The National Football League is rolling out a new weapon in the fight to stop the spread of the coronavirus this season. Players could be sporting the Oakley Mouth Shield, which consists of a plastic sheet which extends down and attaches to the mouthguard.
“The Oakley Mouth Shield – a product designed by doctors and engineers from the NFL and NFL Players Association to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus on the field of play – is expected to be distributed to all 32 teams over the next week, when it will receive a test drive on a much larger scale than it has gotten to date,” writes ESPNs’ Tim McManus.
While there will be holes in the face shield to allow for breathing, there will be none that allow the direct transmission of droplets, according to the chair of the NFL’s engineering committee, Dr. Jeff Crandall.
The league is pushing ahead with the start of the season despite the rise in COVID-19 cases around the nation and the new Oakley Mouth Shield is likely to be just one of the safety protocols the NFL puts in place before the players take the field this summer.
