In 1968, a toy developer named Reyn Guyer came up with sports balls for indoor use. This concept would help not damage furniture in the house or strain the players’ hands. He sold the idea to the Parker Brothers, an American toy and game manufacturer, and from there, Nerf products went worldwide. Which would be used as Nerf football grenades in the Cold War.
Soviet Aggression During The Cold War
The Cold War is known for the many years of tension between the two superpowers, the US and the USSR. There were many concerns about a possible all-out war with the Soviet Union. Therefore, The Land Warfare Laboratory (LWL) explored countless options on how the military could defeat the massed armies of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries. An idea popped up for a small, anti-tank grenade to equip army men to immobilize enemy tanks and vehicles effectively.
The Upbringing Of Nerf Football Grenades
Through fierce brainstorming, engineers imagined that a football-shaped grenade would be best in immobilizing enemy vehicles at close quarters because “most US troops are familiar with throwing footballs.”
Therefore, the hollowed-out Nerf football filled with explosive charges and a detonator was created. One would think that the Nerf-bomb football would perfectly spiral onto a tank, explode, and damage it beyond repair.
However, the Nerf-bomb would spin wildly and sometimes land close to the thrower, making it dangerous for the wrong guy. This was due to the uneven weight distribution that made the flight path entirely unpredictable.
The concept of the Nerf football grenade was fumbled in 1973. The military used its more traditional anti-tank weapons like the M47 Dragon light ATGM, M72 Light Anti-Tank Weapon rocket launcher, and the M67 90mm recoilless rifle. None of which were hand-thrown weapons.
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