MAX MILLER MARCH 6, 2019

Football Equipment
The Evolution of Football Equipment

When watching
football, it’s easy to
overlook the
equipment but in my
opinion equipment
has a much bigger
effect on the game
then you think; it has
changed very much
over time due to style
or just added
protection. But as
much as we know the
game of football, it
has changed from its
beginning as a rugby-
like game in the late 1860s to the modern game we know in 2019. The equipment designed to
protect the players has also been completely changed within the 144 year history of the game. The
following paragraphs tracks this historic changes by explaining the evolution of six of the major
pieces of football equipment from their individual debuts right up until how they look and perform in
today’s version of the game.

First the helmet, the helmet is debatably the most important piece of
equipment. When football first began being played in the United States it was
called football, but it looked more similar to the game of rugby that had been
imported the United States from across the Atlantic from England. That said,
helmets were not a mandatory piece of equipment in college football until
1939, so before that time looking across a field on game day you were likely to
see a decent amount of bare heads and a wide variety of helmets. The first
helmets used in football were made out of leather straps or mole skin fused
together to protect players who had a concern for their own safety. Other than
the actual leather product stiffening and becoming more impact resistant over
time, the next major advancement in helmet technology came in the 1940s
when a Chicago sporting goods company named Riddell patented the plastic

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football helmet. In the early 1970s Riddell set the standard once again by introducing it’s HA series
of helmets that featured vinyl pads inside the helmet that could be filled with air to further absorb
impact and give a more custom fit.

Next I will be talking about shoulder pads. The first pads are said to have been made of leather
and wool and were sewn into the competitor’s jerseys as opposed to being worn as a separate piece
of equipment in the 1870s. Shoulder pads began to be manufactured from plastic in the 1960s and
1970s and as was the case in helmets, materials technology continued to mean that less substance
could be used for more effective protection. But the improvements are more than skin deep, as the
advancements also mean better ventilation, enhanced mobility, increased comfort and better
protection.

Next I will be talking about the pants. Really, as

far as the overall form goes, the pants have
experienced the least change of any part of the
equipment used to play the game of football. The
original material for the pants was canvas and the
pads, though light, was sewn into the knee and
thigh regions providing at least some measure of
protection.As is the case in the helmet, facemask
and shoulder pads as new materials have become
available the pads and the pants themselves have
evolved from their inefficient canvas and wool to the nylon, foam rubber and other materials of
today. And again, the results have included increased levels of player safety, mobility, air flow and
comfort.

The football shoe went from its original boot configuration to a lower cut design, and as in the
case of all of the other equipment components we’ve discussed, technology in terms of materials has
changed how shoes are made and what they are made of. Cleat technology began with players
attaching their own metal version of cleats to the bottom of their shoes which eventually led to
manufacturers producing ready-made versions. Available to today’s players are lighter-weight shoes
and a wide-array of cleats for different climate conditions and individual styles.

When watching football, it's easy to take the safety precautions and equipment that the players use.
All of this equipment stated is required for tackle football at all ages. It's important to the game
because injuries happen in football and it's very important that people are protected so there is a
lower risk of injury. In conclusion there are injuries in football but over the years there has been an
uprising in equipment quality.

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