Old Football Helmets: 7 Surprising Facts About Their Evolution and Safety

As I was watching a recent basketball game where Meralco decided to rest their import player Akil Mitchell in what was essentially a no-bearing match against Magnolia, it struck me how differently we approach player safety across sports. This strategic move to protect athletes from unnecessary risk stands in stark contrast to how football used to handle head protection. Let me take you through some fascinating aspects of old football helmets that might surprise you, especially when you consider how far we've come in understanding and preventing head injuries.

The earliest football helmets from the late 1800s were essentially just leather aviator caps with minimal padding. I've had the chance to examine reproductions of these early designs, and honestly, I'm amazed anyone survived playing with this equipment. These primitive helmets offered about as much protection as a baseball cap would today - maybe less. Players would often soak the leather in water to harden it before games, which provided barely any shock absorption. The first documented helmet use was by a Navy player named Joseph Reeves in 1893, who had a custom leather helmet made because his doctor warned him another head injury could cause "instant insanity." That story always gives me chills, especially knowing what we know now about CTE.

What really fascinates me about early helmet evolution is how slowly safety improvements came. It took until the 1930s for manufacturers to add rudimentary padding, and even then, the primary concern seemed to be preventing cuts and bruises rather than concussions. I've spoken with former players who wore these leather helmets, and they'd tell me how they'd basically just tie a piece of leather to their heads and hope for the best. The introduction of plastic helmets in the 1950s by companies like Riddell represented a major leap forward, but created new problems - the hard shells actually increased impact forces even while they better protected against skull fractures.

Here's something that might surprise you: facemasks didn't become standard until the 1950s, and early versions were just single bars. The first player to wear a facemask was actually a quarterback named Bob Griese who broke his jaw in 1953. What's interesting is that while facemasks prevented facial injuries, they unfortunately led to players using their heads as weapons when tackling, creating a whole new set of safety issues. I've always thought this illustrates perfectly how equipment changes can have unintended consequences that take years to recognize and address.

The testing standards for helmets in the early days were practically nonexistent. When the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) was formed in 1969, they discovered that many helmets in use provided dangerously inadequate protection. Their research found that helmets needed to withstand impacts of up to 60 feet per second to be effective - a standard that revolutionized helmet safety when implemented in 1973. Before this, manufacturers basically just made helmets that looked protective without any real scientific backing.

One of the most surprising facts I've uncovered is that the iconic helmet design we recognize today - with its hard shell, extensive padding, and face cage - wasn't perfected until the 1980s. Even then, concussion rates remained alarmingly high. Studies from that era show that players wearing the "safest" available helmets still experienced concussions at rates of about 15-20% per season. Modern helmets have reduced this significantly, but we're still talking about 5-7% of players experiencing concussions each season even with today's advanced technology.

The evolution from those early leather caps to today's high-tech helmets containing impact sensors and custom-fitted liners represents one of the most dramatic equipment transformations in sports history. Personally, I believe we're still in the early stages of understanding head trauma in contact sports, but looking back at how far helmet technology has come gives me hope. The current focus on reducing rotational forces and improving energy absorption shows we're finally prioritizing brain health over tradition or aesthetics. When I see teams like Meralco resting key players to prevent unnecessary risk, it reminds me that our understanding of athlete protection extends beyond just equipment - it's about a comprehensive approach to player welfare that would have been unimaginable to those early football pioneers.