The National Football League was founded on August 20, 1920. Players wore pads, not as protective as today's helmets and leg pads. Even though their protective gear wasn't as advanced as today, they still came into contact with players from opposing teams. Over the years the league has made several rule changes for player safety. They have invented better protections for players and have also established stricter rules regarding gaming guidelines. The main goal of these rules, like the targeting rule so controversial today, is to protect players. The targeting rule itself states that no player may target and initiate contact against an opponent with the top of his helmet when it is a foul in question (Targeting). Although helmet-to-helmet hits are a common feature of the game of football, the targeting rule is an attempt to make the game safer without changing its integrity. That said, helmet-to-helmet hits are becoming a major concern in the National Football League because they can seriously injure both the thrower and the receiver. These collisions Players who receive these hits are considered defenseless, someone who is unable to defend themselves from an incoming hit (NFL Rules and Regulations). Some examples include: a player in the act of or immediately after throwing a pass, a receiver attempting to catch a pass, or one who has completed a pass and has not had time to protect himself or has not clearly become a ball carrier, a player on the ground, a defender attempting to receive or recover a kick, a player already clearly out of play, a quarterback at any time after a change of possession, and a ball carrier whose forward progress has been interrupted (Targeting ). These types of hits, as of 2010, are automatically assigned a penalty regardless of whether the hit was intentional or not