man

We Need to Keep
Pushing the Limits
of Technology.

A Smarter Play
To Protect the Players.

Football is filled with incredible athletes who never cease to amaze us with their talent, dedication and game changing performances. They are what makes the game, and keeping them safe and protected is the NFL’s top priority. With advancements in technology, engineering, and biomechanics, the League is leading the charge for a safer tomorrow for all those who love to play the game.

Engineering Roadmap

Using Science
To Design Better
Protective Equipment

As part of the NFL’s Play Smart. Play Safe. initiative, the League pledged $60 million toward the creation and funding of a five-year project called the Engineering Roadmap. It’s a comprehensive effort to create incentives for helmet manufacturers, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and universities to develop and commercialize new and improved protective equipment, including helmets.

Scroll right to see just a few of the current Engineering Roadmap initiatives and updates.

Expanding Our
Roster of Experts

The Engineering Roadmap is spearheaded by Football Research Incorporated (FRI), a nonprofit corporation created and funded by the NFL. FRI is led by top of the line engineers and experts with the common goal to understand and advance the biomechanics that keep our players safe.

Geoff
Ling

M.D., Ph.D.,
Col. (Ret.)

Alton
Romig

Jr., Ph.D.

Jeffrey
W. Runge

M.D.

Barclay
Morrison
III

Ph.D.

View All Board Members

All Board Members

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The goal is that in three years of so, we’ll have seen advances in current helmets. And in five years, we’ll be very sophisticated in understanding exactly the sorts of hits that particular players take, particular positions take, what the head feels like when it’s hit in a particular way on a football field. Jeff Miller
NFL Executive Vice President of Player Health and Safety Initiatives

Gathering and
Measuring Data

In order to keep pushing protective technology forward, we need to understand exactly how impact affects injury. Read about our 2017 research to gather data that’s influenced countless efforts since.

Read About the Study

Study Results

In 2017, Dr. Jeff Crandall—Director of UVA Center for Applied Biomechanics, Chairman of the NFL Engineering Committee and Co-Founder of Biocore—led a team of biomechanical engineers to complete a comprehensive video review of player impacts to better understand concussion-causing events. The experts compiled this data by analyzing video of all 459 reported concussions sustained in NFL games during the 2015 and 2016 seasons. The team reviewed concussion-causing impacts to examine various factors such as the angles at which collisions occur and how they vary by position.

With more data available on the types of impacts that cause head injuries, the engineering design of helmets and other protective equipment can be more targeted.

View the Key Takeaways

Experts
Partnering
with innovators

WATCH VIDEO

In November 2016, the NFL and FRI hosted an educational conference. Hundreds of world-class biomechanics and biomedical engineering experts gathered with innovators in Washington, DC for The HeadHealthTECH Symposium. This conference inspired the open sourced Finite Element (FE) model, which is essential to the future of helmet technology.

The open source model lets us gather research from independent experts in different fields, which gives us more knowledge to design better equipment.
The Open Source Helmet Model

Open Source Helmet Model

With funding from the NFL under the Engineering Roadmap, Biocore and FRI collaborated with partners at the University of Virginia, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and the University of Waterloo to develop open-source finite element (FE) models of four modern football helmets.

FE models are computational tools developed by breaking an object down into simpler parts (finite elements) and assembling them into a larger system of equations to model an entire structure—this facilitates the efficient analysis of design changes to that structure. The FE models of football helmets are now available to the public to encourage injury prevention research and to stimulate the development of better and safer helmet designs and prototypes.

HeadHealthTECH
challenge III winners

Our Annual HeadhealthTec Challenge

Annual HealthTech Challenge

The NFL’s HeadHealthTECH Challenge is a grant competition that attracts innovative proposals from groups that are interested in designing the next generation of protective equipment. The TECH Challenges aim to spur research and innovation developments in engineering, biomechanics, and science as well as connecting entrepreneurs with mentors and venture capitalists. As part of the Engineering Roadmap, up to three HeadHealthTECH Challenges are offered annually.

HeadHealthTECH
challenge IV winners

Our Annual HeadhealthTec Challenge

Annual HealthTech Challenge

The NFL’s HeadHealthTECH Challenge is a grant competition that attracts innovative proposals from groups that are interested in designing the next generation of protective equipment. The TECH Challenges aim to spur research and innovation developments in engineering, biomechanics, and science as well as connecting entrepreneurs with mentors and venture capitalists. As part of the Engineering Roadmap, up to three HeadHealthTECH Challenges are offered annually.

Helmet Testing

Empowering players to make informed helmet choices

Giving players the right information to make healthy helmet choices is extremely important. In April 2018, the NFL and the NFL Players Association launched an annual study to rate the laboratory performance of football helmets. The results were then shared with NFL players, club equipment managers, and staff to help them make educated equipment choices.

Watch Video

the NFL's
proprietary helmet
rating system

The goal of the study, as in prior years, was to determine which helmets best reduced head impact severity under laboratory conditions simulating concussion-causing impacts sustained by NFL players during games. The results are shared with players, coaches and medical staff in order to help them choose the best helmet for them.

View the 2018 Helmet Rating Poster

based on the test results, the NFL banned 10 helmet models. This means that more than 200 players will move into a higher performing helmet in 2018.

Cleats Testing

HELPING PLAYERS CHOOSE THE BEST FOOTWEAR FOR THE FIELD

After completing extensive research on athletic shoe safety and performance, the NFL Musculoskeletal Committee has released the results of an annual laboratory test that assesses overall cleats performance. The test evaluated which cleats release the easiest from synthetic turf during potentially injurious loading, and are another tool that the NFL provides to players, club equipment managers, and staff to help them make informed footwear decisions on the field.

View the 2018 Results

2018 Results

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1st & Future

Inspiring Innovation Through Healthy Competition

1st and Future is just one of the NFL’s many partnerships and innovation challenges to stimulate industry-disrupting advancements in protective equipment. This year, nine tech entrepreneur teams pitched a panel of expert judges to convince them that their cutting-edge product can and will positively impact the future of football. Meet the winners of the third annual 1st & Future competition, hosted live at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis the day before Super Bowl LII

Watch Video

impressio:
the anti-flubber

Category ADVANCEMENTS IN PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

Impressio was founded by University of Colorado Denver professor Chris Yakacki and University of Wyoming professor Carl Frick. Together, they explained the extensive research that went into the development of their proprietary liquid-crystal elastomer (LCE) materials. Yakacki said, “you need a fundamentally new material to make an impact in design and safety.”

recoverx:
out of the ice age

Category ADVANCEMENTS IN PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

RecoverX CEO Alex Aguiar and CTO Dan Evans emphasized the importance of giving athletes effective new technology during his pitch for Element, a smartphone-controlled cold and heat therapy device. “We’re still stuck in the ice age. We are literally still putting ice on to treat our injuries,” Aguiar said. “This is the next generation of player recovery. It’s a tool for pro athletes, youth athletes, and weekend warriors.”

curv.ai:
athlete development

Category ADVANCEMENTS IN PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

Curv.ai’s Co-Founder and CEO Shea Balish said he wants to supplant sports wearables with an app that “turns the camera on any mobile device into a diagnostic tool for human motion.” Curv.ai aims to harness the power of augmented reality by offering this tool. Balish emphasized that the platform would not only be a tool for pro athletes, but would also be geared toward the 24 million youth athletes in the U.S.