As a New York Jets fan, I don't have much to be happy about NFL football season. But at least I know that whatever poor soul ends up coaching the team next year, he or she will be wearing a comfortable pair of headphones.
For the 2025 season, the NFL plans to retire the current headsets worn by NFL coaches and replace them with a new one. The new model was presented on stage at Sony CES 2025 press conference.
“We have a prototype of the new coaching headset we are developing with the NFL,” said Neil Manowitz, president and chief executive officer of Sony Electronics. “It will feature Sony's industry-leading noise cancellation technology and unparalleled sound quality.”
After the press conference, I sat down with Manowitz and Aaron Amendolia, the NFL's deputy CIO, who gave me a closer look at the prototype. I immediately noticed that it looked a lot like my headphones, the Sony WH-1000XM4, which CNET headphone expert David Carnoy called “almost flawless.
The prototype headphones have just one earpiece, a large microphone and a wired transmitter cable, but the design cues are reminiscent of Sony's WH-1000XM4 stereo noise-canceling headphones.
I was surprised to learn that the current NFL headsets used by coaches do not have noise cancellation. “This headset is truly something custom made for us and our environment,” said Amendolia. “And we told the Sony team, no disrespect, but it's going to be thrown and it's going to go through some tough times.”
After I assured Manowitz that I wasn't going to drop the prototype, he said I could try it. It felt very familiar and comfortable, much like my Sony XM4 stereo headphones that I wear for hours – most recently for my entire 5 hour flight to Vegas.
The trainer version felt much sturdier, with a thicker headband, and of course, it only has one earpiece, a large microphone, and a wired transmitter. And lots of Sony branding.
I didn't plug in the headphones, so I can't speak to the sound quality. And as a prototype, it's still under development, so the design isn't final. But wearing it, I felt like hey, if this tech journalist thing doesn't work out, maybe I can reach out to the Jets.