A good Thursday morning, Uni Watchers. Hope everyone had a good Hump Day.
As I’ve probably mentioned more than a few times on here, I’m not a helmet guy. I mean, I know football helmets, and if you showed me any pro helmet and probably at least a hundred or so college lids, and I can tell you the team with little effort. So what I mean when I say I’m not a helmet guy, it means I don’t easily recognize the different models and makers — and I know almost as little about different facemasks and cages. But one article that taught me a lot about the latter was one written by Bud Parks back in 2021, which was just a FANTASTIC primer on facemask design and terminology.
If that was “Facemasks 101” (to use university parlance), then today’s follow-up, also written by Bud, will serve as “Facemasks 201.” If you didn’t read Bud’s earlier post — or even if you did and just want a refresher — I’d recommend giving that a once over, and then come on back here as Bud brings us…
Facemasks 201
by Bud Parks
Hi Folks! Several years ago I wrote an article here that served as sort of a Facemasks 101 introductory course. There was actually a little more that I wrote that got cut for length, but I decided to keep it in my back pocket in case it made sense to make it its own article. After adding a few updates to keep things current compared to 2021, I figured now is as good a time as any to share it with you! There is so much more to facemask design and style than just the models that have been around for years and get re-interpreted for new helmets, and this only touches on some of those details and trends. So may I present to you, your Facemasks 201 course!
The Reinforcement Bar
Any of you who have needed to shop for facemasks for either yourselves back in the day or for your kids today may have seen the letter R appended to some of the models discussed in the previous article (i.e. ROPO instead of OPO). This R stands for ‘reinforcement’, and is included to account for the extra horizontal bar added to the top of the mask near the forehead brow above the eyes. As the name suggests, this is added to help prevent the top bar from being bent during play. The R-bar is pretty much a standard addition these days to masks on the newer helmets, with fewer and fewer players who wear the older style even opting to wear a non-reinforced mask. Those who prefer the look of the non-reinforced style with a newer helmet seem to choose the Riddell Speedflex pretty often, since they have the ability to weld the reinforcement bar directly onto the top bar, creating a single-bar look from afar, but still including a little extra bit of strength to the top of the mask. The new Axiom thin-wire masks also weld two bars together at the top for this look, but we’ll get to the Axiom more in-depth in a little bit.
Mask Material
Facemasks are generally made out of 3 different blends of materials: carbon steel, stainless steel, and titanium. Carbon steel is the cheapest and most common, but provides the least amount of strength to prevent bending or breaking during play. Stainless steel is a little more expensive and provides slightly more strength, while titanium as you probably guessed by now is the strongest, but most expensive. Telling the difference between the materials, at least for the Super Pro styles, is all hidden within the design of the R-bar; carbon steel masks have a single connecting piece to the R-bar, stainless steel has 2 connecting pieces, and titanium reverts to the single piece, but the R-bar itself extends past the vertical sidebars and onto the beginnings of the home bar. Despite looking more related to the stainless steel variants, most R-bars connected by a bull-ring are either made from carbon steel or titanium. All older masks without an R-bar are made from carbon steel, as far as I’m aware.
XL Masks
A very niche trend even back when it existed, XL masks were a Super Pro exclusive and added a tiny bit of extra jaw protection on the smaller-style masks by extending the bottom bar down a bit, or adding an additional horizontal bar across the jaw on the larger-style masks. Most people recognize the XL style by the angled front vertical bars like on Trent Dilfer up above, but they also came with standard-looking bars like early-years Ben Roethlisberger. Both, however, were identifiable as the XL style by the extra bend/curve of the vertical sidebars.
Speed and Speedflex ‘Vertical’ Sidebars
Almost all facemask styles for both the Riddell Speed and Speedflex come with two different sidebar looks, a straight vertical bar, or a more angled appearance, commonly called the ‘Beck’ (for the player who popularized it, Odell Beckham Jr). The Beck look presumably offers slightly more peripheral vision while sacrificing a little bit of protection, but most players that choose the Beck over the straight look just seem to prefer the aesthetics of it more than anything else. The straight look is more common, likely because it’s more available/easier to produce on a larger scale, but has lost a lot of ground in recent years as more and more players have switched to a Beck mask. The Beck look also angles any added eye-guard bars, as well. Another variant still, most kickers who use Speed helmets have the sidebar fade toward the sides of the mask without ever connecting to the top bar. The faded sidebar could also very infrequently be found on non-kicker Speed masks as well.
