Football Helmets Now Protect Players

Liability claims have forced football helmet manufacturers to make their products even safer, according to Sports Illustrated. The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research reported that for the first time in 60 years no high school or college football player died from a head or spinal injury in 1990. The number of young athletes killed while playing football has remained low in succeeding years. There were three deaths in 1991, two in 1992, and four in 1993, according to Professor Frederick Mueller of the injury research center.

These death totals, while nevertheless still too high, stand in stark contrast to the 36 deaths as recently as the 1968 season.

Mueller attributed the decrease in football-related deaths to the improved safety and design of football helmets and a rule change that prohibits head-first contact. He noted that high schools and colleges adopted football helmet safety standards in 1980 and 1978, respectively.

Two other points bear mentioning. Mueller acknowledged that it was somewhat ironic that the number of football-related deaths is decreasing at the same time that high school and college players are stronger and faster than ever before. It also is noteworthy that President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905 considered banning football because of the number of players killed. It is not known precisely how many players were killed in the early part of this century since records were not kept, said Mueller.