Helmets and shoulder pads are mandatory in the National Football League, but many players choose to forego wearing lower body pads. The league estimates that only half of all all players elect to wear equipment such as thigh pads, knee pads, hip pads and other protective gear.
Several Tennessee Titans choose not to wear lower-body pads because they believe that all of the extra padding puts them at a disadvantage by making them slower.
“We sacrifice our bodies in football, period,” said receiver Kenny Britt. “But we definitely sacrifice to get faster. And at the end of the day, you want to be as fast and flexible as possible. If you have to absorb a few more bruises because of it, you just deal with it.”
Some players choose not to wear the most basic equiment. Athletic cups and mouthgards seem to be falling out of fashion.
“I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a cup,” Bo Schaif said. “I think we all stopped wearing them in little league.”
The NFL believes that lower-body equiment can protect players against injuries such as hip, thigh, and knee contusions and are considering a change to require all players to wear them possibly as early as 2011.
Ray Anderson exectuve vice president of footbll operations said that the change would be all about safety.
“We prefer not to mandate it, but if we have to mandate it for safety purposes, we are not above doing that,” Anderson said.
“You will have some players who might say, ‘I know it makes sense intuitively to wear those paddings, but if I wear them and the guy across the line from me is not wearing them, then he has an advantage so I am not going to wear them because I’d be at a disadvantage.’ But no one is going to be at an advantage or disadvantage because everybody is going to be wearing them.”