Pivoting Dual Chin Strap Snap Feature for Football Helmet

In a football helmet combination (10) having a rigid plastic shell (12) adapted to cover the head of a wearer and a chin protector (30) adapted to cover the chin of the wearer and to hold the shell to the wearer's head, the rigid shell having an outer surface with a front portion (14), a crown portion (16), a pair of opposite side portions (18), a back portion (20), and a face mask (80), the chin protector having a chin cup (32) and at least one pair of chin straps (34) connected to the chin cup and extending to the opposite side portions of the shell, the improvement comprising:

• a plurality of buckles (40) each having connector means (42) for connecting each buckle at a location along a length of one of the chin straps (34), each buckle having a pair of first snaps (44), each snap of the pair of first the snaps (44) being selected from the group consisting of a male type and female type;
• at least one snaps set (50) on each of the opposite sides (18) of the shell, each of the snaps set (50) adapted for snapping connection to one of the buckles, each snap set comprising a pair of second snaps (54) being spaced the same distance apart as a pair of first snaps on the buckle to be engaged, each of the pair of the second snaps being selected from the group consisting of a male type and a female type and being adapted to snap to a respective first snap on the buckle to be engaged;
• wherein each snaps set (50) is rotatably attached to the rigid plastic shell (12) by a pivoting connector (56);
• and
• wherein the first snaps (44) and second snaps (54) are adapted for securely and reversably snap connecting each chin strap (34) to a side portion (18) of the shell (12) via a buckle (40) and a snaps set (50).