ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
New shoulder pads, no longer an NFL afterthought, could save stars like Luck, Rodgers
XTECH's shoulder pads fast becoming favorite of coaches and players, including draft prospects Josh Allen, Josh Rosen
Urban Meyer's reaction was priceless.
The Ohio State head coach's face was a mix of panic and confusion as he leapt away from the desk where a man he had just met was brandishing a helmet in his left hand. The man was Bob Broderick, a former New York Giants ballboy and longtime marketing consultant who is the founder of innovative shoulder pad and protective equipment company XTECH, and he had just hoisted the helmet above his head to make a point.
Broderick's right hand was already tucked between two thin pieces of patent-protected, scientifically-designed foam and in an instant the entrepreneur was slamming the helmet, quite violently, across the desk into the padding, scattering bottled waters and other items to the floor. Broderick quickly pulled his right hand up off the desk – clearly no worse for wear – and extended it to Meyer, who shook it somewhat sheepishly, still trying to grasp how Broderick had escaped without so much as a bruise or scrape. Turns out the combination of that foam, known as XRD Technology – the brainchild of an MIT-trained chemical engineer – and the design concepts Broderick and his partner Ted Monica, a former equipment manager in the NFL and USFL who once oversaw shoulder pad design at Riddell, had created was a perfect marriage. And Meyer had just become the latest XTECH convert, joining a legion of players, coaches and NFL, college and high school programs.
Left to right: Ted Monica of XTECH, Rutgers coach Chris Ash, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer and Bob Broderick of XTECH.
Player health and safety is a constant buzzword across the football world, but it's generally couched in terms of helmets and head and neck injuries. Just this week the NFL and NFLPA announced 10 models of helmets they were banishing – including the headgear of choice for Tom Brady, perhaps the greatest player in the history of the sport – and sensitivities are heightened following a 2017 season in which a succession of star quarterbacks were felled by what amounted to season-ending injuries, whether it be Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck, Deshaun Watson, Carson Wentz, Carson Palmer or Sam Bradford. Shoulders – those of $20M-a-year quarterbacks in particular – have never been more vital to the fabric and finances of the game, yet shoulder pads have long been something of an afterthought, with many players unsure of which model they wear and long-accustomed to simply throwing on whatever the equipment guy hands them at the start of the season.
Changing attitudes
Perhaps that is slowly, finally changing, as Broderick, Monica and their growing stable of investors, including former Super Bowl-winning coach Brian Billick, are convinced that this technology has the capacity to make the game much safer. They believe that Rodgers, had he been in their model, would not have suffered as severe a collarbone break last season, and they are eager to get an audience with him, while Luck, who has essentially missed two seasons due to shoulder issues, is scheduled to meet with Monica in two weeks and has long been considering switching to XTECH for his comeback.
Meyer, for his part, after speaking with Broderick and Monica for a few more minutes about their technology, promptly called his equipment manager and medical staff right there on the spot (Rutgers coach Chris Ash and then-Temple and now Baylor coach Matt Rhule were also in the small office at the time, their teams already in XTECH). Two weeks later, XTECH was on campus in Columbus, Ohio, meeting with Meyer and sizing players. Soon, roughly 80 percent of the Buckeyes would be in the pads. Josh Allen and Josh Rosen, two of the top quarterbacks in this year's draft, are big believers in the product. Players on 29 of 32 NFL teams now wear them, as well, as do more than 250 colleges and over 200 high schools (including Trevor Lawrence, the top-ranked 2018 prep quarterback who is headed to Clemson, and Taron Vincent, a five-star recruit headed to Ohio State whose father, Troy, just happens to be a former All-Pro defensive back who is the head of the NFL's football operations department).
"You can go through the matrix and talk about all of the technology and the science and the testing numbers," said Billick, who was in the room as well when Meyer was initially spooked. "But when you see that demonstration with the helmet – and that's real, that's not some stunt – that shows you the quality of these pads. And I'll challenge any other equipment company to come in with their hands, and we'll do it with our pads and you can try it with yours.
"I've known Bob for years and when he brought the product to me it was in the development stage and he was deciding whether he was going to take this on or not, and he said, 'What do you think?' And I say this all of the time, with the concussion protocols and rule changes we are taking the head and helmet out of the game, but that means even more stress on the shoulders and those injuries. And with this XRD Technology and XTECH patented design, basically these are custom-fitted, lightweight pads that allow for greater range of motion and protection.
"This is where pads need to be and obviously they are evolving in other sports as well, and when I saw this product I said, 'I'm all in.' You ask players what gloves they wear and what shoes they wear and they can tell you exactly what in any conditions or cold weather or whatever. And then you ask them which shoulder pads they wear, and you get a blank stare. The shoulder pads really hadn't changed in 25 years, but they are now, and they need to."
Left to right: Former Ravens head coach Brian Billick, Baylor head coach Matt Rhule, XTECH's Ted Monica, Rutgers head coach Chris Ash, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer and Bob Broderick of XTECH.
