American Rules Football - Helmet

American Football is a popular sport but due to its aggressive gameplay, it is prone to multiple acute and severe injuries. The football helmet serves as the best armour to protect the players from head and face injuries. The helmet features an outer shell made from hard plastic with thick padding on the inside. It also consists of a face mask constructed with a single or multiple plastic-coated metal bars along with a chinstrap. Sometimes it is found that footballers add some polycarbonate visors to their helmets to add protection against glare and impacts. While digging in the history of American Football helmet, it was found that the early models had a flat top design without any holes for the ears. However, today these helmets have evolved into a unique design and are proficient to withstand multiple impacts.

NFL Helmet Guidelines

The National Football League is a professional American football tournament. The NFL and NFLPA collaborated to test the football helmets against their protective levels. The helmets are also marked according to their performance; the best ones are marked green and lesser protective with yellow. Red marked helmets are entirely forbidden to be used in any match. According to 2019 Helmet Laboratory Testing Performance results, the top-performing helmets include VICIS Zerol (2018), Schutt F7 LTD (208400), Riddell SpeedFlex Precision Diamond (R41106) helmets and many more. However, the prohibited helmets include Rawlings Impulse, Impulse+, Quantum, Schutt Air XP and so on.

Components of Football Helmets and their Evolution

• Outer shell - Traditionally, the football helmets had an outer cover made from soft leather whereas the modern shells are composed of polycarbonate. It was 1986 when the first moulded polycarbonate helmet appeared in the NFL. These modern helmets generally have a 3.35 mm thickness of the shell which effectively protects the player’s head by absorbing the outer force. Polycarbonate is an ideal material due to its lightweight, better impact strength even at extreme temperatures. Each team uses aesthetically designed helmets according to their uniform and team image.
• Energy absorbing elements - One of the primary functions of the helmet is to decrease the impact of the outer force. It effectively reduces the implied force by dissipating energy. The compression shock and shock bonnets are the primary elements followed by secondary elements such as comfort pads to store the energy. To withstand multiple collisions, the helmet materials need to get back to their original state after the hits. The padding materials should have a lower density for comfortable and practical usage. Majority of the helmets are made from polyurethane or nitrile foams because of their efficiency to keep the force under control.
• Sensors - In modern times, some companies have also introduced helmets with sensors to improve the player’s safety. These sensors are added to monitor any serious impact received by the player. The principal objective of the sensor is to detect concussions and therefore provide the players' immediate medical care.
• Headsets - The invention of the headsets is one of the coolest discovery in football. John Campbell and George Sarles invented the headset for the first time for Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown so that he could talk on-field to quarterback George Ratterman. However, it was banned in 1956, but again in 1994, the NFL approved the use of headsets in the matches. According to their rules, the helmets aided with headsets must have a visible green dot in the back.
• Face mask - Today, the face masks used in football matches are in multibar design with a minimum of two bars. These masks are composed of metals such as titanium, stainless steel or most commonly the carbon steel. Each facemask is coated with Polyarmor G17, which is resistant against corrosion and impact. On the contrary, the traditional face masks used to have only a single bar.