Football Equipment

These days, every football fan is just a little bit anxious over whether or not the players and owners are going to settle their dispute and get ready for the 2011-2012 NFL season. The fans are hoping that all of the distractions will not affect the amount of games played this season. Hopefully the teams will grab their football equipment, suit up and be ready to play by opening day.

You might be surprised by the enormous amount of planning and preparation it takes to assemble all of the football equipment that NFL teams commonly use to train for the season and also need for the games. Every team has an equipment manager whose job it is to make sure all of the football equipment is in good shape and that each player gets what he needs.

When you think of football equipment, you naturally think first about the player and his uniform. Starting from the top, you have the helmet. This is probably the most important piece of equipment for several reasons. First, the helmet is a vital piece of safety equipment that can help prevent serious or even fatal head injuries. The physical nature of the game often leads to blows to the head either by the opponent or by falling to the ground. Jarring tackles, inadvertent knees to the head and simply making a spectacular diving catch and landing wrong can all cause head trauma. Thankfully, the modern day football helmet cushions the intense contact that sometimes occurs to the player's head.

Every player wears shoulder pads. Depending on the position and also the player's preference, shoulder pads can be extra large and broad as would be the case for offensive linemen or just broad enough to offer some protection against the opponent's hits. Typically, wide receivers and quarterbacks use the smaller shoulder pads to allow more freedom of arm movement for passing and catching the football.

Players have pads to protect their arms, hips, neck, knees and legs. They wear protective gear to protect their private parts and they spend a lot of time getting taped up around the ankles and other areas where they need a little extra reinforcement.

We must not forget about the footwear. Players have a number of different types of shoes with different lengths of cleats and spikes for the different types of surfaces they may be playing on. There are specially designed football shoes for artificial turf and other shoes that are appropriate for playing in wet and muddy conditions where traction is an issue.

So, as we get ready for what will be another great year of football, the equipment manager is probably getting all of the football equipment ready as well. There are the players and their uniforms to think of as well as the tires, blocking sleds and other training equipment to consider. The next time you watch a game, pay attention to all the football equipment that goes in to making the game possible.