Brain Bucket: a Social History of War, Football, Helmets, and Head Injury

A series for the playoff season

Left: Captain Alex Weyand, Army football player, in 1915. Library of Congress. Right: a British soldier saved by his Brodie helmet. Imperial War Museum.

Standardized head protection appeared on the football field and the Western Front at the same moment in 1915.

Our brains have never recovered.

“How many fingers am I holding up?” the team doctor asked, h…