Product images courtesy of Guardian Caps | Guardian Sports
Football games might look a little different this year, thanks to the increasing use of Guardian Caps or other padded headgear designed to protect against brain injuries.
In late April, the National Football League announced it would allow players to wear Guardian Caps adorned with team logos in regular-season games. According to ESPN, the headgear was mandated for certain position players (including offensive and defensive linemen, linebackers and tight ends) during training camp in 2022 and 2023, and an NFL executive claims the caps contributed to almost a 50% reduction in concussions for players who wore them during that time.
"We now have two years of data showing significant concussion reductions among players who wear Guardian Caps during practice, so players will be permitted to wear the cap during games this upcoming season,” NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller said in a statement provided to ESPN. “Additionally, there are new helmets this year that provide as much — if not more — protection than a different helmet model paired with a Guardian Cap. These developments represent substantial progress in our efforts to make the game safer for players."
According to their manufacturer, Guardian Caps “bring a padded, soft-shell layer to the outside of the decades-old hard-shell helmet and reduce impact up to 33%.” They are used by youth, high school, college and professional football players.
“The NFL will exempt players from having to use the Guardian Caps during the mandated portion of training camp if they wear one of six new helmet models that the league and the NFL Players Association have identified as providing equal or better protection,” ESPN added.
Earlier in April, the NFL and NFLPA introduced five new helmets for the 2024 season “that tested better than any helmet ever worn in the league,” the league noted, reflecting a significant advancement in helmet safety innovation. All told, a record 12 new helmet models are eligible for players to wear this fall.
“There will also be more position-specific helmets available to players than ever before, with eight new position-specific models introduced this season,” the NFL added. “The helmets are designed to mitigate impacts more likely to be sustained by individual positions. The designs of position-specific and all helmet models are informed in part by game impact data that the league collects and shares with helmet manufacturers.”
For their part, helmet shell add-ons have decreased linear and rotational acceleration, thus helping reduce rick of head injuries in football players, according to Virginia Tech researchers, who have provided unbiased helmet ratings since 2011.
“However, there are notable differences between various add-ons, so the specific model used is important to consider,” they wrote after testing three add-ons, including the Guardian XT, Guardian NXT and SAFR. “Moreover, the effectiveness of these add-ons can vary significantly depending on the helmet. The helmet model itself is crucial, as it sets the baseline level of protection. While helmet shell add-ons can enhance a helmet’s performance, it’s important to note that a poor-performing helmet with an add-on may not perform as well as a high-performing helmet without an add-on.”
The Guardian Caps website, however, does include a warning that “no helmet, practice apparatus or helmet pad can prevent or eliminate the risk of concussions or other serious head injuries while playing sports. Researchers have not yet reached an agreement on how the results of impact absorption tests relate to concussions. No conclusions about a reduction of risk or severity of concussive injury should be drawn from impact absorption tests.”
Nevertheless, some youth and high school football programs have begun using the add-on shells. Last year, players at Park High School of Cottage Grove, Minn., reportedly became the first in the state — and perhaps the entire country — to wear Guardian Caps during a real game. Head coach Rick Fryklund, over the previous three years, invested more than $11,000 in Guardian Caps, according to KARE11.com. Each seven-ounce foam-padded cap costs about $70, and every player in the program from varsity to sixth grade, wears one during practices.
"We're doing things to keep the game safer for our kids — football needs to do those things,” Fryklund said last August. “To be completely frank, if they didn't work and they didn't keep people safer, I really don't think the NFL would be mandating what they are.”
“When you think about the way a concussion happens, it's because your brain is floating inside your skull, and when you get hit or you experience a whiplash, it bounces around inside your skull," added Mel Haupt, Park's athletic trainer. "So, if we can add something on top of it to absorb some of that force, less force is going to get transmitted through the helmet, through your skull, and then into your brain.”
For now, it appears as if the National Federation of State High School Associations is letting individual programs decide if they want to use the Guardian Cap or a similar product. “The NFHS does not endorse products, including the Guardian Cap, but it has determined that permissive use of this product is not a violation of NFHS football rules,” the federation said in a statement sent to KARE-TV.
Guardian Caps also are in play at the youth and collegiate levels, at least during practices. Last year, leaders of Cape Vikings Pop Warner in Lewes, Del., voted to purchase the add-on for each player to wear during practices. And the caps became a staple at practices throughout the Southeastern Conference last season.
“The NFL data is what we lean on to kind of give us the best understanding of how that instrument helps reduce impact on collisions to the head,” Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea told Vols Wire last fall. “We waited until we felt like there was data present, and once the NFL started to incorporate it, it seemed like anything we could do to limit the collision and take a little bit of the impact off our players, we’re going to do it. That’s the reason we wear them.”
Guardian Caps are also available for hockey players. Speaking of which, the NFHS recently mandated throat protection for all its ice hockey players.
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