Custom Facemasks: Time For The NFL To Allow Them

[LordBigMad]

Well this argument got stupid pretty fast.

The answer here is an easy one, I think. The NFL should approve one or two multi-bar masks (like what Chris Canty wears) with conservative designs and allow any players concerned about safety to wear them. No custom masks and nothing with a distracting design. End of issue.

I agree with this 100%.

I should've clarified better in my original post. I posted links for all of the designs that Badass Masks makes but I didn't expect all of them to be approved for use. I did however mean to imply that the conservative designs which players were already (and had to stop) wearing were the ones that need to be aapproved for use by the NFL.

[LordBigMad]

http://www.nfl.com/photos/0ap1000000167965

The NFL themselves was also promoting the "wild" facemasks.

[guest23]

Well I'm surprised to say that I'm definitely in the minority here and this discussion may have been a mistake.

Not a mistake but you're coming from a very uninformed position. This so-called company is attempting to either after-market modify traditional masks produced by approved manufacturers into horribly ugly and unsafe hack jobs or create very poor quality designs from scratch. Either way, 99% of these designs are either unpractical or unsafe as others have commented. Given all of the promotion that has been attempted and the visual evidence, it's patently clear that this owner/designer has absolutely no understanding of football equipment and safety, otherwise they would not be promoting wholly unsafe designs for on field use.

Lastly as others have mentioned. Going back to the mid 70's-80's there has been mask customization to some degree but that has traditionally been manufactured by actual professional companies with expertise in the field. The broken jaw masks that players have worn have been around for 35+ years. Some custom designs ended up becoming some of the most popular mask styles and are still used like Leroy Selmon's extra face protection that became LT's signature mask and Eric Dickerson's eye protection which is basically the most popular mask style of all time. Also the massive face cage is not a new concept as Rickey Jackson wore what was jokingly referred to as a bird cage in the late 80's.

Just because somebody took a welding class, it does not make them a manufacturer of protective equipment.

Wow, that entire post is one huge lie. You flounce around bleating ad far*ting out absolute bullsh*it and proclaiming it to be absolute truth and that you and you alone are the sole authority in this matter.

You know NOTHING.

You are an embarrassment to this message board.

Did I strike a nerve? Sorry to say but 90% of the bad ass masks on that website are utter amateurish garbage and are better classified as crude weapons than protective equipment. They should have been kept buried in the movies or whatever perverted gladiator fantasies that spawned them.

I have zero problem with custom masks as long as they are safe and are approved through the proper channels. As a matter of fact along with the explosion of new helmet models over the last 10 years there has been a significant increase of more creative and hybrid type mask designs so I really see no problem whatsoever.

Developing this equipment should likely be left to the professionals at schutt, riddell etc. who have been in the business for well over half a century and know what they are doing. Is there room for innovation? Absolutely but approaching the market from a safety perspective as opposed to a custom metalworking makes all the difference.

[AJM]

More of a gimmick than anything...no way the majority of these ever make the field.

[ColeJ]

If I played high school or college football, I'd totally want the skull design. Especially if we wore white helmets with white cages.

I know nothing of safety. I never played football. I'm a hockey guy... But I think the skull looks really cool.

[LordBigMad]

If I played high school or college football, I'd totally want the skull design. Especially if we wore white helmets with white cages.

I know nothing of safety. I never played football. I'm a hockey guy... But I think the skull looks really cool.

Yeah that was one of my favorites too.

They're all very cool. But, as I said before some of them are way too elaborate for the NFL.

With that said, I really wish the NFL would allow the more conservative cage-style ones that some players already tried to use. (and were subsequently banned)