NFL Launches $100K Challenge for Helmet Tech
The NFL has launched a new HealthTECH Challenge, offering up to $100,000 for innovations in football helmet safety. The crowdsourcing initiative mirrors early-stage funding models in digital health, seeking novel tech solutions to improve player safety and equipment performance.
This initiative is part of a broader and long-running effort by the NFL to address head injuries. The league launched a $60 million "Engineering Roadmap" to improve the biomechanics of protective equipment. Through its "Play Smart. Play Safe." campaign, the NFL has funded various innovation challenges, including the HeadHealthTECH Challenge series, which has already awarded over $1.6 million in grants for new technologies. The league's focus on helmet innovation follows a significant increase in reported concussions, which rose 16% between 2016 and 2017. Data from 2012-2015 showed a total of 645 documented concussions over those seasons. These numbers have put pressure on the league, especially as studies have drawn links between repetitive head trauma and long-term neurological issues like Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Previous competitions have yielded a range of innovations. The NFL Helmet Challenge, a $3 million contest culminating in 2021, sought a helmet that could outperform all existing models in laboratory tests. Other challenges, run in partnership with entities like Duke University's Clinical and Translational Science Institute and GE, have doled out millions in funding for advancements in diagnostics, such as point-of-care blood tests, and the development of advanced materials for better impact absorption. Helmet technology has been evolving since the days of soft leather "skull caps" in the early 1900s. Helmets became mandatory in the NFL in 1943, transitioning from leather to plastic shells with web-suspension systems, a design also utilized by the military during World War II. The 1970s brought the first performance standards from the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE), introducing formal testing. Modern helmets now feature polycarbonate shells, foam padding, and even 3D-printed custom liners designed to better absorb impact. Some recent innovations focus on position-specific designs, acknowledging that a quarterback and a lineman face different types of impacts. The ultimate goal of these crowdsourced challenges is to dramatically accelerate the typical engineering and design timeline for new, safer equipment.
