Kansas City Chiefs superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes scrambled and gained several more yards in the second half of Saturday's playoff-round game against the Miami Dolphins.
Mahomes received a helmet-to-helmet collision from Dolphins safety DeShon Elliott at the end of the run, which shattered the quarterback's VICIS helmet. On Wednesday, the manufacturer announced that the helmet “did its job” by protecting the two-time NFL MVP “during a direct collision in unprecedented cold.”
The Chiefs vs. Dolphins game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City was one of the coldest in league history. The temperature at kickoff was -4 degrees Fahrenheit and dropped significantly into the evening.
VICIS ZERO2 helmet manufacturer Certor Sports said the frigid temperatures had a direct impact on its helmets.
“In extreme conditions like this, even the best-performing products are inevitably tested to their limits,” Celltor Sports said in a statement on Wednesday.
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Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs heads to the sideline after his helmet cracks during the third quarter of a wild-card playoff game against the Miami Dolphins on Jan. 13, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri. (David Urit/Getty Images)
A piece of Mahomes' helmet snapped off right above the facemask.
“They're testing it right now,” Mahomes said Wednesday, “but I'm adamant about getting a helmet after that. It's a cool thing and I think it's going to last a long time. As they said, it was that way' job done. I felt completely fine after that. ”
Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes didn't want to leave game due to cracked helmet
VICIS ZERO2 uses a proprietary multi-layer technology that creates a “deformable outer shell” that is wrapped with a harder inner shell, the company said. The design is similar to a car bumper, and while it looks like cheap plastic at first glance, it is actually designed to absorb and disperse energy at the point of impact.
The ZERO2 series, which includes special models for linemen and quarterbacks, ranked in the top five in this season's testing by the NFL and NFLPA. This helmet also ranked highly in an independent evaluation by Virginia Tech.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said his cracked helmet did its job. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)
Barry Miller, director of the Helmet Laboratory at Virginia Tech, said, “It's unusual for football helmet shells to crack, but accidents have happened here in our lab, and we typically test them at ambient temperatures.'' “I'm doing it,” he said. “If you ask the managers of the football equipment room, you might get a different answer because they see a lot of shock helmets.”
VICIS was founded in 2017 and quickly became a darling of venture capital, raising more than $85 million from current and former NFL players including Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, and Jerry Rice. And with a focus on innovation, the company manufactured helmets that ranked #1 in NFL and NFLPA testing from 2017 to 2019.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes carries the ball during a wild-card playoff game against the Miami Dolphins on January 13, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)
“That was a first for me,” Mahomes said, noting he had never had his helmet shattered before. He didn't immediately realize the piece had broken until he returned to the huddle and a teammate pointed it out.
The Chiefs star initially played with a broken helmet, but officials intervened and had him backed up from the sideline. But the reserves had been sitting out in the freezing cold all night, making it difficult for Mahomes to get on top of them. It took some work with the equipment manager on the sideline between series to finally get him comfortable.
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“The backups were frozen, so we're going to have to talk about where we're going to store them,” Mahomes said with a smile. “It didn't look very good. We made some adjustments on the sideline, warmed up a little bit and were able to pick it up from there.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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