In American football, an inflatable tunnel or air-inflated tunnel is a
tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...
that is inflated by an external cold air inflation fan connected to the tunnel via an inflation tube. Inflatable tunnels are customarily long when inflated and often attached to inflatable helmets, mascots or team logos.
Inflatable tunnels are typically used by professional, college and high school sports teams and first started appearing in the 1980s. Most
NFL teams now use an inflatable tunnel for player introductions. By 1996, inflatable tunnels began to be used by
high school football
High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...
programs, and their use is now common at the high school level in top football states like Texas.
[Michael Florek]
"Taking spirit to a new level: Spending $1,000s on inflatable helmets, tunnels the new norm in Texas HS football"
''Dallas News
''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''Galveston ...
'', September 20, 2012.
See also
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List of inflatable manufactured goods
This is a non-comprehensive list of inflatable manufactured goods, as no such list could ever completely contain all items that regularly change. An inflatable is an object that can typically be inflated with a gas, including air, hydrogen, heli ...
References
American football equipment
Balloons
Inflatable manufactured goods
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