With the rising concern of concussions in contact sports, it is believed that cervical muscles could play a vital role in attenuating force to the head. However, the biomechanical effect of cervical muscles on head and brain response is not clearly understood. This study adopted a finite element head and neck model to replicate football impacts under various loading conditions to study the effect of neck muscles on head kinematics. Our results indicate that neck muscles have the highest amount of internal energy absorption in early impact, particularly at the time when peak head kinematics develop. Both deep and superficial muscles are equally important in stabilizing the head. Early muscle activation was found to have no effect on rotational based injury metrics (BrIC), but relative movement of the head before impact could increase brain strain. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that reduced neck stiffness due to fatigue may increase head responses, increasing the likelihood of sustaining repetitive concussions.