Due to the dangerous nature of football and concussions, developers of football helmetsincluding Riddell have transformed the helmets to make them as safe as possible.  In the1920’s when football was just getting started, helmets were made out of soft leather and helmets were not even required until 1943.  However, now players wear helmets made out of molded polycarbonate shells, which are used today because of their strength and weight.

Not only has the material used to make the helmets completely changed, the designs have improved to increase safety for all football players from high school to the NFL.  Early football helmets did not include a face mask or a chin strap.  This left a player’s face wide open and the lack of the chinstrap meant that there was nothing keeping the helmet from falling off on a play.  Twenty years after the first football helmet, developers created the first chinstrap for the football helmet.  For facemasks, a single face mask bar was added to helmets in 1955 and seven years later every NFL player was wearing a face mask.  Finally in the 1970’s pads were added to the inside of the helmets and full face masks were added to the helmets.  Therefore, the design of the helmets has become much safer due to the face masks, chin straps, and extra padding.

The future of football helmets will be about limiting concussions and injury as much as possible.  Experts that are researching how to make helmets as safe as possible are looking into how to have less impact on the players head.  One idea that can contribute to increased safety is making the helmets lighter which would decrease the force on impact.  Another idea is to somehow create a helmet that is connected with shoulder pads to redirect the force into the body and not on the head and neck. Football helmets continue to become safer in the future and hopefully one is developed that eliminates the high probability of concussions.

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Football-Helmet.html#ixzz2wS0qTmSr

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000095139/article/history-of-the-nfl-football-helmet

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=lukas/110113_bulwark_football_helmets