Hidden Figures
The advancements made in helmet technology have made football easier to watch, and thus increased revenue for the NFL.
The limp exhausted smile many football players flash in front of television cameras, after sixty tireless minutes of murderous competition within the hostile confines of a frozen gridiron, often illustrates an athlete at his most debilitated state. Unlike bruises, breaks, and tears trainers cannot bandage, brace, heal, nor prevent the inevitable weary post-game expression that conquers the face of even the strongest of football stars.
Upon watching the hard hitting violent action of the National Football League, the casual fan is distracted by the bright lights, shimmering uniforms, eccentric cleats, boisterous language, intricate hand signals, and extravagant accessories. Despite the detailed picture and numerous camera angles, fans rarely get to see the aching look of discomfort upon the face of each and every player.
Former San Diego Chargers running back Ladainian Tomlinson was known for wearing a smoky helmet visor on sunny Sunday afternoons and illuminated Monday nights. Along with his a rare combination of power and speed, the helmet visor itself undoubtedly became Tomlinson’s signature. Due to the large cage on his helmet and smoky visor, Ladainian Tomlinson’s radiant smile was foreign to the moderate football fan. The enthusiastic cheers from San Diego Charger fans were earned by Ladainian Tomlinson with his dazzling play on the field, well before the San Diego faithful had ever seen his face. Instead committed football fans were forced to wait until Tomlinson’s candid interviews or press conferences to finally see the face they had been cheering for the past sixty minutes.
The number of times Tomlinson and many other NFL players appear on television hidden by the masks of their helmet, heavily outnumber the frequency of players showing their battered face in front of crowds and cameras. Unlike sports fans who appreciate the sincerity of a Michael Jordan shrug or Derek Jeter’s earnest smile, many football fans possess the unique ability to passionately support players without seeing their face until after the game.
Helmets became commonplace in the National Football League many years ago, but the shape, size, design, and nature of the helmet has changed over time. In 1943, when helmets became mandatory in the NFL, a football helmet was made of leather and looked more like a well insulated hat than a protective accessory. There were no facemasks or chinstraps, instead players were forced to absorb the violent impact of every hit with little to no protection.
The implementation of a single bar facemask in the late 50’s and even the introduction of the double barred facemask in the early 60s marked a new era in the NFL. These half-hearted advancements in helmet technology directly coincided with the modern Super Bowl era, which brought professional football to the national stage.
The beginning of the Super Bowl era marked the beginning of the overall expansion of the NFL, which has expanded beyond many expectations. The growth of the National Football League over the latter half of the twentieth century has heavily corresponded with the advancement in helmet technology.
The meteoric rise of the National Football League marks a historic transition from a game that only appeals to a certain niche of sports fans to a national pastime. Although the popularity of NFL football has continued to rise since its conception, much like other sports leagues, the NFL has seen it’s most dramatic increase in popularity in the last ten years. In 2005, when the New England Patriots took on the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX, roughly eighty-six million people were glued to their television sets. Ten short years later, approximately one-hundred and fourteen million people worldwide spent their Sunday watching the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks battle in Super Bowl XLIX. Today NFL football games account for forty-five of the top fifty most watched television shows, and the NFL’s lofty ratings have only proved to grow exponentially over time.
Amidst the nation’s newly found football frenzy, everyone from the casual football fan to the less common gridiron junkie has become overly obsessed with tantalizing players. Players, like Odell Beckham Jr. of the New York Giants and Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers, frequently make astounding plays that seemingly defy the laws of physics. The weekly display of raw athleticism and artistry has almost every American spending every last dime on the jersey, t-shirt, hat, socks, and even beer koozie worn or used by their favorite player. Ironically enough the fans that have become ever so obsessed with their super-human heroes, turn on their televisions every Sunday to see everything but the face of the football demigods they idolize.
The introduction of the double barred facemask in 1962 marked a turning point for the NFL, that roughly coincides with the beginning of the Super Bowl Era. With the double barred facemask, which eventually led to the introduction of the full cage facemask in 1975, cameras no longer showed the ghastly state of players who were bruised, battered, and bloody from such a violent game.