Angled Vertical Bars
One trend that’s blown up in popularity the last year or two is the preference of having ANY vertical bar on the mask angled in or out. There’s really no practical reason for wanting angled over straight, they provide the same level of protection and essentially the same level of vision. This one is all about the aesthetics, and players are gravitating towards them in huge numbers.
The Original Revolution Helmet
Prior to 2002, most helmet models looked the roughly same to the casual eye. This changed with the introduction of the original Revolution by Riddell, who took the opportunity to rethink not only the visual style of the helmet itself, but the masks as well. The first generation of masks were quite the sight, but could still be reasonably categorized into the normal mask designations. The examples in the collage above are (clockwise from left): OPO, OPO-2, EGOP-II, and OPO-DW. A few years into the Revo’s lifespan, newer masks were introduced that more closely resembled the familiar looks of previous helmet models.
The Axiom
Riddell’s latest, greatest, and safest model, this helmet garnered a lot of chatter upon its release for its original facemask styles that omitted any and all top brow and vertical sidebars. It was definitely a different look than a lot of us were used to, particularly for masks that were wildly different in color than the helmet shell, while there was less of a visual shock for masks that matched the helmet. Thin-wire styles that included top brow bars were quickly added to increase its popularity, and it’s definitely been successful (though not without some growing pains). I do wonder if they’d kept ONLY the original masks if everyone would’ve eventually gotten used to them, though. After all, they’re really just a callback to the first-ever facemasks, which also went across just the bottom of the helmet.
Thus ends your Facemasks 201 course! Be sure to study for next week’s exam! (Just kidding 😉)
Thanks, Bud! This was really great, especially for non-helmet/facemask guys like me. Thanks for taking the time to present this in a way that even I can GetIt™!
Readers? What say you? Are you ready for next week’s quiz???
I’m currently watching through Jon Bois’s History of the Vikings series, so the GTGFTU jumpscared me a little bit. 1970 Week 5, Vikings beat Cowboys 54-13
That pic looks like it was taken at Texas Stadium, which didn’t open until 1971
…and Fran Tarkenton was with the Giants in 1970.
…and Harvey Martin was in college
All of his team history series have been fantastic.
GTGFTU: 1973 NFC Championship Game
December 30, 1973
Texas Stadium, Irving, TX
Vikings 27, Cowboys 10
Correct Graf, both teams changed jerseys in 1974
According to GUDB, from 1968-73 the Vikings had two sets of purple jerseys, one with sleeve stripes and one without. In ’68 and ’69 they wore the striped sleeves at home and the stripeless ones on the road (e.g., in L.A. where the Rams wore white); in ’70 they wore the stripeless sleeves at home through Week 5 then the striped ones for the rest of the season (at home, and on the road in Week 11 vs. the Jets). In ’71 they went back and forth; ’72 they went stripeless in the first three home games and striped in the rest; back-and-forth again in ’73.
GTGFTU – 1973 NFC Championship Game at Texas Stadium. Vikings win 27-10 to advance to Super Bowl VIII.
I always thought the original revolution helmet and associated facemasks looked awful. Seems like the helmet was more light bulk shaped, and the mask sat a bit lower, or appeared to because they seemed to be bolted onto the helmet at a different point / angle that other designs. Something weird about the mask mostly being connected below the earhole as opposed to at or above it.
You’re correct- the original Revolution helmets did actually mount the facemask lower and extended the shell to better protect the jawline.
GTGFTS
Opening Day at Dodger Stadium
10 Apr 1962
The Dodgers, like their scoreboard, get off to a slow start.
Reds win 6-3.
Excellent stuff, Bud. Lots of cool info. I miss the old days when you could tell Riddell and Bike (and Rawlings) helmets apart just with a quick glance. I always thought Bike looked the best. I wore a Rawlings and a Maxpro in high school in the late 80s…right before they were ixnayed by the powers that be.
Yes I’m old, but I miss the days when offensive and defensive linemen wore full cage facemasks (i.e., Jack Lambert), or even the Dungard masks (i.e., Alan Page). It made those guys look meaner. Most players now, including linemen, wear masks similar to what QBs or WRs used to wear. Yes, I understand that helmet technology has changed/improved dramatically and the change in mask styles has followed accordingly, but since Uni Watch is about athletic aesthetics, I feel I can gripe about it. Now get off my lawn.
I miss the single-bar.
