Quick hits week 9.
This was an item from two weeks ago... read
Also noteworthy on the Giants side of the ball was the new and unusual helmets worn by both Justin Tuck and Fred Robbins. I think this is the Schutt ION 4d. Anyone know for sure? My problem with it?... Can’t they make their improvements without giving it that dopey Klingon forehead look. It would still be distinctive from other features so please Schutt, lose that pointless protrusion.
Generally, I like Schutt. I even own one myself. I bought it for my ill advised foray back into footall a few years back when I couldn't find a Riddell that fit as well as the Schutt DNA. I love the fit and protection of the helmet but the DNA makes me look like the Great Kazoo cartoon character from the Flintstones when viewed straight on. If forced to choose, I'd take the Klingon look over that but why do I have to? Is it too much to ask to get the look right when innovating?
Continued from above. Now as I see more pictures I get the picture. The picture of Justin Tuck above shows that in fact he's not wearing the Schutt but the Riddell Revolution Speed. (you can see another view of the speed in the post below) They both have that wierd thick raised center but in slightly different configurations. They both sport a futuristic angularity in the facemask department as well as foregoing the traditional round earhole for a parallelogram, rhombus thing that looks like a hole you cut in a jack o lantern. The way to tell these two apart is the raised side facemask anchor point on the Schutt.
I've done extensive research (a quick scan of the first few google hits) an have come to the conclusion that they both look wierd. I don't like the Klingon/alligator look of the Schutt and I don't like the look of the Riddell either. Those center ridges make me want to shoot civilians. Both web articles I read included grandiose claims of how much more shock they can absorb than the current base models and how they really kick ass compared to those old leather models. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Having worn the Schutt DNA which sports the same or similar inner padding I can tell you that I got a few neck stingers while using it and once got so dizzy from a head on collision with a lead blocking fullback that for a moment I wasn't sure if I was in a game or at a good tailgate party. So these things can't be that much better than the standard issue helmet.
My crazy cousin used to play for an amateur team in New York called the Brooklyn Cowboys and he loved to tell stories of how he kept a little cats toy thing with a bell inside the webbing his helmet and how he wouldn't consider the game fun until he'd had a collision violent enough to cause the bell to ring. He played mostly special teams because he was fearless, fast and was just looking to train wreck into someone. He would challenge and dare whoever he lined up against to ring his bell. He also didn't have a good sense of direction after the first quarter or two and a few rings but after a while people started avoiding his charges, opening up lanes enabling him to make plays.
My point is, he'd never be able to be able to get a ring if he was wearing one of these wussified high tech wonders. Like Rams smashing heads or Grizzlies fighting over a Sow, part of the attraction and fun of football is daring the other guy to endure more pain or risk more injury than you and no amount of padding will ever change that. So tell the boys down in R and D to take off their white coats, put away their Poindexter protracters, crack open a tin of suds and go out back for a game of touch. Leave the violence and concussions where they belong... on the field.
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