The Broncos’ helmet donation program is on the fast track to fulfill its vision.
All In, All Covered — the initiative the Denver Broncos Foundation announced Jan. 28 that plans to donate 15,516 new Riddell Axiom helmets across each Colorado high school program over the next four seasons — has 250 schools signed up, according to the team.
Colorado has 277 high school football programs, so about 90% of the state’s teams are participating. A key change to the program’s requirements that came two weeks after its launch, in which the Broncos reversed course and said schools did not have to use the data element of the smart helmets to participate, helped jumpstart the groundswell.
When the $12 million initiative first launched, concerns over the smart helmets’ data and how it would be stored and used kept several school districts from immediately opting into the program. Those holdouts included the state’s largest districts in Denver Public Schools, Jeffco Public Schools and Douglas County School District — all of which are now participating.
“(Using the data element) is certainly something we’re still going to continue to look at, but without having to do the data privacy agreements and have it vetted through our technology team, it expedited the process,” said DPS athletic director Kevin Bendjy, who expects his district’s participation to be formally approved in a Board of Education meeting next week.
“It seems like it’s a favorable response statewide at this point and pretty optimistic altogether.”
In addition to DPS, Jeffco and DCSD, The Denver Post confirmed that 19 other districts are participating in the program.
That includes larger districts such as Cherry Creek School District, Boulder Valley School District, Aurora Public Schools, St. Vrain Valley School District and Adams 12 Five Star Schools, districts in Colorado Springs and Pueblo, districts with one football program such as Fort Morgan and Byers 32J, and tiny rural districts such as Rocky Ford.
Of the 22 districts The Post spoke with, three — Byers 32J, Rocky Ford and Platte Valley — confirmed they will be using the data aspect of the Axioms. The majority will be participating in the program without the InSite Smart Helmet Technology that tracks helmet hits and the InSite Analytics used to analyze that data.
Riddell owns the helmet data, which can be anonymized. The company uses the information for product development, support and enhancements.
For a school like Rocky Ford, athletic director and football coach Sean McNames said his district believes the ability to learn from the data outweighed potential legal concerns.
“As a coach, I feel some of the data would be nice to monitor,” McNames said. “Where are our biggest collisions happening in practice? Do we need to change some of the drills we use in practice due to contact? How physically demanding was last Friday night’s game?”
At Douglas County High School, football coach Eric Rice said there was a buzz about his program when Riddell reps came to Castle Rock to do 3D scans for the helmets with his players.
“My players were very excited when they were getting fitted,” Rice said. “I would equate it to watching kids open their Christmas presents.”
The number of helmets each school receives varies based on classification. Each 5A school gets 100 total helmets at a rate of 25 per year, while 4A teams get 84 total, 3A gets 70, 2A gets 44, 1A gets 36, 8-man gets 26 and 6-man gets 22. The Axiom has a 2025 retail value of $980, according to Riddell’s 2025 catalog.
While each district’s savings varies, participation in All In, All Covered will have a ripple effect by providing additional funding for football, as well as other sports at many schools. Bendjy estimates DPS will save more than $400,000 over four years. On a micro level, Fort Morgan athletic director Lucas Devlin estimates his school will save more than $65,000.
Bendjy says DPS’ savings will be “repurposed in other areas” of the district athletic budget. Devlin says his district’s savings will be applied toward reconditioning the Axioms, in addition to buying more football equipment. For Rice’s Huskies, he hopes to use the surplus of about $10,000 this season to buy a new gauntlet machine for his running backs and address other big-ticket equipment items.
Elsewhere, Thompson School District will also use its savings to address equipment needs within other sports, while Mesa County Valley School District 51 plans to use the money specifically for girls sports.
While the positive ramifications of the program continue to stack up, one of Riddell’s main competitors that hoped to be included believes the initiative isn’t as well-rounded as it could be. Certor Sports, the parent company of Schutt and Vicis, approached the Broncos to try to get its helmets integrated into All In, All Covered alongside Riddell.
The offer was rebuffed. Chad Hall, Certor Sports’ chief marketing officer, pointed out that the company has three of the top six helmets in the Virginia Tech varsity football helmet ratings, where the Axiom comes in at No. 7. He also says Schutt/Vicis helmets, which do not have a data component, can be custom fit without the need for 3D scans.
“We applaud the Broncos Foundation because this is an amazing thing that they’re doing,” Hall said. “But the assumption could be that (the Axiom) is the safest thing I could be wearing as an athlete. … We just want to make sure there’s an understanding that that’s not the case.
“For example, the locker room of the Denver Broncos looks very different than what is being presented to the whole state of Colorado. The locker room of the Denver Broncos is a locker room of choice. That choice is not being presented (to high schools). There are other options available that are not being presented as solutions because of the exclusivity arrangement that exists.”
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