What to Look for In a Football Helmet

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Some argue that the game of football would be safer without helmets, reasoning that players would be less likely to lead with their heads when tackling, and thus sustain and inflict fewer head injuries. There might be some merit to this thinking, but consider American football's meager beginnings at the turn of the 20th Century when the game was played without any head protection at all.

Back then college football was plagued by so many injuries and deaths that President Theodore Roosevelt wanted the sport discontinued. At the White House's behest, a group of 62 institutions of higher education came together in 1905 to address the problem and formed the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States, which in 1910 would become the NCAA. The association introduced the forward pass, as well as leather helmets to the game of football. The forward pass helped spread the field, thus reducing the number of high-impact collisions, while the leather helmet was the first piece of equipment aimed at protecting players' heads.

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