re: Padded football helmets. The future?

quote:

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Need to get rid of the face mask. Will necessitate more rugby style tackling.

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Face mask has been the single problem.

No one is going to want a knee to the nose by diving in head first.

Paterno and Ditka argued for years that football needs to get rid of the facemask.

"I've been saying for 15 years we ought to get rid of the facemask," Paterno said on his weekly conference call. "Then you go back to shoulder blocking, shoulder tackling, and you wouldn't have all those heroes out there."
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review quotes Paterno as adding, "We used to have one single bar; now we have a weapon…"

"I don't think people would strike with the head as much," Ditka said. "You would learn to strike with the shoulder pads if you didn't have a helmet on your head."