Equipment Rules & Certification · NFL / NOCSAE · 2026
The Label On The Back
Helmet standards · NFL
Impossible Detail
The playing rules describe a helmet in seven sentences: presence, a facemask no more than five eighths of an inch, eye shields, where a manufacturer’s name may appear, and two labels on the back of the shell. They state no protective performance at all. The thresholds live in a standard the rulebook never names, the ranking everyone sees comes from a different machine again, and of the three groups it produces only one removes a helmet from play.
