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The first football helmet was made because of a man named, Admiral Joseph Mason Reeve. Reeve's doctor said if Reeve kept getting hit in the head, it could lead to “instant insanity.”
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In the early 1920s, hardened leather caps were first introduced, reducing injury.
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Seeking to make the sport still safer, in 1943, the NFL made helmets mandatory.
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The first plastic helmet was made by John T. Riddell in 1939. Making the game much safer then it was.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/leatherhead-to-radio-head-the-evolution-of-the-football-helmet-56585562/ -
After WWII, football helmets went back into production lines, but there was a problem with the plastic mix that caused many helmets to break into pieces.
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Helmets were open faced before 1955, this caused bloody noses, bruised faces, and swollen lips. This changed in 1955 when they introduced the single bar football helmets. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/leatherhead-to-radio-head-the-evolution-of-the-football-helmet-56585562/ -
Due to all the injury's that were beginning to happen with the single bar facemask, more helmet bars were https://atavus.com/history-of-the-football-helmet/ -
Riddell introduced a rigid polycarbonate alloy shell and vinyl-coated steel alloy facemasks. This helmet was called the Riddell VSR4.
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Though the single bar face mask was an important invention, it was soon replaced by increasingly more complex styles of face protection.
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Schutt’s F7 model, features a shell of “Tectonic” plates and cushioning to move independently and a liner that diffuses the force of impact.
https://atavus.com/history-of-the-football-helmet/