For a few days, it seemed as though Antonio Brown had solved his helmet crisis. Earlier this week, he found several models of his preferred helmet, the Schutt Air Advantage, made within the past 10 years, including one made as late as 2014. The NFL told Brown that he could wear the Air Advantage if he found a version of that helmet made within the last 10 years that would pass the league’s safety rules.
Brown’s representatives sent a 2010 model in for testing, which had specifically been certified by NOCSAE, the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment. Last night, the word came back that the helmet had failed the tests.
Brown was, to put it mildly, not happy.
Schutt discontinued manufacturing the Air Advantage in 2011 because, as the company explained to San Antonio’s KSAT in 2014, “current helmet technology had moved past it. The Air Advantage was the last varsity helmet made by Schutt that featured traditional foam padding. That material, which is used by most other helmet manufacturers, does not perform as well as the TPU Cushioning we now use in all of our varsity helmets.”
Regardless, don’t expect this to be the last word from Antonio Brown on the issue.
