The NFL has changed a lot over the years from the rules, to the players, to the equipment worn by those players. One of the pieces of gear to undergo the most changes is the football helmet. In the early days players did not wear one at all but this slowly evolved into the leather models that are associated with the early years of the league, which only covered the top of the head and ears, but not the face. Eventually Riddell came along with the plastic helmets that changed the NFL football helmet the most and a facemask was added soon after.

Of course one of the biggest changes to happen in the helmet in the NFL is not visible to the eye of the football fan. For years plays were called into the quarterback from the sidelines using complicated hand signals. This was to get the play in and hopefully confuse the other team on what the play was going to be. This was to all be changed with the use of radio headsets in the helmets of the quarterback.

Originally tried in 1956 by the Cleveland Browns this experiment did not work out so well mostly because the technology was not advanced enough yet. After the league discovered this attempt at radios in helmets they were banned until 1996 when they were once again allowed into the helmet for play calling.

Originally the rule stated that only the quarterback was allowed to use these radios but teams found ways around this. Several times a setter for a field goal changed the play and pulled up and threw the ball. This led to the discovery that other players were occasionally using the quarterback’s helmet so a play could be changed on the fly. This led to a new rule in 2002 that the helmet with the radio had to sport a green sticker designating it as so. In 2008 the league also approved the use of a radio in one defensive helmet as well as the one for the quarterback, giving two headsets per team to be used.