What Tom Brady’s new helmet might imply for his Patriots future

© Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Workers
Tom Brady at observe on Monday.

For Patriots followers trying to find clues about Tom Brady’s future plans, look no additional than the newest changes to his contract and the exhausting plastic shell atop his head.

The quarterback’s restructured deal pushed cash into the longer term, which suggests Brady is dedicated to taking part in into 2019 at least. In the meantime, he sported a brand new helmet at observe this week — a change that received’t be obligatory till subsequent season.

Brady’s normal helmet, a Riddell VSR-4, was considered one of 10 helmet types banned by the NFL after performing poorly in laboratory checks. Nonetheless, gamers who wore the banned helmets final 12 months will probably be allowed to take action once more in 2018 earlier than they must make a swap. If No. 12 is testing new fashions, it causes he plans to play subsequent season.

In keeping with the Twitter account “Helmet Stalker,” the shell Brady has worn to observe the previous couple days has been a Riddell Precision Match SpeedFlex. It’s not the primary time Brady has experimented with head safety that differed from his normal VSR-4, and it stays to be seen whether or not this trial will last more than the others. That is the Riddill Precision Match SpeedFlex helmet Brady wore:

© Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Workers
Tom Brady
© Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Workers
Tom Brady

That is the VSR-Four he often wears:

© Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Workers
Tom Brady
© Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Workers
Tom Brady

The SpeedFlex helmet is listed because the third-best performer within the league’s 2018 laboratory testing outcomes, which goal to measure which helmets finest scale back the severity of head impacts. The identical checks discovered the VSR-Four to be the fourth-worst mannequin.

Though Brady has not been listed on an harm report with a concussion in his 18-year NFL profession, his spouse Gisele Bundchen did declare he suffered one in 2016.

“You’re not blind to it as a participant,” Brady mentioned on the time. “It’s a contact sport and I believe all of us perceive that. And there’s numerous nice advantages that soccer brings you. You definitely might be put in hurt’s means.”

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