NOCSAE INITIATIVES

NOCSAE Football Helmet Database & RFID Labeling System

NOCSAE’s RFID labeling program for football helmets has been gathering momentum since 2014. To date, NOCSAE has invested a little more than $2.8 million to develop and direct the program. We donated RFID labels for football helmets to manufacturers and reconditioners and created data collection software for the system. Over time, reconditioners have been affixing the RFID labels to helmets and entering data about each helmet into NOCSAE’s database. Manufacturers have been doing the same for new helmets. Early in the process, however, reconditioners, manufacturers, and other companies quickly realized the same labels could be used (with a separate database) for their own inventory control and management purposes.

How It Works

RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. An RFID label contains a bar code, a unique number, and a thin antenna encoded with the same number. Manufacturers and reconditioners apply the labels inside helmets and enter information about the helmet into NOCSAE’s database.

For each label, the database contains

  • the helmet brand
  • model
  • size
  • year of first use
  • most recent recertification date
  • and the name of the reconditioner.

Status & Potential Impact

Nearly 4 million football helmets—which is believed to be about 75-80% of helmets in use—have been tagged with RFID labels. Already schools, clubs, leagues, conferences, and the NFL are using NOCSAE RFID labels to manage inventory, track recertification, and even to assign helmets to players. That the labels can be scanned from outside the helmet (without removing padding or other parts) created the additional benefit of huge efficiencies for inventory control and other tasks.

Ultimately NOCSAE will launch a public search portal that will provide consumers with a way to check the history of a helmet and its recertification status. The helmet’s unique number will be entered into the portal on NOCSAE’s website.

NOCSAE database RFID label inside football helmet shell. Padding removed so label is visible.

Backstory

NOCSAE first used RFID labels in 2014 as part of a program called the Youth Football Safety and Helmet Replacement Partnership. Leagues in under-resourced communities around the country applied to participate in the program. The leagues that were selected traded in helmets that were at least 10 years old and received new helmets at no cost.

The Partnership was spearheaded by the NFL and NFLPA in order to boost player safety at different levels of football. NFL, NFLPA, NCAA, and NOCSAE committed a combined total of about $1 million to the program in its first year. USA Football, NAERA, Consumer Product Safety Commission, CDC, SFIA and some helmet manufacturers were also involved in the project.

NOCSAE wanted to evaluate, test, and collect data on the 13,000 helmets that leagues were trading in. To accomplish this, NOCSAE had to develop a way to quickly log and track each helmet by model, size, age, condition, league, and storage location as helmets were collected.  RFID labels and a data-collection system (database) were the solution.

NOCSAE researchers used the database to identify a sample set of individual helmets for evaluation and testing. Once the sample set was identified, these helmets were located and retrieved from various storage facilities around the country. RFID numbers provided the necessary unique identifier for each helmet, so helmets in storage could be quickly and easily located using a powerful handheld scanner.

So this has been the short story of how and why RFID labels are inside almost every football helmet used in organized play in the U.S.