Entire article: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...erthought-could-save-stars-like-luck-rodgers/
XTECH's shoulder pads fast becoming favorite of coaches and players, including draft prospects Josh Allen, Josh Rosen
Urban Meyer's reaction was priceless.
The Ohio State head coach's face was a mix of panic and confusion as he leapt away from the desk where a man he had just met was brandishing a helmet in his left hand. The man was Bob Broderick, a former New York Giants ballboy and longtime marketing consultant who is the founder of innovative shoulder pad and protective equipment company XTECH, and he had just hoisted the helmet above his head to make a point.
Broderick's right hand was already tucked between two thin pieces of patent-protected, scientifically-designed foam and in an instant the entrepreneur was slamming the helmet, quite violently, across the desk into the padding, scattering bottled waters and other items to the floor. Broderick quickly pulled his right hand up off the desk – clearly no worse for wear – and extended it to Meyer, who shook it somewhat sheepishly, still trying to grasp how Broderick had escaped without so much as a bruise or scrape. Turns out the combination of that foam, known as XRD Technology – the brainchild of an MIT-trained chemical engineer – and the design concepts Broderick and his partner Ted Monica, a former equipment manager in the NFL and USFL who once oversaw shoulder pad design at Riddell, had created was a perfect marriage. And Meyer had just become the latest XTECH convert, joining a legion of players, coaches and NFL, college and high school programs.
Left to right: Ted Monica of XTECH, Rutgers coach Chris Ash, Ohio State coach Urban Meyer and Bob Broderick of XTECH.
Player health and safety is a constant buzzword across the football world, but it's generally couched in terms of helmets and head and neck injuries. Just this week the NFL and NFLPA announced 10 models of helmets they were banishing – including the headgear of choice for Tom Brady, perhaps the greatest player in the history of the sport – and sensitivities are heightened following a 2017 season in which a succession of star quarterbacks were felled by what amounted to season-ending injuries, whether it be Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck, Deshaun Watson, Carson Wentz, Carson Palmer or Sam Bradford. Shoulders – those of $20M-a-year quarterbacks in particular – have never been more vital to the fabric and finances of the game, yet shoulder pads have long been something of an afterthought, with many players unsure of which model they wear and long-accustomed to simply throwing on whatever the equipment guy hands them at the start of the season.
Changing attitudes
Perhaps that is slowly, finally changing, as Broderick, Monica and their growing stable of investors, including former Super Bowl-winning coach Brian Billick, are convinced that this technology has the capacity to make the game much safer. They believe that Rodgers, had he been in their model, would not have suffered as severe a collarbone break last season, and they are eager to get an audience with him, while Luck, who has essentially missed two seasons due to shoulder issues, is scheduled to meet with Monica in two weeks and has long been considering switching to XTECH for his comeback.
Meyer, for his part, after speaking with Broderick and Monica for a few more minutes about their technology, promptly called his equipment manager and medical staff right there on the spot (Rutgers coach Chris Ash and then-Temple and now Baylor coach Matt Rhule were also in the small office at the time, their teams already in XTECH). Two weeks later, XTECH was on campus in Columbus, Ohio, meeting with Meyer and sizing players. Soon, roughly 80 percent of the Buckeyes would be in the pads. Josh Allen and Josh Rosen, two of the top quarterbacks in this year's draft, are big believers in the product. Players on 29 of 32 NFL teams now wear them, as well, as do more than 250 colleges and over 200 high schools (including Trevor Lawrence, the top-ranked 2018 prep quarterback who is headed to Clemson, and Taron Vincent, a five-star recruit headed to Ohio State whose father, Troy, just happens to be a former All-Pro defensive back who is the head of the NFL's football operations department).
"You can go through the matrix and talk about all of the technology and the science and the testing numbers," said Billick, who was in the room as well when Meyer was initially spooked. "But when you see that demonstration with the helmet – and that's real, that's not some stunt – that shows you the quality of these pads. And I'll challenge any other equipment company to come in with their hands, and we'll do it with our pads and you can try it with yours.
"I've known Bob for years and when he brought the product to me it was in the development stage and he was deciding whether he was going to take this on or not, and he said, 'What do you think?' And I say this all of the time, with the concussion protocols and rule changes we are taking the head and helmet out of the game, but that means even more stress on the shoulders and those injuries. And with this XRD Technology and XTECH patented design, basically these are custom-fitted, lightweight pads that allow for greater range of motion and protection.
"This is where pads need to be and obviously they are evolving in other sports as well, and when I saw this product I said, 'I'm all in.' You ask players what gloves they wear and what shoes they wear and they can tell you exactly what in any conditions or cold weather or whatever. And then you ask them which shoulder pads they wear, and you get a blank stare. The shoulder pads really hadn't changed in 25 years, but they are now, and they need to."
Left to right: Former Ravens head coach Brian Billick, Baylor head coach Matt Rhule, XTECH's Ted Monica, Rutgers head coach Chris Ash, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer and Bob Broderick of XTECH.
Entire article: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...erthought-could-save-stars-like-luck-rodgers/
