Protection Below

The football pants and their protection and functionality have swayed to and fro over the years, even today. The more things change, the more they stay the same as Timothy Brown joins us to talk about a recent Tid Bit on Football Archaeology concerning the development of the football pants in the early years of football.

Timothy P Brown

Tim Brown, one of the foremost experts on early college football, is the host and founder of FootballArchaeology.com. Tim's love of the gridiron's past goes beyond just the website. Mr Brown, to date, is the author of three books on football history, appears on various football history podcasts, and has been quoted in articles by The Athletic, The Chicago Tribune, and other publications. He guest authors articles on UniWatch, and his research on the 1920s West Point Cavalry Detachment teams contributed to All American: The Power of Sports, currently on display at the National Archives Museum in Washington, D.C.

His books include: Fields of Friendly Strife; How Football Became Football: 150 Years of the Game's Evolution; and Hut! Hut! Hike! A History of Football Terminology, which explores the history of football’s words and expressions and how they became connected to the game.

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Each week we like to sit down and pick the brain of author and football historian Timothy P Brown of FootballArchaeology.com. Tim's research is thurough and intriguing and the knowledge he spreads gives great insight to the gridiron game.

Football Archaeology

Timothy Brown's FootballArchaeology.com is a website dedicated to preserving pigskin history. digs into gridiron history to examine how football’s evolution shapes today's game. The site has a variety of articles, history of football word origins, and Daily Tidbits, which have a daily football factoid that shares some quite interesting items and aspects of the gridiron in a short read. They preserve football history in a very unique way Visit the site at Today's Tidbits.

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In the Football Archaeology post on Disintegrating Football Pants, Tim decribes that the first padded football pants started to show up in the 1890s. After the turn of the century they pads became integrated into the pants themselves.

There was a big step to the evolution in 1917 as internal pocketed football pants were patented in 1917 as shown in this copy that I purchased a couple of decades ago for my collection.

As you can see the pants that players wear in current times are not that much different that they were in 1917. The pads may not be used in today's game, and the fabric material may have changed but not the basic design of this protective equipment.

We thank Timothy P. Brown for his sharing of knowledge and his time to help us in this episode. Make sure to sign up for Tim's Daily TidBits at  Football Archaeology.