Football helmet
It consists of a hard plastic shell with thick padding on the inside, a face mask made of one or more plastic-coated metal bars, and a chinstrap.
A recent focus on improving player safety through better helmet designs has started reducing the total number of concussions.
[2] One of the first instances of football headgear dates to 1896 when George "Rose" Barclay, a halfback at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, began to use straps and earpieces to protect his ears.
Naval Academy Midshipman Joseph M. Reeves (later to become the "Father of Carrier Aviation"), who had a protective device for his head made out of mole skin to allow him to play in the 1893 Army–Navy game.
Reeves had been advised by a Navy doctor that another kick to his head would result in "instant insanity" or even death, so he commissioned an Annapolis shoemaker to make him a helmet out of leather.
In 2002, American football equipment manufacturer Riddell released a new design of helmet called the Revolution in response to a study of concussions.
The varsity helmets from Schutt are made with polycarbonate, which is a very strong polymer designed to take bigger hits.
The Schutt youth helmets are made from ABS, which is a lighter material, meant for children who do not take such powerful hits.
Schutt engineers improved the F7 LTD's shell design to boost performance and impact absorption in high-impact sections of the helmet.
[11] In the summer of 2022, the National Football League had offensive and defensive linemen, linebackers and tight ends wear a Guardian Cap, a protective cover worn on top of head.
The hard outer shell protects the head from local impacts by delocalizing the force, so the load can be absorbed by the other elements.
[16] Polycarbonates are ideal materials for outer shells because they are lightweight, tough and exhibit good impact strength, even in extreme temperatures.
The design takes account of a player's comfort and specific position, as well as the goal of protecting the most sensitive regions of the head and areas where big hits are most common.
[18] Padding materials need to be low density to make the helmet comfortable and practical without sacrificing energy absorption.
Most football helmets are made from polyurethane or nitrile foams, because they keep the force peak under the load recommended for head health (1.5MPa) without deforming, while being relatively lightweight and easy to manufacture.
When the material reaches its densification region it begins to change its internal structure permanently and cannot return to its original shape.
However, players with eye problems may still obtain special permission to wear tinted visors, some notable examples being LaDainian Tomlinson and Chris Canty.
Using data that he collected during a pilot study, Kevin Guskiewicz showed that kickoff returns are the most dangerous part of the game.
His results were compelling enough to convince the NFL to move the kickoff line five yards forward to the 35-yard-line, with the intention of increasing the number of touchbacks, a safer play.
For example, it has been illegal in the National Football League since 2004, but a grandfather clause allowed players who wore the mask prior to 2004 to continue to do so for the remainder of their careers.
Typically, by the mid-1980s only placekickers and punters in professional football in Canada and the United States wore the one-bar face mask, a notable exception being quarterback Joe Theismann.
The standard one-bar was made from nylon or other hard plastic and was bolted to both side of the helmet just in front of the earholes.
Rules in place for NFL, NCAA, and high school football require that all helmets be certified by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment.
[28][29][30] Reliance on NOCSAE certification has been criticized on numerous grounds, including that organization's control by equipment manufacturers causes a conflict of interest, testing data that focuses on skull fractures instead of concussions, and failure to take into account new research.
Kevin Guskiewicz, a professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a MacArthur Fellow, has researched concussions in football of all age groups.
A joint effort between Virginia Tech and Wake Forest has been testing current football helmets and giving them yearly ratings since 2011.
When hard shells were first introduced, the number of head injuries actually increased because players had a false sense of security and made more dangerous tackles.
Researchers are currently looking into ways to minimize the impact of temperature on foam stiffness in order to give players maximal protection in all weather.
In 2015, David Camarillo at Stanford conducted a study that suggested football helmet tests did not account for the delay between injury-causing brain movement and stress impact.
[42] Neuroscientists at Ohio State University launched baseballs from air cannons at football helmets in order to simulate a kick or blow to the head such as a tackle.
