As the football season begins, and healthcare issues are rising within the sport, new protective helmets are being created to stop the increase in injury. Guardian Caps are protective helmets created by the brand Guardian Sports. The goal of these helmets is to add padding around the entire frame to provide an extra layer of protection when hits occur.
Guardian Sports was started in 2011 with the goal of protecting athletes by creating better and more optimal sports equipment. Founded by Erin and Lee Hanson, the family-owned business has continued to instill its initial goals almost 15 years later. With their knowledge and experience growing, the Hansons were able to create the Guardian Cap which is now used by over 500,000 groups and organizations around the United States.
When creating the Cap, the founders wanted to prove that soft shell helmet technology is better for impact than hard shell helmets. To accomplish this, they both studied material sciences and physics to learn about impact reduction. Made from closed cell foam that is wrapped in spandex, the Cap limits the force of a hit by 10 percent. The Cap has also been backed and tested by multiple labs around the nation to make sure it is the best quality it can be. Some of these labs are at Stanford University, Wayne State University and Oregon Ballistic Laboratories.
This Guardian Cap technology was not created overnight. The initial trials began in 2015 when the Cap began being used in football practices around the nation. It was initially made with a fixed strap, but this broke often and created problems with the helmet staying on due to the lack of handling motion. Elastic straps were then added, but this caused the face mask in the front to pop off. In 2017, the Cap won the NFL HeadHealthTechChallenge, which is a competition to promote innovative sports equipment, due to its addition of velcro and double reinforcement on the straps.
With these improvements there are now many benefits to wearing the Guardian Cap in practices and games. The biggest benefit is that the Cap moves freely, so with the impact of force or running, the Cap will move with the athlete instead of staying still. Another major benefit is the Cap reduces the heat inside the helmet by up to 20 degrees. One last major benefit is it also helps protect the helmet along with the athlete, so there is less need for new helmets as often.
One of the coaches of the Millbrook football team, Coach Hughes, has expressed his support for the release of new protective helmets along with the Guardian Cap itself. Hughes said, “I am 100% for the wearing of Guardian Caps, since it does not interfere with the performance of NFL players, and it adds protection to the brain/skull. I would like to see the NFL require it by all players for a season and see if concussions go down. Overall, I am a huge advocate of the caps.”
Even though there are many advantages to the helmet, there are also some disadvantages. Many players are skeptical about the helmet’s look due to the extra padding which adds a few inches around the frame. Another disadvantage is the extra padding could provide an easier way for an opponent to grab the helmet and pull a player down. Senior football player Frank Shewalter said, “For games it could become annoying because of the weight and size which the other players could use as an advantage and slow me down.”
With the main thing that players do not like being the look, Guardian Sports have teamed up with the NFL to make the game day helmets look more seamless and like the regular helmets that have been used in the past. With a spandex cover that features the team logo and colors, the Guardian Cap becomes less noticeable with the addition of the “game day” look.
Even with these disadvantages, the company has grown in popularity with new mandates being created in both college football and the National Football League. For the 2024 season, a list of players in the NFL are required to wear the guardian cap during contact practices and training. It is based on position, so the players that are involved in heavy contact are required to wear the Cap, but this list could increase as the seasons progresses. The positions currently mandated to wear the Cap are: Offensive Line, Defensive Line, Linebackers, Defensive Back, Tight End, Running Back, Fullback and Wide Receiver. The NFL created this mandate in hopes that concussions across its 32 teams would decrease.
Overall, there has been a 50% reduction of concussions in the groups of players that are mandated to wear the Caps in the NFL. In a statement to ESPN, NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller said, “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.”
Along with the option to wear the Guardian Cap during games, players can also choose between 6 other protective helmet options that provide more safety than traditional helmets. Currently, the NFL’s main goal is to decrease injury anywhere they can, and with providing these options to players, they have made a giant step towards improving all equipment. The Colts running back Jonathan Taylor, who is one of six NFL players wearing the Cap during games, has praised the design and effectiveness.
The NFL is not the only institution and organization that has started implementing the Guardian Cap. Colleges around the United States and North Carolina have adopted these helmets for both practices and games as well. In North Carolina alone there are at least 10 colleges that are implementing these Caps. Appalachian State, Duke, UNC-Charlotte and North Carolina Central are some of the main NC colleges that have mandated the Caps for practices.
Along with these North Carolina colleges, all 14 colleges in the Southeastern Conference have adopted the use of the Guardian Caps. Auburn University’s head football coach Hugh Freeze said, “If anything that I think has potential to increase the safety of our players, I’m all in on. If it has the possibility, which I believe they do, to increase the safety of our players, in practice, I’m going to do that every time.”
These protective helmets have been transferred over to other sports aside from football. With the market expanding to both lacrosse and hockey, Guardian Sports are creating a name for themselves one Guardian Cap at a time.
