NFL Safety Chairman Comments on Possibility of League Playing Without Helmets

Seeing players in the National Football League in action without their sleekly designed helmets would certainly be bizarre, but such a spectacle could become reality in the future.

BBC Sport's Matt Slater reported Thursday what NFL health and safety advisory commission chairman Dr. John York said about the possibility of players not wearing helmets as a means of actually enhancing player safety.

"Can I see a time without helmets? Yes," said York. "It's not around the corner, but I can see it." 

Abolishing helmets could discourage players from hurling themselves as hard at opponents. York also mentioned how the three-point stance would likely become extinct and would totally alter how football is played at present.

Former NFL running back Earnest Byner weighed in on York's comments:

Concussions have been among the most hot-button issues in all of major professional sports, and the violent collisions in pro football lend to such traumatic head injuries.

The evolution of helmets has paralleled the unprecedented overall combination of size, strength and speed of modern NFL players.

Rules changes in recent years have included banning ball-carriers from leading with the crown of their helmets. Other alterations have placed a greater emphasis on protecting players, particularly on the offensive side, to lead to more scoring.

Until more conclusive results about the damage concussions cause are proved, such a massive change doesn't seem likely.

On the other hand, the sooner it happens, the more time there would be to evaluate if it did make a considerable difference for players' safety.