5G could literally change the game for this college football team

Chuck Goldstein, head coach of the Gallaudet University Bison football team, will never forget the day in October when he watched quarterback Brandon Washington complete a 70-yard touchdown run during a home game in Washington, DC. It wasn’t just an impressive athletic feat: It also proved that a prototype of a connected helmet actually works.

“Talk about pressure to win a game,” Goldstein said onstage Monday at the CTIA 5G Summit. “We couldn’t use this technology and equipment and lose. And everything was just the way it was supposed to be.”

The NCAA Division III athletic program partnered with AT&T over the last two years to test a connected helmet that allows players to receive play calls through an eyepiece instead of relying on spoken commands or maintaining a line of sight with a coach.

That’s particularly important for the Bison because deaf and hard-of-hearing students make up 95% of Gallaudet’s population, Sam Atkinson, Gallaudet’s associate athletic director for communications, told Tech Brew.

For Washington, who is hard of hearing, receiving the visual cues gave him additional confidence that he was passing along the right directions to his teammates on the field—at least once he got used to using the tech.

“The first game, I was a little nervous, because it was raining and we never use it in practice. But after the third play, I scored a 70-yard touchdown. I was obviously good. I shook everything off, and I was ready to go,” he told Tech Brew.

The tech behind the helmet is relatively simple: A 5G module in the helmet connects it to AT&T’s network in the same way as a mobile phone or any other wireless device. But the helmet wasn’t ready for prime time immediately: When Washington wore an earlier prototype, he said it felt too bulky in the back, leading AT&T to further streamline the design.

The carrier provided Gallaudet with three 5G helmets for its quarterbacks, as well as new regular helmets for the rest of the team, AT&T spokesperson Alex Byers told Tech Brew.

Last year, the team only used the connected helmet during the one game in October, which required a special waiver under NCAA rules, which typically prohibit one-way communication devices between players and coaches, Goldstein told us. But Gallaudet has asked the athletic association for a waiver to use the helmets for the entirety of next season, he said.

Goldstein sees broad applications for the tech going forward, including helping deaf and hard-of-hearing players like Washington advance to the big leagues.

“What if he made it to the NFL or the UFL, and he could use that technology to level the playing field?” Goldstein said on stage.

He also sees the potential to make football more accessible for more students.

“A lot of our players did not have a positive experience in high school and university,” he said. “What if, in high school, they had that opportunity? There [were] no barriers for communication? And that’s what really matters.”