--- title: Super Bowl History: See How Football Uniforms Have Evolved description: Today's Super Bowl-worthy shoulder pads are a lot bigger than those of the past canonical: https://time.com/4202906/football-uniforms-evolution/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-05T17:00:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:50:32.332Z article:section: History og:title: Super Bowl History: See How Football Uniforms Have Evolved og:description: It's been a while since bulky sweaters counted as pads og:url: https://time.com/4202906/football-uniforms-evolution/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt153a5c76d572d1a2/69887bd83c163946be45bd75/160202-football-uniforms-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Princeton Football Team 1885 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Super Bowl History: See How Football Uniforms Have Evolved twitter:description: It's been a while since bulky sweaters counted as pads twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt153a5c76d572d1a2/69887bd83c163946be45bd75/160202-football-uniforms-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See How Football Uniforms Have Changed Over a Century by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](/author/liz-ronk/) Feb 5, 2016 5:00 PM CUT  Princeton University championship football team. Circa 1885. Princeton University championship football team. Circa 1885.Sports Studio Photos—Getty Images by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](/author/liz-ronk/) Feb 5, 2016 5:00 PM CUT When the Denver Broncos take on the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50 on Sunday night, the players will be decked out in the latest technology: super-lightweight pads, moisture-wicking jerseys and radio-equipped helmets. That wasn’t always the case. As these photos show, football uniforms have come a long way from the heavy sweaters and baggy pants of the sport’s early days. Some of the evolution has been driven by innovation: In the [1920s](http://time.com/vault/issue/1926-11-01/page/28/ "undefined"), one new idea was to have players wear silk pants, on the thought that they were lighter than other options—or, on the other side of the spectrum, to have players wear shoulder pads reinforced with sheet metal, an [innovation](http://time.com/vault/issue/1959-11-30/page/58/ "undefined") of the famed Jim Thorpe. In the [1940s](http://time.com/vault/issue/1943-09-27/page/72/ "undefined"), walkie-talkie-type helmets were patented, to let coaches speak directly in players’ ears. And, for the [last](http://time.com/vault/issue/1992-12-14/page/64/ "undefined") [few](http://time.com/vault/issue/1994-12-12/page/71/ "undefined") [decades](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1659733,00.html "undefined"), protecting players from head trauma has been the top priority—not that early football games weren’t [dangerous](http://time.com/3387798/football-deaths/ "undefined") too. ### The NFL on the Cover of TIME  Nov. 29, 1954: Bobby Layne, Detroit Lions TIME  Nov. 30, 1959: Sam Huff, New York Giants TIME  Nov. 26, 1965: Jimmy Brown, Cleveland Browns TIME  Jan. 17, 1972: Roger Staubach, Dallas Cowboys, and Bob Griese, Miami Dolphins TIME  Oct. 16, 1972: Joe Namath, New York Jets TIME  Dec. 8, 1975: Ernie Holmes, Joe Green, L.C. Greenwood and Dwight White, Pittsburgh Steelers TIME  Jan. 25, 1982: Joe Montana, San Francisco 49ers TIME  Jan. 27, 1986: "Refrigerator" Perry and Walter Payton, Chicago Bears TIME  Princeton University championship football team. Circa 1885. Sports Studio Photos—Getty Images  Glenn "Pop" Warner was a famous college football coach who had 319 major NCAA wins during his 44 year long career. Here he is seen wearing his football uniform during the time he was a player on the Cornell University football team. Circa 1894. Bettmann/Corbis  University of Minnesota football players standing outdoors in the Hyde Park community area of Chicago, circa 1904. Chicago History Museum—Getty Images  Two offensive lineman from Columbia University, Healy and Brown, run straight at the camera, Sept. 21, 1916. Corbis  Football Players Red Grange and Earl Britton, 1925. Bettmann/Corbis  George Halas, player/coach of the Chicago Bears, 1933. AS400 DB—Corbis  Notre Dame's Angelo Bartelli, 1943. Bettmann/Corbis  New York Giants quarterback Charlie Conerly (right), attempts to assist his teammate, halfback Kyle Rote, by untangling the back of his jersey that has gotten caught in his shoulder pad, circa 1950s. Robert Riger—Getty Images  Dallas Texans Dick Szymanski, 1965. William Greene—Sports Studio Photos/Getty Images  University of Toledo QB Chuck Ealey (16) putting on shoulder pads in the locker room before practice at Glass Bowl. Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 1, 1971. Tony Tomsic—Sports Illustrated/Getty Images  Mike Webster of the Pittsburgh Steelers adjusts his shoulder pads during a practice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1989. Hank Young—The Sporting News/Getty Images  NY Giants Michael Strahan, 1998. Kimberly Butler—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Matt Moore of the Carolina Panthers readjusts his shoulder pad during a game against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on December 13, 2009 in Foxboro, Mass. Jim Rogash—Getty Images  Closeup view of RFID player-tracking technology chip on shoulder pads from Zebra Technologies, in Holtsville, N.Y., Sept. 30, 2015. Michael J. LeBrecht II—Sports Illustrated/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4202906/football-uniforms-evolution/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4202906/football-uniforms-evolution/"},"headline":"See How Football Uniforms Have Changed Over a Century","datePublished":"2016-02-05T17:00:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:50:32.332Z","description":"It's been a while since bulky sweaters counted as pads","url":"https://time.com/4202906/football-uniforms-evolution/","keywords":["Sports topic","Football","Super Bowl topic","photography"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt153a5c76d572d1a2/69887bd83c163946be45bd75/160202-football-uniforms-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Liz Ronk","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt153a5c76d572d1a2/69887bd83c163946be45bd75/160202-football-uniforms-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Princeton Football Team 1885","caption":"Princeton University championship football team. 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