"Technology has helped improve the game," Jack Del Rio, the rookie head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, told SPACE.com. "But it all still comes down to blocking and tackling, and that hasn't changed."
Twenty-two guys battling in the mud is what football is all about, make no mistake. Unless, of course, your team plays in a weather-protected domed stadium like the Detroit Lions' recently abandoned Pontiac Silverdome. In 1975 the Silverdome became the first stadium to feature a fabric roof made of the same fiber glass beta cloth used in Apollo-era spacesuits.
The aging Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, home of the Minnesota Vikings, uses the same fabric on its roof -- although it's hoped that a new stadium for the Vikes will be built soon.
Men of steel
Through the years NASA and its contractor teams have become experts on inventing new materials or finding new uses for known materials. Tang, Teflon and Velcro all are good examples of materials NASA did not invent, but found ways to use in space.
Titanium is another example.
First discovered by the Rev. William Gregor in 1791, titanium as a pure elemental metal wasn't made until 1910, nor put to practical use until the 1950s by the aerospace industry, beginning with the Douglas-built X-3 jet plane.
Later, NASA built its X-15 rocket plane with a titanium structure, flying 199 missions from 1959 to 1968.
Fast forward to the 2003 NFL season: This year an increasing number of players for the first time will be wearing helmets outfitted with titanium face masks instead of the steel bars that have been around for decades.
"Titanium is a big deal. It's probably not as strong as steel, but it's so much lighter," said Tony Egues, head equipment manager for the Miami Dolphins.
And in a game where every edge over your opponent helps, players lucky enough to have the more expensive titanium bars attached to their polycarbonate plastic composite helmets -- another space-age material -- are grateful.
"When you're out there in the fourth quarter, and it's hot, you appreciate the weight of your helmet if it's lighter," said Dan Alexander, a Jacksonville second-string fullback from Nebraska, who is in his third NFL year. "It protects us, it helps us play better and run faster."
And it's not only the helmets that are lighter. Shoes and pads of all kinds also are growing lighter each year while still maintaining their ability to act as armor for a football player.
"Believe it or not, the shoulder pads have incorporated a lot of NASA technology," Egues said.
Layers of shock-absorbing material used in shoulder pads and the way pads are engineered to allow the player freedom of movement come from the same studies that led to the astronauts' spacewalking suits, he said.
Slow to adopt
However, Egues warns that not every new idea to come down the pike in the area of player equipment is quickly adopted by the NFL, which has a reputation for accepting change at a glacial pace.
Because of worries about insurance claims related to liability, Egues said that it can take years for technical innovations to find their way into sports equipment.
"People hear of something new and say 'Boy this seems like a great idea, this seems fantastic. But who else is using it?' If the answer is nobody then forget it," Egues said. "Unless you get a NASA engineer to come down here and tell you 'Guys, listen, this is the next best thing since sliced bread,' you're reluctant to take that chance."
One example of an innovation that is slowly catching on is a material that helps keep the pads and helmets the players wear cooler on hot game days.
Creative Football Concepts, Inc.. has developed a heat-reflective material based on NASA research that can be layered into a football helmet. It's a thin sheet of industrial grade aluminized polyester, which reflects 97 percent of the heat that might otherwise build up in the helmet.
The material doesn't actually keep the player's head cool when he's on the field, it just keeps the sun from making conditions inside the helmet worse, said Drew Hampton, head equipment manager for Jacksonville. "Anything you can do to keep your players cooler, keep your core temperature where it needs to be, is what everyone is striving for."
Ultimately there's only so much technology that can go into the helmets and pads and shoes and everything else that an equipment manager has to provide their team on game day.
"When it comes down to it, it's you against the guy across from you," said Steve Urbaniak, head equipment manager for the San Francisco 49ers. "It's a simple game. You have to beat the guy across from you. No matter how good you look, or how good the equipment is, if you can't beat that other guy you're going to lose."
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