West Virginia Football Helmet

Sometimes, less is more. As college football evolves and changes, keeping anchored in the traditions that made it the nation’s best sport is hard but necessary. The Alabama helmet is a CFB icon. It isn’t flashy or showy. It doesn’t require a glitzy press conference or grand social media unveiling. Its allure, its beauty, is in its simplicity.

Louisville has consistently knocked it out of the park with their CFB helmet designs. From chrome red dome with a white logo as styled by Lamar Jackson, to a mouthwatering all-matte black number and their traditional white helmet, Louisville finds a way to out-style their opponent. Special shout out to their star-spangled Cardinal design.

When you’re primary colors are red, white, and black, it’s pretty hard to go wrong with your uniforms and helmets. Yet, creating consistently great variations of a helmet isn’t quite as easy.However, they’ve also produced some eye-raising, head-turning, red helmets with a striking silver mustang amongst a plethora of perfect head protectors. The “Dallas” special edition with a blue three-stripe D cloaking the red mustang on a white lid was a stunning success.

The all-baby blue helmet, with a thick white center stripe draped on either side in green, the “Angry Wave” logo on the side, finished off with a green face mask should one day find itself hanging in The Louvre.When you consider those factors, one program elevates itself above all. Forget popular lid leaders like Michigan and Ohio State. Tulane is the cranium covering king.

I’m a sucker for traditionalism, and there are few things in the sport that conjure up that imagery than a crimson helmet with white numbers on the side and a single white stripe. Bama equals beauty.What makes a special CFB helmet? Well, first, you need an awesome logo. Secondly, having a unique, standout color scheme helps differentiate the great from the good. Thirdly, originality and creativity are a must if you want to come out on top of the helmet arms race in college football.Back in March, the Arizona State Sun Devils unveiled a new helmet concept for the 2022 college football season. The gold dome with maroon detailing — including the Sun Devils pitchfork logo on either side — is exquisite, particular the all-gold face mask. It’s the latest in a long line of luscious lids.

There are some things in CFB that the SMU program didn’t do right. However, uniforms and helmets certainly aren’t one of those things. Even their standard white helmet with a red mustang logo trimmed with blue, along with ared and blue front stripe is a superb work of art.Whether rocking the 1920s pelican on a surfboard, “Angry Wave,” or T-Wave as seen in 2013, Tulane has consistently had one of the coolest logos in CFB. While a combination of white, green, and baby blue might not be everyone’s idea of a complementary color scheme, the Green Wave make it work in spectacular style.

CFB helmets are an opportunity to express identity and can be considered artwork. Ahead of the 2022 season, which college football teams have the best helmets?Yet, they’re more than that now. They’re a statement, an opportunity to express identity, and some of them are simply works of art. As we head first towards the 2022 CFB season, which program boasts the best helmets?

Attempting to rank anything in college football is divisive. Everyone has an opinion and each individual is convinced theirs is the correct one. When it comes to ranking the best CFB helmets, beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder.The traditional yellow and maroon colors are timeless, and the throwback “Sparky” logo makes for one of the most beautiful helmets of all time. The Sun Devil is in the detail, and the PT 42 patch that honors Pat Tillman helps set off a magnificent helmet.

One of the recommendations in the accident report was that carriers should be equipped with Ground Proximity Warning systems. Today, such systems are installed by default in most commercial aircrafts.

Every year on the anniversary date, Marshall holds a ceremony honoring the victims. The current Marshall Football Team plays at the Joan C. Edwards Stadium, and the road between the location and Spring Hill Cemetery has been renamed the Marshall Memorial Boulevard.

The impact of the plane crash was severe on the American psyche, especially the Marshall Football Team. The university almost decided to disband the programme completely only to reverse course later.In their new stadium, there’s a bronze sculpture called the “We Are Marshall Memorial Bronze”, which was dedicated on Nov. 11, 2000, three days before the 30th anniversary of the crash.