Yes I miss the single bar as well. I wore a single bar in high school (for practice). Wish I’d kept that old dinosaur of a suspension helmet.
I agree, Lawrence Taylor looked terrifying in his mask!
I’ll go with the Bullring bridge…Larry Csonka
link
The thing with the Vikings of the early 1970’s is they had two purple jerseys, one with stripes and one without. This helps a lot when trying to narrow down the game in any picture depicting a Vikings game from that era, the style of purpose jersey is a tip-off. The stripe-less jersey I believe was a warm weather jersey. Coincidentally, I always thought this would be an interesting topic for Uniwatch.
Thanks, Bud, for the phenomenal tutorial! I’ve always been fascinated with football facemasks. Your work has helped me to put terminology behind the aesthetic observations I’ve been making since I was a kid.
Football helmets and face masks, tied up with string.
These are a few of my favorite things.
Total helmet and mask guy here. Obsessed since ‘78.
End helmet and use and injuries will go down.
Humans are not meant to be built and constructed like tanks.
If one is not wearing padding or helmets, then they know not to lead with their head or launch themselves.
When I played Rugby, you could always tell the guys who had played football recently, because they typically led with their heads and would invariably break their nose or split the bridge of their nose or have a gaping wound on their eye.
That’s clearly the 1973 NFC championship game. The Vikings wearing their warm weather jerseys though I think it was in the 40s in Dallas.
Bud thank you! this was very informational. I grew up with ncaa 06 on ps2 and was fascinated with creating a player. At the time Larry Fitzgerald looked so cool with rev and was huge fan of Byron Leftwich xl.
Two questions about axiom’s; the first is do helmets still use an air blatter? or is that old technology. The second question is how does the visor attach to axiom’s?
Thank you!
1) No, Axioms do not use air bladders. They are generally digitally scanned to fit the player’s head, so no need for an air bladder to fine tune the fit.
2) The visor is attached with two large buttons near where the upper chin straps attach on either side of the helmet. Depress the buttons and the shield can be removed (with the original design). With the new face masks described in the article, they attach more conventionally.
Hi Carson! Glad you liked the article! I will be honest, I’ve not worked with/handled an Axiom in person (yet), but I believe that while most NFL players have their head scanned and use 3D-printed inner padding that bypasses the use of bladders, the standard padding of an Axiom still uses them, for those who may want to use an Axiom in, say, high school or a lower-tier college with less funding. This photo from Riddell seems to corroborate my hypothesis, since it shows the two bladder adjustment points at the top and back of the helmet (the black button-looking things):
link
As far as the visor, the thinner wire masks can accommodate two styles; a more conventional style attached to the mask with tabs (though the visor is custom-shaped for the Axiom and the connectors are way closer to the front of the mask) like this one here: link
Or, they can accommodate the same style that Axiom had in mind when designing their original masks, which attach in a little alcove just next to the upper chinstrap buckle, a good view of which is found here: link
I think most folks that do the 1st style with the tabs just do it for the looks.
Hope this helps!
Bud
There are no air bladders in Axiom. The black threaded retainer caps you mention are what holds the Axiom padding in place.
This is interesting to know, but I do have to ask…for anyone not in the NFL that wants to use an Axiom and can’t afford their head scanned to get custom padding 3D printed…what kind of padding does the Axiom come with?
For some reason I couldn’t reply to your post directly. You are right that the Axioms you see at the NFL level include some 3D printed padding. On an “entry level” Axiom, the player is still scanned, and a liner system of pads in different shapes and thicknesses is configured to match the player’s scan. It’s not an extra charge to be scanned for an Axiom, it’s part of the process of obtaining one.
Genuinely interesting, I had no idea! And yea, Uni Watch just stops tree-ing comments after 3 or 4, so you gotta respond to the one above it. Happens haha
Thank you Bud and all of you for the information!
Last month my wife was at an event at Ford Field, and she texted me that Lomas Brown was there. I told her I wished was there, I’d ask him why he chose to wear the Kra-Lite style facemask.
A few hours (and drinks) later she called to tell me that she asked him.
He laughed and said nobody had ever asked him about it before, but with the bigger lineman facemasks of the 90’s it started to get heavy by the end of the game, and that the Kra-Lite was much lighter and kept his neck from being as sore throughout the week.
Very interesting!
Excellent content.
Thanks for all the kind words and comments, folks! Glad you enjoyed the article!
Bud