American football is quickly becoming the most popular sport in the U.S. as television ratings consistently show and continued to show with this year’s Super Bowl. The sport has reached a crossroads as a significant problem in the game has reached new heights.
As the game has evolved, so too has the damage to the head and brain of football players. While improvements to the players’ helmets and changes in the rules have been discussed, an interesting idea has been introduced by some of the sport’s most influential figures.
Penn State’s legendary head coach, Joe Paterno, is just one of many football greats that believe the facemask should be taken off of the helmet. “I’ve been saying for years, we should get rid of the facemask… It’s a weapon, guys are fearless.”
Mike Ditka, long-time coach of the Chicago Bears, agrees with Paterno, “If you want to change the game and get it back to where people aren’t striking with the head and using the head as a weapon, take the mask off the helmet.”
The instant reaction to these comments is: removing the facemask exposes the player to increased risk of injury. To truly understand the problem, those trying to solve it must trace the origins of the problem.
Football is a much different sport compared to 50 years ago. The rules have since changed to favor passing and high scoring to please the fans. Also evolving over the years has been the speed, size and overall athleticism of the game’s players.
This combination of changes has created some of the most violent human collisions as players are now converging upon the ball like never before. Compounding the damage are larger, more padded helmets that reduce the feel of impact on a player’s head.
Long time sportswriter Vic Ketchman accurately summarized the situation with a comparison to boxing, “Anybody in boxing could’ve told them about the negative effects of increasing the size of the boxing glove. The more you pad the hand, the harder the blows are to the head.”
Without fear of injury to their face or head, defensive players have turned themselves into head-first missiles in their attempts to make tackles. The removal of their facemask would cause these players to think twice before launching themselves at a player with the crown of their helmet and to instead use their shoulders and arms to make fundamentally sound tackles.
With these changes, it is probable that their would be an increase in the amount of external facial injuries, but perhaps this is a change that the sport of football needs to make to decrease the amount of serious life-changing brain and spinal cord injuries.
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