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theramswire.usatoday.com]
Rams taking extra precautions with O-line helmet pads: 'Better safety, no swag'
Cameron DaSilva
August 5, 2021 6:37 am PT
Twice in the last nine months, a Rams quarterback has hit his thumb on a helmet and suffered an injury. Jared Goff broke his thumb late last season, causing him to miss Week 17 against the Cardinals and be limited in the postseason.
Then on Monday, Matthew Stafford suffered a thumb contusion when his hand collided with a teammate’s helmet in practice. He didn’t miss any time and hasn’t been limited, but it was a scary situation that could’ve been much worse.
So the Rams have just about had it with thumbs crashing into helmets. They’re taking extra precautions moving forward by putting pads on the helmets of their offensive and defensive linemen.
“You know, (equipment manager) Brenden Burger had a couple of those and then the heightened sense of urgency based on what happened the other day. Better safety, no swag with those things on, but hey, we’ll be safe and smart,” McVay said after Wednesday’s practice. “And you know, guys were great about it because they understand exactly why. It’s kind of the concussion preventative maintenance, but also most importantly, what happened the other day. You know, it was just with the quarterbacks finishing over the top, coming down on those helmets, that’ll definitely soften the blow and you don’t have to worry about, ‘Did our quarterback break his finger?’ And things like that, hopefully.”
You can see the helmet pads in the shot below, which is from the Rams’ Instagram story. When McVay said “no swag,” he wasn’t kidding.
This won’t be a one-day thing, either. They plan to wear the helmet pads in all competitive situations, protecting not only the big men from concussions but also the quarterbacks from potential hand injuries.
“They will. In any of these competitive situations and things like that through training camp and we’ll continue to navigate through,” he said. “I think it would be totally my fault if for whatever reason, something like that happened again and we have a thing in place that we can kind of at least be preventative and smart about it. And so I thought that was the smart thing, and our guys were always great when there’s a reason why.”
