Athletes with stronger cervical musculature are thought to experience less severe head impacts. Strength is often quantified as the peak torque that a player can generate. A player is unlikely to activate the musculature maximally during the milliseconds over which a single head impact occurs. PURPOSE: To compare head impact severity between football players with stronger and weaker cervical musculature using both peak torque and torque-time variables. METHODS: Forty-nine high school and collegiate football players (height=183.12±7.31 cm, mass=94.02±21.35 kg, age=17.79±2.08 years) completed a pre-season isometric cervical strength assessment. Participants pushed their head against a padded strain gauge, reaching their maximum torque as quickly as possible, for three trials in flexion, extension, right and left lateral flexion. Players were separated into groups of stronger and weaker players using a median split for the following five composite (summed over all four directions) strength measures: peak torque (Nm*kg-1), rate of torque development (Nm*sec-1 – greatest slope within 50-ms sliding window), time to 50% of peak torque (ms), time to peak torque (ms), and torque impulse (Nm*sec). The Head Impact Telemetry (HIT) System was used to capture three measures of head impact severity during games and practices: peak linear acceleration (g), peak rotational acceleration (rad/sec2), and HIT severity profile (HITsp – unitless) (n=19,060 head impacts>10g). Fifteen random intercepts general linear models were used to compare head impact severity between stronger and weaker players (α = 0.05). RESULTS: We did not observe significant differences in head impact severity between stronger and weaker players for peak torque, rate of torque development, or time to half peak torque. Players who reached peak torque quickly sustained head impacts with higher HITsp values (15.02, 95% CI: 14.48, 15.58) than players who reached peak torque slowly (14.20, 95% CI: 13.75, 14.66) (F1,46=5.49,p=0.021). CONCLUSION: Overall, cervical muscle strength had little influence on head impact severity. In fact, players that reached peak strength quickly sustained head impacts of slightly higher severity. Cervical muscle strength may play a lesser role in mitigating head impact severity than originally thought.