Bloody Head in a shattered Helmet Patrick escape life injury

Patrick Mahomes’ Shattered Helmet in Chiefs’ Win vs. Dolphins Under NFL Examination☰

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Patrick Mahomes’ Shattered Helmet in Chiefs’ Win vs. Dolphins Under NFL Examination
ERIN WALSH
JANUARY 25, 2024
The NFL world was sent into shock when Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ helmet shattered during the team’s wild card win over the Miami Dolphins at Arrowhead Stadium in subzero temperatures earlier this month.

Now the league is investigating why the star quarterback’s helmet broke.

NFL Executive V.P. Jeff Miller said Thursday that the league is examining the helmet in collaboration with the manufacturer, VICIS, to determine what happened, per ProFootballTalk’s Michael David Smith.

“Obviously the conditions were extreme and may have contributed to the potential failure in that case,” Miller said. “We want to know how the helmets perform not just in optimal situations but in extreme situations.”

Mahomes’ helmet shattered during the third quarter of Kansas City’s 26-7 win over Miami after taking a helmet-to-helmet hit from Dolphins safety DeShon Elliott.

The initial belief was that his helmet cracked due to the dangerously cold temperatures. It was minus-four at kickoff.Mahomes and the Chiefs are now preparing for a matchup against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship game after defeating Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round last weekend.

It marks the first time in the Mahomes era that the Chiefs are playing in the AFCCG away from Arrowhead Stadium.

Luckily for Mahomes and Co. the weather at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday is not expected to drop below 39 degrees, according to weather.com. That said, it is expected to rain, which will make it more difficult for both quarterbacks to executeMahomes was given a replacement helmet after the play, though he struggled to get his backup helmet to fit correctly due to the cold weather, he told reporters after the game.

“We have to talk about where we store the backup because it was frozen, so when I tried to put it on … I couldn’t get it on,” Mahomes said. “It didn’t look great. We were able to adjust it on the sideline, get it kind of warmed up a bit and get rolling from there.”

VICIS also released statement addressing the helmet issue after the game, saying “the ZERO2 helmet did its job of protecting Patrick Mahomes during a head-to-head impact during unprecedented cold temperatures.”

The company added that the helmet Mahomes was wearing is designed to change shape upon impact:

“The exclusive multi-layer technology employed in the VICIS ZERO2 helmet model utilizes a deformable outer shell, RFLX impact absorption layer, followed by a stiff inner shell. This design approach is similar to the crumple zone of modern cars, effectively absorbing and dispersing impact forces at the point of contact.”