Marshall Football Team won their last game at home against Kent State before losing to the East Carolina Pirates. They were supposed to return to Huntington before moving on to Ohio in Athens, Ohio, on November 21. Needless to say, that game was canceled.The Marshall University Football Team played their second season under coach Rick Tolley in 1970. Their game in Carolina was their ninth of the season. They had compiled a 3-6 losing record at the time of the crash, having begun the season 2-1.A granite cenotaph was placed at the Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington, West Virginia. There’s a plaque and memorial at the Fairfield Stadium and a Memorial Fountain at the Memorial Student Center. The fountain is switched off every year at the anniversary of the crash, only to be reactivated next spring.

Among those who perished was Marshall Football Team coach Frank Loria. Loria is a College Football Hall of Fame member, and the Loria award is given to the most outstanding high school football player in Harrison county.On that day, Southern Airways Flight 932 crashed with no survivors. The plane was carrying 37 members of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team, eight members of the coaching staff, 25 fans, two pilots, two flight attendants and a charter coordinator.

The incident was adjudged to have taken place because of a pilot error when they missed the correct altitude while landing. Instead, they crashed over 4,000 feet before the runway, in what was described as an insurvivable incident. It remains the biggest sports-related air mishap in American history.Foams tend to be stiffer at lower temperatures. Researchers are currently looking into ways to minimize the impact of temperature on foam stiffness in order to give players maximal protection in all weather.

The newest model Schutt has released is the Schutt F7. Schutt came out with the Schutt F7 in 2017 and it was released into the NFL in the same year. The F7 expands on F7 technologies such as TPU (thermoplastic urethane) cushioning and 3-Dimensional Tectonic Plate Technology. Schutt engineers improved the F7 LTD’s shell design to boost performance and impact absorption in high-impact sections of the helmet. The helmet now incorporates Anti-Friction faceguard attachment points, as well.

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 was Mark Mullaney of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings in 1984, in order to protect a healing eye injury. Top manufacturers of visors are Nike, Oakley, Under Armour and SHOC, with Leader being the first to come out with a visor/shield for former Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon (who needed the visor because of a childhood eye injury). While Mullaney and McMahon’s visors were tinted, most of the earlier visors were clear or smoked, but they are now offered in a variety of 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 LaDainian Tomlinson and Chris Canty. The XFL allows players to wear tinted and decorated visors.In 1939, the Riddell Company of Chicago, Illinois started manufacturing plastic helmets because it felt that plastic helmets would be safer than those made of leather. Plastic 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 in an impact. Included with the plastic helmet came plastic face mask, which allowed the helmet to protect the entire head. By the mid-1940s, helmets were required in the NFL. They were still made of leather, but with improved manufacturing techniques had assumed their more familiar spherical shape. The NFL initially allowed either plastic or leather helmets, but in 1948 the league outlawed the plastic helmet, considering the hard-plastic material to be an injury risk. The NFL lifted the plastic helmet ban after just one year in 1949, and by 1950, the plastic helmet had become universal in that league.

During testing, Windpact took one of the leading helmet football helmet manufacturers, Riddell, and took one of their helmets to implement Crash Cloud technology inside it. Before adding Crash Cloud, the normal Riddell helmet ranked #18th in protection compared to other helmets. With Crash Cloud it jumped to #3 overall. This is without changing any of the design of the helmet, just by adding to what already exists. There are also ongoing efforts to improve the selection of energy absorbing materials in football helmets. Some researchers are using computational methods to sort through libraries of known materials. Others are developing entirely new foams or by layering existing foams to create a composite that absorbs energy better. Controversy has surrounded the use of sensors in the NFL. While almost everyone agrees the intentions are laudable, there are concerns about the quality of the data and about privacy of personal health records. During the 2013 season, two unnamed NFL teams tested accelerometers, but their use was suspended after the trial. The league hopes to reintroduce the sensors once the questions of privacy and data quality are addressed.

