Football may be in its off-season, but it’s never too early to plan for next year. And with a new season comes new gear—including the best in protective helmets.
In their latest tests, two of the new Rawlings football helmets earned four-star ratings, and the NRG Quantum Plus received five stars and the tag, “Best Available.”
Performed at the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, the tests were released in conjunction with the re-entry of Rawlings football helmets into stores. The study “[performed] 120 impacts on each helmet model at multiple locations and impact energies”; researchers then compared those impact results with data collected from more than 1.8 million head trauma experiences by various football players across an eight-year span.
Building upon the NRG Quantum from last summer, the NRG Quantum Plus helmet uses Rawlings’ patented C3 custom-fit cushioning technology along the helmet’s high-impact areas. Designers increased the offset of the helmet—the distance between the player’s head and the exterior of the shell—to increase padding in high impact areas.

Professional athletes who use Rawlings Quantum helmets to protect themselves include Steven Jackson of the St. Louis Rams and Andre Johnson, Brian Cushing and Arian Foster of the Houston Texans. In the video above, Jackson describes some of the important elements in his life—and why the NRG Quantum is among them.
To find out more about Rawlings’ helmets, go to RawlingsFootball.com.
Read STACK’s Concussion Awareness and Prevention Series to find out more about the dangers of concussions among football players and additional ways to protect yourself.