Football is a physically demanding, and potentially physically damaging, sport. To minimize injuries from routine play and accidents, a range of protective equipment is available to players. While such equipment can be used to cover nearly everything from your head to feet, such full-body coverage is not required at the professional level. Though optional at the professional level, the use of tailbone protection, or butt padding, is common among football players.
Tailbone Padding
Tailbone pads, which are worn over a player's buttocks, are available in a variety of forms. While some tailbone pads can be worn independently in pocketed pants or connected to hip protectors, most tailbone pads come as part of a girdle. This girdle, which extends from your midsection to your knees and is worn under your pants, contains pads on the hips, thighs and tailbone.
NCAA Padding Rules
The NCAA football rulebook mandates that a number of protective items be worn while playing. This protective padding includes helmets, knee pads, shoulder pads, a mouth piece, thigh guards and hip pads with a tailbone protector. If a player does not comply with these rules, that player's team loses one timeout. In addition, that player is not allowed to play until he is wearing all of the required protective equipment. As such, all NCAA players wear padding on their butt in the form of tailbone protectors.
NFL Padding Rules
Unlike the NCAA, the NFL does not mandate that tailbone padding be worn. As helmets and shoulder pads are the only pieces of protective equipment currently required by NFL rules, the use of additional padding is left to the teams and players. While some teams may impose their own rules and fine players for not wearing certain pieces of protective equipment, there is no requirement for NFL players to wear tailbone pads.
Future NFL Rules
The NFL experimented with additional padding in the 2010 preseason, requiring all players to wear knee, hip and thigh padding in addition to their shoulder pads and helmets. Although this did not include tailbone padding, 12 teams experimented with the full girdle during training camps and the preseason, adding tailbone protection to the other required equipment. These requirements were lifted after the preseason, however, with players allowed to return to using only helmets and shoulder pads for the regular season.
According to the NFL Players Association, only 50 percent of active players wear most major pieces of protective equipment. The NFLPA has therefore proposed that the use of such protection be made mandatory. Due to the risks posed to players and the costs associated with injuries, at the time of publication the NFL and NFLPA plan to introduce a rule requiring that all players wear the girdle, which includes full thigh, hip and tailbone protection, in the 2011 season.
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