Football helmet A football helmet is a protective device used primarily in American football and Canadian football . It consists of a hard leather top with thick padding on the inside , a facemask made of one or more plastic bars , and a chinstrap . Some players add polycarbonate visors to their helmets , which are used to protect eyes from glare and impacts . Helmets are a requirement at all levels of organized football , except for non - tackle variations such as flag football . Although they are protective , players can and do still suffer head injuries such as a concussion . Each position has a different type of face mask to balance protection and visibility . History . Invention . One of the first instances of football headgear dates to 1896 when Lafayette College halfback George " Rose " Barclay began to use straps and earpieces to protect his ears . Many sources give credit for creation of the helmet to James Naismith . Additionally , other sources credit the invention of the football helmet to U . S . Naval Academy Midshipman Joseph M . Reeves ( later to become the " Father of Carrier Aviation " ) , who had a protective device for his head made out of mole skin to allow him to play in the 1893 Army - Navy game . Later helmets were made of padded leather , and resembled aviators ' helmets or modern day scrum cap s . In professional football , at least , they were also " optional " . Some National Football League players , notably Hall - of - Famer Bill Hewitt , played all or most of their careers without a helmet . Development . The 1920s marked the first time in the sport of football that the idea of protection and a helmet started to be used . These helmets were made of leather and had padding and cushioning on the inside . Although better than no helmet at all , the helmets used in this time were almost completely useless . These particular “ Leather Lids ” absorbed a lot of heat making it very uncomfortable to wear . [ 1 ] The helmet barely protected the player from a full contact hit because there was not enough padding . The huge problem with this early helmet was that it had no face mask at all . Players had their full face exposed at all times while being tackled at full speed , making injuries very prevalent . 1917 marked the first time that helmets raised above the head to try and direct blows away from the top of the head . This technique started to be used because to many players got critically hurt because the padding used was not thick enough to protect from the devastating blows . Ear flaps also had their downfall as they were not created for ventilation and manufacturers realized the problem with communication on the field [ 1 ] One of the biggest innovations of this early 1900 period came in the form of hardened leather . 1939 marked a new era in the football helmet history . The Riddell Company from Chicago , Illinois decided to start manufacturing plastic helmets because they felt this would be a safer material for football players to wear . This material was found to be more effective because it held its shape when full collision contact occurred on a play . These helmets were also much more comfortable and had more padding to cushion the head on a big hit . Included with the plastic helmet came the plastic facemask and finally a helmet that would protect the entire head . “ By the 1950s almost every player in the NFL wore a helmet made of plastic . ” [ 2 ] By the mid 1940s , helmets were finally required in the NFL . They were still made of leather , but with improved manufacturing techniques had assumed their more familiar spherical shape . By the 1950s , the introduction of polymers brought the leather helmet era to an end . The facemask was also recommended for players by the NFL in 1955 , reducing the number of broken noses and teeth , but also necessitating new rules prohibiting opposing players from grabbing the face mask . The player who gave the NFL the inspiration to develop a penalty for grabbing the face mask was former Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions defensive back Dick " Night Train " Lane . Lane would frequently tackle opposing players by the face mask , before there was a rule in place . A facemask infraction results in a 15 - yard penalty . The NFL rule was changed prior to the 2008 season , eliminating the 5 - yard unintentional facemask penalty . The Los Angeles Rams were the first NFL team to put logos on their helmets , and as of 2011 the Cleveland Browns are the only NFL team not using any form of primary logo on its helmets . The helmet used in today ’ s game of football made its way to markets in the 1990s . Today helmets are made of a hard plastic called polycarbonate . The inside of the helmet is layered with vinyl and foam padding . [ 1 ] This new technology used for football has an incredibly dense amount of padding and can withstand sizable force directly to a player ’ s head . This new age plastic is used for car bumpers as well which makes it very durable and tested . Helmet sensors have recently become a big phenomena in football . “ What looks like six marshmallows stuffed between the helmets padding and the outside shell are actually foam - encased sensors that measure the acceleration of a player ’ s head during a hit . They determine magnitude , direction , location on the head , duration and the time of impact ” . [ 2 ] Upon impact , the sensor immediately assesses the collision … anything above 100 Gs is a sign to look for concussion . It is known that some players will experience up to 2 , 000 of these potential concussion blows each season . As the player is returning from this blow , the data is sent to a central computer which then breaks down the information and puts it on a screen for team doctors to observe . New rules have been implemented which instruct that any player who has a particularly high reading of force needs to be taken off the field and examined before they can play another down . In 2002 , American football equipment manufacturer Riddell released