Design parameters for football helmets have traditionally been based on linear-acceleration models. This mode of impact is more straightforward to study and matches design metrics, such as cadaver skull fracture. Ongoing research is focused on understanding rotational forces on football helmets and how to design for more realistic, non-centrosymmetric forces.Football helmets have changed dramatically with the modernization of the sport to facilitate technological changes and to improve the safety of the game. Despite lower rates of some injuries, serious traumas to the head are still common, and determining the consequences of these traumas is an active area of research. In addition to the acute concern about traumatic brain injuries, such as concussions, studies have found players increase their risk for long-term problems such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Football helmets present a unique design challenge because, unlike bicycle helmets, which are thrown out after a single hit, football helmets need to withstand multiple impacts. A recent focus on improving player safety through better helmet designs has started reducing the total number of concussions.NFL rules state that all helmets equipped with headsets 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. According to the NFL, this gave teams an “unfair advantage”. The new rules let each team know who is wearing a headset and hearing the plays being called.

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. It is not certain who invented the football helmet. Many sou
rces give credit for the creation of the helmet to James Naismith, while other sources credit 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. Reeves had been advised by a Navy doctor that another kick to his head would result in “instant insanity” or even death, so he commissioned an Annapolis shoemaker to make him a helmet out of leather. Later, helmets were made of padded leather and resembled aviators’ helmets or modern day scrum caps. At least in professional football, they were optional. Some National Football League players, notably Hall-of-Famer Bill Hewitt, played all or most of their careers without a helmet.Helmet shock data loggers and shock detectors monitor impacts a player receives, such as the force and direction of the impact. If the force recorded by the sensors is over 100 Gs, it signals a possible concussion. Some players will experience up to 2,000 of these potential concussion blows each season. This data is then analyzed by doctors.

In order to understand why these polyurethane or nitrile foams are ideal for football helmets, it is helpful to review the properties of these materials. They can all be broadly categorized as viscoelastic foams. When a stress is applied to these types of materials, there are three main regions of deformation: linear elastic, plateau and densification. In the linear elastic region a material deforms reversibly in proportion to its young’s modulus, or stiffness. In the plateau region the foam begins to collapse, and this is also a type of recoverable deformation. When the material reaches its densification region it begins to change its internal structure permanently and cannot return to its original shape. Because football helmets are used repeatedly, they needed to be designed, so the strain stays in the elastic or plateau region. The area under the curve in stress strain curve (shown in the figure to the right) represents the energy absorbed. Foams should be strained a precise amount, so they absorb energy without permanent densification.The primary energy absorbing elements are the compression shock and shock bonnets, while the secondary elements are comfort pads. The materials used to build these components and their dimensions vary within the helmet. The design takes account of a player’s comfort and specific position, as well as the goal of protecting the most sensitive regions of the head and areas where big hits are most common. In 2002, American football equipment manufacturer Riddell released a new design of helmet called the Revolution in response to a study of concussions. In addition, Riddell has recently come out with a new design of helmets, the Riddell Speed Flex. This helmet came out in 2014. This new helmet uses elements of Riddell’s older helmets, the 360 and the Revolution, such as Side Impact Protection and All Points Quick Release face mask attachment system. Recently some companies have released helmets with sensors that send alerts when a player might have experienced a serious impact. The goal is to be able to detect concussions as soon as they happen to get players immediate medical care.Crash Cloud units can either replace the padding in the helmets that are already present or line the inside of the helmet alongside the padding that is already there. Crash Cloud foams can control the rate of airflow to meet certain application’s needs. This could be usefully paired with data that is being collected about the types of hits that certain positions in football experience. Different positions get hit differently and in different areas so adjusting the helmet to meet that position is where research is moving towards now.

Polycarbonates are ideal materials for outer shells because they are lightweight, tough and exhibit good impact strength, even in extreme temperatures. Polycarbonates refer to a family of thermoset polymers that are wIdely used in manufacturing, for their mechanical performance and ease in manufacturing.In viscoelastic materials, the elastic region changes its shape depending on the strain rate, meaning the speed at which the material is deformed, or more practically, the velocity of the hit. In general, when the material is strained more quickly it is stiffer, so it deforms less. The degree of protection provided by the helmet depends on the velocity of the hit, and performance is poor for the fastest and slowest hits. Air pockets, while absorbing some energy themselves, also help the helmets perform better in very high and low velocity hits. Air chambers have venting systems so the volume and geometry of air chambers is dynamic, helping dampen the viscoelastic effect.

