EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Justin Tuck’s custom facial area mask has influenced not less than a few Untrue Twitter accounts, just one Fb enthusiast webpage along with a likeness during the Madden 13 football video clip game.
But in early August, Tuck, a Giants defensive finish, had to petition the N.File.L. to keep his fearsome confront mask, using a grille of additional horizontal and diagonal bars. He needed to persuade the league that it had been not only aesthetically pleasing, and also a health care requirement.
The N.F.L. has cracked down to the fierce and funky face masks quite a few gamers attached to their helmets to create them glance harder or cooler. Gamers and not using a authentic healthcare reason behind an accessorized helmet are deemed in violation on the league’s uniform plan, the N.File.L. spokesman Brian McCarthy said.
Absent is Brian Orakpo’s corrugated headgear, modeled following the Batman villain Bane, and Darnell Dockett’s square-bottomed mask, which appeared oddly like a panini grill.
Tuck’s face mask supporters, nevertheless, can relaxation simply. He supplied N.File.L. officers with documentation, signed by the team physician and head athletic trainer, certifying that his mask safeguarded his neck by preventing opponents from grabbing it.
“Mine wasn’t a style assertion,” Tuck mentioned last 7 days. “I did mine being a necessity. So I feel as of at this time, I’ll nevertheless be wearing that experience mask.”
His teammate Will Beatty, the Denver Broncos’ Terrance Knighton plus the Baltimore Ravens’ Chris Canty ended https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?search=마스크 up also granted exceptions. Canty was one of many 1st to put on an in depth mask although Along with the Giants in 2011, to shield an eye fixed personal injury and stop opponents from poking fingers into his encounter, inadvertently or not.
McCarthy stated no N.File.L. rule outlawed specialised deal with masks; rather, they fell underneath the league’s policy concerning video game-working day attire.
“Followers count on our players to dress at the best degree of professionalism,” McCarthy stated Thursday in a very phone interview. “We’ve had this uniform and equipment policy as a substitute for the final a number of many years. And it spells out what is needed of our players.”
All seen merchandise gamers have on on video game working day must be issued via the club or the league, or from outside the house resources with approval within the league office.
Tuck declined to comment when requested his belief with the regulation. But McCarthy stated protection was also a problem.
The league’s consulting committee on head, neck and spine injuries expressed worry that the extra pounds of tailored confront masks would impact the safety supplied by the helmets, McCarthy explained. In addition, supplemental bars within the grilles could catch players’ fingers.
Dean Blandino, the N.F.L.’s new vice president for officiating, explained to “The Dan Patrick Present” on Wednesday that he believed players wearing oversize masks could possibly be a lot more inclined to initiate headfirst Call. McCarthy did not disagree.
“In broad strokes, it comes right down to prospective protection fears and our uniform coverage,” he claimed.
The Nationwide Functioning Committee on Standards for Athletic Devices, a nonprofit Firm generally known as Nocsae that certifies all N.File.L. helmets just before use, could not endorse the handfuls of specific helmet amendments. In a statement, Nocsae dealt with custom encounter masks, declaring that the “addition of an product(s) to a helmet previously Licensed without having that item(s) creates 마스크 a whole new untested model.”
By past time, Tuck was among A few N.F.L. stars with progressive helmet grilles, getting the dim visor craze popularized by LaDainian Tomlinson and Michael Vick a stage more. The Indianapolis Colts’ Robert Mathis wore a cage that coated pretty much every thing under his eyelids. Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, having an oversize black grille beneath a reflective black visor, looked similar to a warrior from A different planet.
This summer, the Dallas Cowboys’ DeMarcus Ware joined in, sporting a mask with 8 crossbars, four over the league’s Restrict.
But without appropriate allowance, the flowery headgear will have a wonderful.
“The league suggests I am able to’t have on my encounter mask,” Mathis wrote on Twitter. “I'll return to my operate of the mill grill.”
Tuck beefed up his facial area mask in October 2011, immediately after neck injuries derailed his season. He along with the Giants’ equipment director, Joe Skiba, devised one particular with five horizontal and 12 diagonal bars; Tuck claimed he modeled the search following the front guards, or pilots, on previous-fashioned locomotives.
His confront mask stays as an intimidating outlier.