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The piece of protective equipment known as the “Guardian Cap” has become a staple of NFL practices over the past few years, and the league has taken a giant leap forward when it comes to addressing concussions with a new policy that’s been put in place ahead of the 2024 campaign.
As you likely know, the NFL spent decades attempting to downplay the health risks that come with succumbing to the concussions virtually every single football player will find themselves grappling with at some point during their career.
In 1994, the league set up a committee to examine the repercussions of an ailment it diplomatically referred to as a “mild traumatic brain injury, which led to the publication of a number of hotly disputed papers that downplayed the negative effects in the short and long term.
However, the tides began to turn in the late 2000s when scientific evidence debunking those assertions became increasingly impossible to ignore.
Players who showed signs of head trauma started being subjected to the concussion protocol that was rolled out in 2011, and while I hesitate to give the NFL too much credit for addressing the issue based on how long it spent dragging its feet, it has made solid progress when it comes to taking the issue more seriously.
In 2020, the Jacksonville Jaguars became the first team to start rocking Guardian Caps at practices after the NFL gave its blessing to the helmet covers that are capable of reducing the frequency of concussions by more than 50%.
When training camp kicked off in 2022, every single team in the league was using them, and the following year, they became mandatory for linemen, linebackers, and running backs participating in full-contact practices.
When you consider there’s some incredibly compelling evidence concerning the effectiveness of the Guardian Cap, you might wonder why the NFL explicitly banned players from wearing them in games as recently as last year. However, according to Pro Football Talk, that’s no longer the case, as multiple NFL officials who spoke at a recent head safety webinar revealed the league has decided to give players the option to rock one during a game if they so choose.
There’s no way to know how many players will take advantage of the new policy. It might sound dumb, but the fact that Guardian Caps look objectively stupid will probably be enough to dissuade plenty of guys from voluntarily wearing them, and professional athletes have historically been resistant to embracing any new protective equipment that isn’t explicitly mandated.
With that said, this is certainly a step in the right direction, and much like neck guards are slowly but surely catching on with NHL players (albeit for an incredibly tragic reason), it wouldn’t shock me to see more and more football players taking the plunge in the coming years.