Patrick Mahomes’ helmet ‘did its job,’ manufacturer says. So why did it break?

One moment caught the sports world’s attention during the Kansas City Chiefs’ 26-7 victory over against the Miami Dolphins on Saturday.

On a key play in the third quarter, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes ran for a first down, where he was tackled by Dolphins safety DeShon Elliot. Both player’s helmets collided with each other, and the force of the hit caused a piece on the front of Mahomes’ helmet to break.

A photo showing the helmet cracking on impact, taken by the Star’s Emily Curiel, quickly caught fire online.

Many wondered: Why did the helmet break? How much did it have to do with the extreme cold in which the game was played?

Here’s what we know about the helmet and what might have happened Saturday night.

Type of helmet used by Patrick Mahomes

The helmet Mahomes used is the ZERO2, a helmet made by VICIS and is the “first-ever helmet engineered to provide position-specific protection for quarterbacks,” according to the company.

In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, by VICIS, the company said that while outer shell damage is not ideal, the ZERO2 helmet did its job of protecting Mahomes during a head-to-head impact in unprecedented cold temperatures.

Cold weather conditions

The weather and the force of the hit were key in breaking the helmet, according to Tony Mikkelson, owner of Footballrs, a social media platform that focuses on football equipment and player safety.

It was the coldest game in Chiefs history. At kickoff, the temperature was 4 degrees below zero with a wind chill of 27 degrees below zero.

Since the game was played in sub-zero temperatures, the protective plastic on the outside of the helmet and the foam padding inside Mahomes’ helmet would have frozen every time he stepped on the field and heated up when he put the helmet on the warming station by the team bench.

The plastic and foam on the front of the helmet would have contracted and expanded constantly throughout the game, and then it was hit by a metal face mask at the right spot with the right amount of force.

It is unusual for a helmet to break, but that is what led to it happening, Mikkelson said.

The event was an outlier and it would not surprise Mikkelson if Mahomes played in the same style of helmet against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. He said Mahomes did not even realize the helmet was broken, which means VICIS did its job in protecting the player.

“It did its job. I was perfectly fine afterwards,” Mahomes said at a press conference Wednesday. “Obviously they don’t want it to crack, but it did absorb (the blow).”

“I guarantee you the equipment managers from the Chiefs and the Dolphins after the game went through every helmet to look for hairline cracks because at the end of the day, all these helmets are made of plastic and they were all in these sub-zero temperatures,” Mikkelson said.

What goes inside the helmet Patrick Mahomes used?

The ZERO2 helmet uses a multi-layer technology with a deformable outer shell, which VICIS calls its RFLX impact absorption layer, followed by a stiff inner shell. The design is similar to the crumple zone of cars, which absorbs and disperses impact forces at the point of contact, according to VICIS.

It is not unheard of for a helmet to break, but it is also unusual, according to Barry Miller, the director of outreach and business development with the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab. The helmet lab is independently run and rates helmets based on how well they protect the people wearing it, using a variety of impact tests to test its durability.

The base model Mahomes wears received a five-star rating by the helmet lab, but Miller said VICIS may change the helmets to fit each quarterback.

If it was a problem, fans would have seen tons of helmets crack over the weekend, Miller said.

What did Mahomes say about the helmet breaking?

Reporters asked Mahomes after the Chiefs’ win on Saturday about the helmet. Here’s what he had to say:

Q: Can you go through what you saw on the run where you cracked your helmet?

Mahomes: “I was trying to get in there, I was trying to get in that end zone. A young Pat would have gotten in. I’m getting a little old. It’s like (against) Tennessee (in the AFC Championship Game in 2020), I would have spun got up in there but I got squared up (and) got my helmet cracked but I try not to do it too much but it’s playoff time, sometimes you have to put it on the line and try to get in the end zone to win football games.”

Q: Have you ever had a helmet that has cracked before?

Mahomes: “I have not, I’m sure it had to do with it being really cold. I knew – I didn’t know what happened in the moment but I got in the huddle and everybody was telling me and I was like, ‘I got y’all but I’m not coming out of the game. We can figure it out on the sideline.’ I was hoping we scored, but obviously we didn’t get in the end zone. But, yeah, it was a first for me.”

Q: Whose helmet did they give you after? Was it a backup?

Mahomes: “They have a backup that’s out there. We have to talk about where we store the backup because it was like frozen, so when I tried to put it on, it was completely frozen, I couldn’t get it on. I don’t know if anyone got a picture of it. It didn’t look great. But we were able to adjust it on the sideline, get it kind of warmed up a bit and get rolling from there.”

Mahomes said he wants to keep the helmet at Wednesday’s press conference.

“They’re testing it right now, but I’m adamant on getting the helmet after,” Mahomes said. “It’s definitely something that’s cool, that I’ll be able to keep for a long time.”

The Star’s Pete Grathoff contributed.