I can remember when it was practically scandalous that Marcus Allen didn’t wear knee pads. Now most pads have fallen out of fashion. From WSJ.com – In the NFL, Playing Safety Doesn’t Mean A Lot of Padding:
In the National Football League, the hip pad is dead. So are the tailbone pad, the elbow pad and the forearm pad. The thigh pad and the knee pad are endangered species. The size of shoulder pads is shrinking by the season.NFL players, who once lumbered around the field weighed down by head-to-toe padding, now wear less protective gear than at any time since the early 1900s, when football was in its infancy. “I think they’d wear nothing if they could,” says Rams head coach Mike Martz. Cleveland Browns equipment manager Bob Monica says he’s given up trying to convince millionaire players that it’s in their interest to wear full padding. “Talking to these guys is like talking to a wall,” he says.
The depadding of the NFL is part machismo, part peer pressure and part vanity. Tactics also have changed. The NFL is focused on speed, not just in-the-trenches toughness, and passing has superseded the ground game as the predominant offensive weapon. A player wearing a two-ounce knee pad the size of a coaster thinks he’s at a disadvantage competing against someone who is not.
The result is a faster, higher-scoring game that mirrors the revved-up version of the NFL found in videogames. It also better suits players competing for attention in a sport saturated by media coverage.
“When you’re on TV, millions of people see you,” says Dane Looker, a Rams wide receiver. “You don’t want to look sloppy out there.” Before the season, Mr. Looker had the sleeves on his jersey sewn tighter to better show off his biceps.