Since 1975 the commonplace football helmet hasn’t gotten much bigger, but what does continue to change is the size and transparency of the facemask. No longer do football players wear leather hats or one bar facemasks that provide little to no protection; instead players wear larger more elaborate helmets that provide the same if not less protection while masking the identities of players by hiding their faces.
The rise of the National Football League to a national stage has an awfully suspicious timing. Many early critics may have deemed football too violent or even appalling to watch because of its hard hitting smash mouth nature. Yet the introduction of a facemask and modern style of helmet brought a less humane brand of football to the living rooms of every American, without reducing the violence even the slightest bit.
Innovation in football helmet design since has been stifled, with the exception of new polycarbonate helmets and air cushioning. Meanwhile many advancements in the size, shape, and color of facemasks have been made since 1975, and today players can choose between hundreds of different facemask designs and visors. In the early 80’s players were even given the option to add protective visors to their helmets, which served as a mask that further hid the identities of players while they were on the field.
The NCAA has also seen the profits that lie within masking the battered expressions of players who endure the painstaking sixty minutes of a football game. In the past couple of years in an effort to increase player safety, the NCAA implemented a new rule that requires players who lose their helmet to come off the field for at least one play in order to distract fans from the shocking truth that the moving objects between the white lines are in fact people.
The new deceitful perception of football as less violent has benefitted the NFL by increasing viewership and revenue. The contemporary version of the football helmet and facemask has also created a large influx of young football players, whose parents sit idly by dismissing a truly barbarous game as strategic and guiding in nature. Meanwhile the NFL and former football executives have been aware of the long lasting effects of the game, and have seemingly tried to mask them for capital gains.
Thanks to research that has finally surfaced the casual football fan cannot even deny the heavy correlation between years of football and permanent brain damage. The research itself has put immense pressure on football executives and the NFL to finally adequately address the issue of player safety.
In recent years the NFL has expressed half hearted concern for player safety by slightly modifying the rules to protect players from severe head trauma and various injuries. Even if the efforts were sincere and targeted it doesn’t seem as though there is a feasible way to make football safe. The National Football League has grappled with the forthcoming reality that football simply isn’t safe, and can permanently damage the brains and bodies of those who play it. By stifling the information that highlights the danger of playing football for many years and physically masking the languid expressions of its players, the NFL has minimized the once commonplace perception that football is too violent.
The fallacy that the NFL is making considerable progress in making football more humane has also increased revenue by inviting new segments of fans. During one of many listless attempt to satisfy critics, Roger Goodell the commissioner of the NFL, told the media that he has allocated one-hundred million dollars towards player safety. Sixty million of that one-hundred million dollars will go towards improving helmet technology, but with the lack of innovation and improvement in this area over the past fifty years there are few signs that indicate the money will be used effectively.
Instead football fans and sports analysts alike should expect to see a more translucent and concealing version of the helmet or facemask to be released in the coming years. If the historical trend proves to be true, this supposed advancement in quasi-shielding protective gear will only slightly prolong the life of a withering sport.
To the casual football fan and the gridiron junkies who have become increasingly obsessed with the flamboyant socks and shoes of their favorite players, cherish these weening moments of a weekly American tradition. As someday in the near future NFL executives and football fans will accept the grim reality that football is not sustainable. Hopefully NFL executives will someday stop irresponsibly evading football’s inevitable death by masking the faces, that visually display the damaging effects of football, of its players for enormous capital gains.
References:
Baron, Steve. “NFL 2014 TV Recap: 202 Million Viewers, Game Viewership Nearly Triples Broadcast Primetime.” TV By The Numbers by Zap2it.com. Screener, 09 Jan. 2015. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.
“History of the NFL Football Helmet.” NFL.com. NFL, 14 Nov. 2012. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.
Maske, Mark. “NFL to Launch New $100 Million Concussion Initiatives to Improve Player Safety.” The Washington Post. WP Company, 14 Sept. 2016. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.
Steinberg, Leigh. “Five Reasons Why NFL TV Ratings Have Dropped.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 25 Jan. 2017.
