EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Justin Tuck’s custom made facial area mask has encouraged at the very least a few Wrong Twitter accounts, one particular Facebook supporter web site and also a likeness during the Madden 13 soccer online video game.
But in early August, Tuck, a Giants defensive conclusion, had to petition the N.File.L. to maintain his fearsome encounter mask, with a grille of additional horizontal and diagonal bars. He needed to encourage the http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=마스크 league that it absolutely was not merely aesthetically satisfying, and also a health care necessity.
The N.F.L. has cracked down about the fierce and funky confront masks several players connected for their helmets to produce them look harder or cooler. Players with out a authentic clinical cause of an accessorized helmet are deemed in violation of the league’s uniform 마스크 plan, the N.File.L. spokesman Brian McCarthy said.
Long gone is Brian Orakpo’s corrugated headgear, modeled following the Batman villain Bane, and Darnell Dockett’s square-bottomed mask, which seemed oddly like a panini grill.
Tuck’s encounter mask lovers, having said that, can relaxation quickly. He furnished N.F.L. officers with documentation, signed through the crew doctor and head athletic trainer, certifying that his mask shielded his neck by blocking opponents from grabbing it.
“Mine wasn’t a style statement,” Tuck mentioned previous 7 days. “I did mine to be a necessity. So I feel as of at this moment, I’ll nevertheless be donning that deal with mask.”
His teammate Will Beatty, the Denver Broncos’ Terrance Knighton as well as Baltimore Ravens’ Chris Canty ended up also granted exceptions. Canty was one of the initial to have on a detailed mask though While using the Giants in 2011, to shield an eye fixed personal injury and stop opponents from poking fingers into his confront, inadvertently or not.
McCarthy reported no N.F.L. rule outlawed specialised confront masks; instead, they fell beneath the league’s policy regarding activity-day apparel.
“Enthusiasts expect our players to gown at the best amount of professionalism,” McCarthy claimed Thursday within a telephone interview. “We’ve experienced this uniform and tools coverage in its place for the last various a long time. And it spells out what is required of our players.”
All seen things gamers put on on activity working day has to be issued from the club or perhaps the league, or from outside sources with acceptance within the league Workplace.
Tuck declined to comment when questioned his feeling with the regulation. But McCarthy mentioned protection was also a problem.
The league’s consulting committee on head, neck and backbone accidents expressed concern that the added fat of personalized encounter masks would have an impact on the defense supplied by the helmets, McCarthy said. Also, supplemental bars within the grilles could capture gamers’ fingers.
Dean Blandino, the N.File.L.’s new vice chairman for officiating, instructed “The Dan Patrick Display” on Wednesday that he believed players carrying oversize masks could be extra inclined to initiate headfirst Get in touch with. McCarthy did not disagree.
“In broad strokes, it arrives all the way down to opportunity safety worries and our uniform plan,” he reported.
The Countrywide Functioning Committee on Criteria for Athletic Gear, a nonprofit Corporation often called Nocsae that certifies all N.File.L. helmets just before use, couldn't endorse the dozens of unique helmet amendments. In an announcement, Nocsae addressed custom facial area masks, saying which the “addition of an item(s) to your helmet Formerly certified devoid of that item(s) generates a brand new untested product.”
By final time, Tuck was between a handful of N.F.L. stars with innovative helmet grilles, using the dim visor trend popularized by LaDainian Tomlinson and Michael Vick a move more. The Indianapolis Colts’ Robert Mathis wore a cage that protected nearly every thing underneath his eyelids. Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, with an oversize black grille beneath a reflective black visor, looked like a warrior from A different World.
This summer season, the Dallas Cowboys’ DeMarcus Ware joined in, sporting a mask with 8 crossbars, 4 more than the league’s Restrict.
But with no good allowance, the flowery headgear will feature a fine.
“The league suggests I am able to’t use my face mask,” Mathis wrote on Twitter. “I'll return to my operate of the mill grill.”
Tuck beefed up his confront mask in Oct 2011, following neck accidents derailed his season. He as well as Giants’ gear director, Joe Skiba, devised a single with five horizontal and twelve diagonal bars; Tuck explained he modeled the search once the entrance guards, or pilots, on old-fashioned locomotives.
His experience mask stays as an scary outlier.