Two Ohio inventors, John Campbell and George Sarles, devised a headset for Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown so he could radio plays to quarterback George Ratterman. It was banned shortly after its first use in 1956 (after the Browns had played three preseason games with the radio). The NFL approved use of headsets for all NFL teams in 1994.

The foams in football helmets break down over time, and this process is often overlooked in safety modeling. Especially for youth teams, helmets are reused over the course of many years, putting players at risk since they are less protected than otherwise anticipated.

The football helmet is a piece of protective equipment used mainly in gridiron football, although a structural variation has occasional use in Australian rules football. It consists of a hard plastic shell with thick padding on the inside, a face mask made of one or more plastic-coated metal bars, and a chinstrap. Each position has a different type of face mask to balance protection and visibility, and some players add polycarbonate visors to their helmets, which are used to protect their 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 concussions.Vijay Gupta, a professor at UCLA, has done research and produced a special polymer that if added as a layer on the inside of football helmets can produce up to a 25% decrease in the g-forces a player would experience. This reduction of forces would produce a similar amount of reduction of the probability of a player suffering a concussion from the same hits.

Nonetheless, sensors have already been used to improve the safety of the game. Using data that he collected during a pilot study, Kevin Guskiewicz showed that kickoff returns are the most dangerous part of the game. His results were compelling enough to convince the NFL to move the kickoff line five yards forward to the 35-yard-line, with the intention of increasing the number of touchbacks, a safer play.There has been significant study/research regarding head injuries in football, as well as football helmet design in recent years. Kevin Guskiewicz, a professor at The University of North Carolina and a MacArthur Fellow, has for many years been researching concussions in football of all age groups. He has been equipping UNC football helmets with accelerometers to measure impacts and concussions. Also, the NFL has awarded over $1.6 million in sports medical research, almost $1 million of which has been toward concussion prevention. All this concussion prevention research has led football helmet manufacturers to develop safer products. A joint effort between Virginia Tech and Wake Forest has been testing current football helmets and giving them yearly ratings since 2011. On a scale out of 5 stars, only one helmet was awarded a 5 in 2011. In 2012, two additional helmet designs were awarded 5 stars.Rules in place for NFL, NCAA, and high school football require that all helmets be certified by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment. Reliance on NOCSAE certification has been criticized on numerous grounds, including that organization’s control by equipment manufacturers causes a conflict of interest, testing data that focuses on skull fractures instead of concussions, and failure to take into account new research.

One company in particular that has been making large strides is Windpact which has a new type of foam that they call “foam in an airbag”, or “Crash Cloud”, which compresses when energy is absorbed and dissipates the energy through impact vents then rapidly reinflates. Current foams are limited by certain factors that affect the usefulness of the foam which is the limited amount of space inside of a helmet. Helmets cannot be too big or be too constricting on the player so a balance must be found between performance and safety. Another limitation is that not every hit is equal to another. Foams inside of today’s helmets perform best when impacted directly and are not the best at hits coming from different angles or “rotational impacts”.

