises have lots of tangible assets or obvious intrinsic value, and the continued success of the NFL, which has been bedeviled by concerns about concussions and general player safety problems, among other issues, is by no means assured.

At some point, will liability concerns cause regulation of the sport that changes it so significantly that its current broad appeal falls off–and the owners who paid billions to sit in the owners’ box and wear gear with team logos are left with a stadium, some player contracts, and logos for merchandise that no one wants to buy? If that happens, the ownership of the Commanders could end up being like possession of a fistful of costly and unwanted tulip bulbs in Amsterdam centuries ago.

Science And Sports

If, like me, you love football, you can’t help but wonder about the future of the game. With players continuing to get bigger, and faster, and harder-hitting, the game has become increasingly dangerous, and brutal hits and season-ending injuries are common. To cite just one example of the injury plague, the NFL saw an 18 percent increase in concussions, league-wide, in the 2022 season.

Concussions that can have devastating long-term consequences are an especially serious concern, and quarterbacks–the keystone player around whom the offense revolves–often bear the brunt of the injuries. As a result, you need to have a unique kind of mental toughness to play quarterback in the NFL, or in any major college football program.

The NFL has tried to deal with this problem by tinkering with the rules and penalties, but also by turning to science and technology. Yesterday the League announced that it and the NFL Players’ Association had approved the first quarterback-specific helmet, which is designed to provide better protection against the concussions that can occur when a quarterback’s head makes contact with the ground. Laboratory testing showed that the new helmet design performed 7 percent better in reducing impact severity in comparison to other helmets.

The key development, according to an executive for the company that designed the helmet, “is that it has a deformal outer shell, which means when you take an impact in any location on that helmet, it will deform or basically dent in that location to absorb the impact.” This development is just the latest sign of how quickly the science and technology of helmets is changing. The ESPN article linked above notes, for example, that due to the latest round of testing seven helmets that were highly recommended in 2020 have been downgraded to prohibited for 2023.

It will be interesting to see how fans will react to a dented helmet as a visible sign of just how hard a quarterback was walloped. We can also expect continuing changes in the protective gear players wear to protect their knees, ankles, shoulders, and various fragile ligaments and tendons. The reality, however, is that there is only so much you can do, because the human body isn’t designed to repeatedly endure hard hits from 320-pound players moving at top speed. Football is just a dangerous game.