The title is misleading. There really aren't any. According to this New York Times artice, football helmet safety standards are designed by the industry to prevent skull fractures at the expense of avoiding concussions. The standards themselves are not produced by any third party or government agency, but are instead propagated "by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, or Nocsae, a volunteer consortium that includes, and is largely financed by, the helmet makers themselves." The standard is, predictably, tailored to meet the legal needs of the helmet manufacturers. Since it is the only applicable standard, it provides a defense against legal liability ("your honor, the helmet in question has met the industry standard and is in no way defective") as well as the helmet producer's financial needs, e.g. unclear and weak testing guidelines, little oversight, etc. Accordingly, there is no incentive to make a safer helmet or to create new guidelines. If the Nocsae standard is raised, then thousands of helmets now in circulation will be unusable or, worse yet, used but unsafe by industry standards (lawsuit). If a new standard is created, helmet manufacturers will face a similar problem with their helmets now in circulation and will also lose the financial benefits of a loose standard. Of course, the people who will suffer the most from a helmet recall would be those with little funding for their football program. Poor high schools could potentially face a dissolution of their football programs due to a lack of equipment.

It seems as if football is at a crossroads in this country. The information that has leaked into the public consciousness regarding the long term effects of repeated concussions and brain tissue damage won't be forgotten. Further, it has clearly changed the economics of football in a way that even the most aggressive, pro-contact player can't ignore. A portion of many players' salaries will one day be allocated to caring for the mental injuries they incurred while playing the sport. In turn, their football earnings/football-related expenses will be drastically altered. However, the violence which has caused so many of these injuries has also made football the most popular sport in America. Surely, then, hard hits cannot be removed from the game. Perhaps equipment design holds some of the answers. The only thing I am certain of is that, should the NFL decide that a better helmet design is necessary to stave off head injuries, the standard will change overnight.