The outer shell of helmets have changed appreciably throughout the history of the NFL. In the 1920s, football helmets had soft leather exteriors, whereas today they have polycarbonate exteriors. The first molded polycarbonate helmet appeared in the NFL in 1986. Today’s helmets typically have polycarbonate shells on the order of 3.35 mm. The hard outer shell protects the head from local impacts by delocalizing the force, so the load can be absorbed by the other elements.Some researchers have found the counterintuitive result that wearing helmets actually increases the chance of injury, and thus they recommend players occasionally practice without helmets. When hard shells were first introduced, the number of head injuries actually increased because players had a false sense of security and made more dangerous tackles. University of New Hampshire participate in a study in which some players practiced twice a week without helmets. By the end of the season, those that were practicing twice a week without a helmet hit their heads 30% less. This research suggests that modernizing the best practices of the game might have more benefits than improving the materials within the helmet. The one-bar face mask was once common but its use has been supplanted in professional and amateur sport. For example, it has been illegal in the National Football League since 2004, but a grandfather clause allowed players who wore the mask prior to 2004 to continue to do so for the remainder of their careers. No current professional player currently wears such a face mask; the last player to do so was Scott Player, who last played professionally in 2009. One innovation from the early 1900s period was hardened leather. 1917 marked the first time helmets were raised above the head in an attempt to direct blows away from the top of the head. Ear flaps also had their downfall during this period as they had little ventilation and made it difficult for players to hear. The 1920s marked the first time that helmets were widely used in the sport of football. These helmets were made of leather and had some padding on the inside, but the padding was insufficient and provided little protection. In addition, they lacked face masks. As a result, injuries were very common. Early helmets also absorbed a lot of heat, making them very uncomfortable to wear.The inception for air pockets came from Vin Ferrara, a former Harvard quarterback. One night, Ferrara was looking for an aspirin when he saw a squirt bottle in his medicine cabinet. As he pumped it and then punched it, he realized that the bottle withstood the blows of different forces. Ferrara came up with the idea to encase football helmets with a number of inflatable pockets in order to cushion the blows a football player receives and reduce concussions.In 1948, the Los Angeles Rams were the first NFL team to put logos on their helmets; the basic “ram’s horn” logo on the helmet has remained mostly the same, except for color, ever since. Through the 2019 NFL season, the Cleveland Browns are the only remaining NFL teams not using any form of a primary logo on its helmets. The Pittsburgh Steelers are the only NFL team that puts its logo on only one side of the helmet (the right side). At first, this was a temporary measure because the Steelers weren’t sure they would like the lo
ok of the logo on an all-gold helmet. They wanted to test them before going all-out. Because of the interest generated by having the logo on only one side of their helmets and also due to the team’s new success, the Steelers decided to leave the helmet that way permanently. The Cincinnati Bengals, after using a “Bengals” wordmark for a helmet logo through the 1980 season, have used a tiger-stripe pattern instead of a logo since 1981.Typically, by the mid-1980s only placekickers and punters in professional football in Canada and the United States wore the one-bar face mask, a notable exception being quarterback Joe Theismann.

The performance of a football helmet is based on its ability to decrease the force to the head from an impact. A helmet reduces the peak force transferred to the head by temporarily storing or dissipating impact energy.

Recently, a brand new type of helmet has come into play. Vicis is a new company that is producing helmets that have a softer outer layer. The softer layer absorbs more energy from impacts. In addition, the inside of the helmet also has a foam-like substance that absorbs energy and improves comfort.

The Riddell Speed helmet is one of the most popular and iconic styles in history and one of the most sought after by collectors! These officially licensed helmets are perfect for display, collecting autographs, and showing off your team spirit. We recommend your helmet be displayed prominently on a shelf or on the wall with a Helmet Hanger, the same way we and many teams do! Available in any of the same 35+ colors we offer for facemasks, each hanger is coated to order.EXCLUSIVE OFFER: All helmets sold by Green Gridiron receive a free 20 mil, Chrome US Flag helmet decal for the back of your helmet! US Flag and other decals purchased at the time of helmet are not applied to helmet by Green Gridiron so you can affix them where you want.

WARNING: Collectible helmets are for display only. They are not designed or intended for use as a protective helmet. Do not wear collectible helmets for protection.

Riddell Authentic and Replica Collectible Helmets are completely customizable as field use accessories are easily attached. With infinite options to upgrade your helmet, you can easily take an out the box helmet to an extraordinary piece of art. Model yours after your favorite player’s set up or make a unique design of your own. All assembly is completely free of charge when pieces are purchased together!When Dallas kicks off against Indianapolis on Sunday night, the Cowboys will be wearing a red stripe on their helmet. The Cowboys’ helmet usually features a white stripe down the middle that’s flanked by two blue stripes, but for the game against the Colts, one of those blue stripes will be red. As for the red stripe, it marks the Cowboys’ third different helmet look this year. Besides, their normal helmet, the Cowboys also wore a white helmet on Thanksgiving. The game against the Colts will mark just the second time since 1976 that the Cowboys have worn the red stripe on their helmet. The Cowboys actually wore the red stripe during the entire 1976 season — to honor America’s bicentennial — but after that, they didn’t bring the stripe back out of the closet until last year when they wore them in a November game against the Broncos.