Virginia Tech just released information about a “low rated” helmet on the field in the NFL, the Riddell VSR4;

Riddell’s VSR-4 helmet received just one star in a study of football helmets led by Virginia Tech professor of biomedical engineering Stefan Duma and released Tuesday. Another Riddell model — the Revolution Speed — was the only helmet that earned five stars, the top rating.

Five models — two made by Riddell, two by Schutt and one by Xenith — received four stars.

According to Riddell’s stats 40% of the players wore this helmet in 2010.  In our exclusive research we found on a random sample that 32.41% of players were wearing the helmet.  And that 71% of all helmets on the field were Riddell’s (75% reported by NFL and 77% reported by Riddell).

Our stats found that of all the counted concussions last year (with a helmet ID) 64% of all concussions were in Riddell helmets, 34% in Schutt and 2% in Xenith.  We further broke down the concussion based on actual models of the helmets and found a staggering number, Continue reading →