be exerted upon face guard 65 from any direction in which it is possible to strike or impact against face guard 65 as will be hereinafter described in greater detail as an impact force is exerted upon face guard 65 the shock absorber member 67 or grommet 68 functions to absorb or attenuate the impact force exerted upon the face guard and to substantially omni directionally distribute the impact force through the shell 31 grommet 68 may be a circular shaped member 72 with an opening 73 passing there through as seen in fig3 each circular shaped member 72 may include an inner annular or circular shaped lip 74 that abuts the inner wall surface 37 of the shell 31 and outer annular shaped lip 75 that abuts the outer wall surface 38 of the shell 31 each of the face guard connectors 35 has a recess 76 fig4 which receives a portion of the grommet 68 in a close fitting abutting relationship as seen in fig3 preferably the outer annular shaped lip 75 is received in the recess 76 as shown in fig3 8 and 15 a bushing 77 maybe disposed within the opening 73 which passes through grommet 68 preferably the bushing is made of a suitable plastic material having the requisite strength and durability characteristics to function as part of a football helmet face guard connector preferably bushing 77 is formed of a thermoplastic material such as surlyn u00ae bushing 77 may include a cap member 78 having an upper wall surface 79 fig3 and a lower wall surface 80 fig8 and 15 with the lower wall surface 80 being disposed adjacent the inner wall surface 37 of the shell 31 a bolt 82 having first and second ends.