The upcoming season for the Texas Longhorns will be one like we’ve never seen before. The coronavirus pandemic has led to many changes. Some schools are offering online courses for students who don’t want to risk contracting COVID-19. Social distancing measures have been put in place where students and faculty alike are not to be within six feet of each other where possible. Everywhere you go there are people wearing masks. One of the big questions was how do they protect the players?
In Major League Baseball they have tried masks, playing in empty stadiums and limited physical touch in celebrations. As for the NBA and NHL, they are playing in a bubble environment. So measures could they take in football? Well masks seemed to be one way. For this upcoming season the Longhorns will be wearing Schutt helmets with custom visors. Texas football shared photos of the new helmets on Twitter.
Masked up. Looking a little different this season. 🤘😷#ThisIsTexas #HookEm pic.twitter.com/XzEHBnKthc
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) July 31, 2020
The helmets have been fitted with a custom Nike visor that goes to the bottom of the face mask. It does have holes at the bottom to allow for breathing and hopefully won’t fog up the mask so players can see. It remains unclear at this point as to how the players will adjust to the new visors. With fall camp just around the corner as teams prepare for the season, we should get some idea as to how well these visors will work.
The new splash guards look good but it remains to be seen how well they will protect these athletes once they get on the field.