a new design of helmet called the Revolution . The newer design was released in response to a study on concussions . The design is becoming more popular in the NFL and NCAA , being used by notables such as Peyton Manning , Dwight Freeney , Casey Hampton , and Brady Quinn . Concussion Awareness : Andrew Tucker , responsible for reporting on all the information the committee had gathered about concussions and football helmets , informed the panel that Major helmet manufacturers informed them their products had not changed substantially in many years . Their products were adequately protecting players from catastrophic brain injuries but there was no stimulus for innovation to decrease the risk of concussion . [ 1 ] The man that would attempt to make this new method occur happened to be Vin Ferrara , a former Harvard quarterback who happened to come upon the discovery with no intentions of actually doing so . One night , Ferrara was looking for an aspirin when he saw a squirt bottle for sinuses and as he pumped it and then punched it , he realized that the bottle withstood the blows of different forces the same . Ferrara immediately came up with the idea to incase the helmet with various pockets of bubbles , filled with air , in order to cushion the number of blows a football player received . Research History of the Football Helmet : Neuroscientists took the problems of this testing into their own hands and came up with an effective tool to test newly manufactured helmets . Specialists at Ohio State University launched baseballs from air cannons in order to simulate a kick or blow to the head such as a tackle . Even though this method was used to test face masks , this also left many people in awe of the force that these helmets could withstand . The study reported that the helmets could withstand 2 , 500 Newtons or about 562 pounds of force . This method of testing was the hardest ever done to a helmet previously as the last test was 2 , 439 Newtons and 548 pounds of force . [ 1 ] The helmet will sometimes be wrenched from a player ' s head in the jostling of a play and leave the player vulnerable to injury . " Sports Illustrated " for January 15 , 2007 , includes a couple of photos of Jeremy Shockey of the New Orleans Saints , continuing to push for extra yardage in a playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles , despite having lost his helmet during the play . The NFL implemented a rule change from the 2010 season causing the play to be whistled dead when the ball carrier lost his helmet . In 2007 , Schutt Sports announced the arrival of a next generation helmet , the Schutt ION 4D . This next generation design was in response to the demand for a safer football helmet . The design includes an integrated face guard . This new face guard design features shock absorbing " Energy Wedges " that reduce the force of impacts to the face guard . College Teams wearing the helmet include Air Force Academy , Penn State , and Virginia . Many of the New York Giants wear the ION 4D design including Brandon Jacobs . NFL rules state that all helmets with a headset in them must have a visible green dot on the back . A few times in 2006 the holder on the field goal attempt was told to pull up and throw or run at the last second because of a change the coaches saw on the field . This gave teams an " unfair advantage " in the eyes of the NFL . The new rules let each team know who is wearing a headset and who is hearing the plays being called . Also , a more recent addition to the football helmet is the visor or eye shield , which is affixed to the face mask to protect players from glare or eye injuries , such as pokes . It is believed that the first player to use a protective visor in an NFL game was Mark Mullaney of the Minnesota Vikings in 1984 , in order to protect a healing eye injury . Top manufacturers of visors are Nike , Oakley , and Under Armour , with Leader being to first to come out with a visor / shield for former Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon . While Mullaney and McMahon ' s visors were tinted , most of the earlier visors were clear or smoked , but they are now offered in myriad styles ranging from blue , gold , black , rainbow , silver , or amber . High - school and pee - wee leagues prohibit all but clear visors . This rule was enacted so that training staff and coaches can easily view a player ' s face and eyes in the case of a serious injury , to discern if the player is conscious . The NCAA banned the use of tinted visors for the same reason , and the NFL has followed suit as well . However , players with eye problems may still obtain special permission to wear tinted visors , some notable examples being LaDanian Tomlinson and Chris Canty . One - bar facemasks . The one - bar facemask has been illegal in the National Football League since 2004 , but a grandfather clause allows players who wore the mask prior to 2004 to continue to do so for the remainder of their careers . Free agent punter Scott Player currently wears a 1 - bar facemask and will be the last unless a new rule reissuing the 1 - bar facemasks is issued and passed . Since Scott Player is approaching 40 years old and did not play at all in the 2008 season it is unlikely that the 1 - bar facemask will be seen in the NFL play again . Player currently plays for the UFL ' s Hartford Colonials — the 1 - bar facemask is legal in that league . Typically , by the mid - 1980s only placekickers and punters wore the one - bar facemask , a notable exception being Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann . While playing for the San Diego Chargers , Doug Flutie wore a one - bar facemask for just one game ( October 31 , 2004 ) in a 42 – 14 win against the Oakland Raiders . The one - bar had two different variations . The standard one - bar was made from nylon or other hard plastic and was bolted to both side of the helmet just in front of the earholes . There was a " snub " version that did not extend as far out in front of the helmet as the standard .