SUPER BULL

 I just had to put something in about football and the NFL this week.  The gridiron extravaganza is Sunday.  

Football was first played on college campuses after the Civil War by crazies who wanted to take the best of Rugby and Soccer and make a new game.  They played the game with the gear they used for rugby which was at most a bandana covering to protect their ears.  

A guy named Walter Camp is known as the Father of American Football.  He played at Yale and served on rules development committees credited with writing the rules of the game.  He played in 1873 and went on to coach thereafter.  He dedicated his life and writings to improving the game including the addition of the forward pass in 1906.  

In 1893, a Navy doctor told a player that if he got kicked in the head one more time he'd either go crazy or die.  Player deaths from head injuries were not uncommon in those days.  With the Army-Navy game coming up, they had an Annapolis shoemaker sew up a leather cap to cover the whole head and ears.  This was the first helmet.

The leather helmets kept improving with such ingenious stuffing as straw, paper and grass.  It wasn't until 1939 that John Riddell of the Riddell Company invented the plastic shell helmet.  The college teams, for the most part, adopted the new gear right off.  Get this!  The NFL didn't make helmets mandatory until 1943.  

One-bar face masks were common for all players into the 1950s.  That bar kept your nose from being smashed into the ground or into another helmet.  The NFL didn't outlaw the one-bar design until 2004 but allowed those still using them to complete their careers with it.  

Now you know a little history and how the NFL works - like molasses in January.  Enjoy the game and don't dwell on the helmets - keep your eyes on the Chief's referee friends.  Social media will be full of that for days to come.