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The National Football League is looking at safety procedures that could help ease the league back into action during the coronavirus pandemic. One of those potential safety measures reportedly includes testing out new face masks.
The new face masks would include N95 material in an attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19 on the field of play.
NFL Players Association’s medical director Thom Mayer made his comments on The Adam Schefter Podcast.
“They’ve got some prototypes. They’re doing really good work. Some of them, when you first look at them, you think, ‘Gosh, no’ ’cause you’re not used to seeing it. You’re just not used to seeing it. But they’re looking at every issue you can imagine, including when it fogs up. What do we do with that? But these guys are used to dealing with this stuff,” he said, via CBS Sports.
“I had suggested that we should consider novel and emerging ways to handle the helmets and the face masks and the spread of the virus, and these guys, the bioengineers that we use and that the league uses, Oakley… these guys got the bit between their teeth.
“…Getting the helmet off, putting a mask on right afterward, maintaining social distancing when not in the field as much as possible, using single-use hydration — whether water, Gatorade, whatever it might be — I mean, just every little detail. Anybody who’s got a risk, I would advise them to be zealous, religious and, frankly, almost maniacally committed to minimizing the chance of spreading the virus.”
While it would be bizarre to players wearing inclosed face masks, it wouldn’t take long to get used to the new normal.
And, after all, we have seen our lives shift over the past few months during the coronavirus and we can all afford to make some compromises to get back to normal.
