Football Players Wear Helmets Essay

Words: 631
Pages: 3

Leather helmets were the first type of helmet used by American football players. They were created to protect from the dreaded cauliflower ear, a deformity caused by trauma to the ear that blocks blood flow and damages the tissue on the upper part of the ear. This results in a bumpy appearance looking like cauliflower. Do you think this type of injury is currently the greatest fear that football players have, encouraging them to wear helmets while playing on the field? Head injuries, specifically concussions, are the injury that occur way too frequently on today’s football fields. This issue is a major concern among current football players, their families and the loyal following of all past players and Americans who share a love of this sport. …show more content…
Specifically the force exerted on the head will make the brain shift within the skull, hitting the sides and developing bruising and possibly bleeding in the brain. These graphic details about the physical effects of a concussion provide a strong pathos appeal for the need to protect the brains of football players. Lindsay Gibbs writes about it in her Spring 2016 article, Can This New Football League Be The Savior The Sport Needs. She states that the whole reason for making it mandatory that football players wear helmets was to decrease the number of skull fractures. There is the thought that the first leather helmets came about around the 1890s, little revising was done to the design until the 1940s when plastic helmets were released, with the included chin strap. Helmets became required by the NFL in 1943, followed by the face mask design that still holds today, in the ‘50s and ‘60s. The most current designs, using polycarbonate, became known and started being used in the ‘80s (Gibbs). The problem is, after the helmet design of the ‘80s became popular, that is when players started acting more reckless on the field with the belief that their helmet would completely protect them. Researchers have been trying to combine protective features within a single helmet so that it will be able to protect the head from the hard blows that crack the skull, as well as from the concussive-type forces