The Ongoing Debate About Guardian Caps
How a small padded shell is changing the conversation about football player safety
—By James Foster
Nick Foster, my brother and a former wide receiver at the University of New Mexico, still remembers that feeling of “getting his bell rung” from his time in college. “The trainer would ask if you were dizzy or nauseous,” Foster recalls, “and if you were neither of those, you’d go back into the game.” After being diagnosed with a concussion, he was held out of practice for just a day and returned to contact the following day.
Foster, who played collegiate football before Guardian Caps were around, never had the chance to wear one of the soft, protective helmet coverings, now seen across all levels of football, from high school to the NFL. “I wish we would’ve had Guardian Caps while I was playing,” says Foster. “As a receiver who took a lot of hits coming across the middle of the field by guys who weighed 50-plus pounds more than me, extra padding on my head would’ve been quite beneficial.”
Foster’s experience not only shows how head injuries have been treated in the past, but highlights the importance of increased safety for head injuries. Guardian Caps are emerging as a potential tool for football across the world to mitigate head injury and make violent sports like football safer for its players.
Guardian Caps and the controversy around them
The soft, cushioned helmet covers known as Guardian caps are becoming increasingly popular, dating back to 2022 when the NFL mandated the caps to be worn for all positions during training camp. According to AP News, the NFL has conducted several studies showing that the 12-ounce padded shells provide a 10% reduction in severity of impact when one player is wearing the gear, and a 20% decrease if both players in the collision are wearing the caps.
However, 2024 marked a significant year for the Guardian Caps: NFL players were given the option to wear Guardian Caps in-game. Although the list of players who chose to wear them was short, notable players like Indianapolis Colts tight end Kylen Granson and New England Patriots Safety Jabril Peppers, a University of Michigan alumnus, decided to wear the caps every game of the 2024-2025 season. The increased visibility of the caps has raised concerns about the ongoing crisis in the NFL, that is, concussions.
The NFL has reported statistics with the rise of Guardian Caps, and the data looks to be encouraging. According to AP News, Jeff Miller, an NFL executive, stated that in the 2024 preseason, the NFL saw its fewest concussions since 2015, when they began tracking them, and that concussions had decreased 24% from last year, with Miller citing Guardian Caps as one of the main reasons for this decline.
However, there are two sides to the debate, and the effectiveness of Guardian Caps is not confirmed. Seth Jenny, an associate professor of exercise science at Slippery Rock University, told Health Magazine that “the evidence is mixed on the effectiveness of using [Guardian Caps] to reduce the force of impact in football to increase player safety.” Additionally, Health stated that Guardian Sports, the manufacturer of the Guardian Caps, has stated that the caps “reduce the impact of constant hits in practice,” but cannot definitively say that the caps themselves reduce concussion risks.
Player perspectives: safety vs stigma
Luke Duncan, a Sophomore quarterback at UCLA, has to wear a Guardian Cap over his helmet every day at practice, similar to many college football players across the country. “I noticed how big and bulky they look, but when I tried it on, it felt very light and added minimal extra weight,” Duncan says. “I felt less worried about getting an in-practice concussion, especially when my whole team is wearing them.”
Duncan’s experience reflects a view on Guardian Caps that is seemingly universal: the perception of the caps changes once players try them. “The Guardian Caps are a very light and unnoticeable safety addition,” Duncan adds. “You don’t even notice they are on your head.”
The caps are now mandated at UCLA practices, a reflection of the growing commitment to player safety across the world of football, and players like Duncan have seen this change across several levels. “From my personal experience, when my high school football team made the change to Guardian Caps, I noticed a much lower number of in-practice concussions.”
However, the adoption hasn’t seen as much success, particularly in the NFL. Miami Dolphins star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who recently turned 27, saw his third concussion of his young NFL career this past season. After suffering a concussion in week 2, he, to the surprise of many, stated that he wouldn’t be wearing a Guardian Cap in-game, with reasons for not wearing a cap including comfort and aesthetics.
Foster, former University of New Mexico wide receiver, has watched the attitudes surrounding concussions evolve as time has gone on. “What was once seen as a ‘soft’ injury that wasn’t taken super seriously is now a focal point of player safety,” said Foster. “Concussion protocols have improved immensely to keep players safer and healthier for not only their football careers, but also allowing them to have a healthy life after football.”
Foster’s experiences reflect the “old” ways in which concussions were viewed, where toughness was put ahead of caution. “Oftentimes, you were seen as not being tough if you exited practice or a game with a concussion,” he recalls, showing support for new protective technology like Guardian caps. “I think they are a great way to keep players safe.”
Science and skepticism
Professor Steven Broglio, Director of the University of Michigan Concussion Center, expressed cautious optimism about the Guardian Caps. While acknowledging NFL statistics showing decreased concussion rates from Guardian Caps, Broglio emphasized that the problem of concussions can’t be solved with equipment alone. “The early data looks good, but I also think we aren’t going to engineer our way out of this problem.”
While protective equipment plays a large role in concussions, Broglio calls attention to several factors that have a large role in concussion prevention. “I think policy change, I think tackling technique, I think even better helmet design,” he says. “I think there are a number of things that can happen that will reduce the number of concussions.” Even then, Broglio acknowledges that “[football] is a contact collision sport, and I am not convinced that we will ever eliminate all concussions.”
The science behind Guardian Caps has given us a complex understanding of their function and overall effectiveness. A 2017 study by Seth Jenny, Professor of exercise science at Slippery Rock University, found that 37 youth and high school football coaches, athletic directors, and presidents reported a 40.5% decrease in yearly concussions after adopting Guardian Caps. Another study conducted by the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab found that “Guardian Caps reduce the force of a helmet-to-helmet impact, especially with thicker models used by the NFL and when both players wear them.”
However, more recent studies have shown otherwise. In a 2023 study conducted by Kristen G. Quigley, PhD student at the University of Nevada, found that, of 25 Division 1 football players who were observed wearing and not wearing Guardian Caps during practice, there was “no difference in head impact kinematic data.”
This disparity of evidence shows the challenges of evaluating protective equipment, especially gear like Guardian Caps. “I want it to work,” Broglio admits, referring to the caps, “but I want to see the data before I say for sure it is working.”
The bigger picture: the concussion epidemic in football
The ongoing debate on Guardian Caps is only part of a much larger problem. A 2017 study conducted by Boston University’s CTE center examining 202 brains from deceased former professional football players found that 87% of the brains showed signs of CTE, which is a brain disorder commonly found in football players, and is one of the greatest negative side effects of concussions.
While Guardian Caps seem to be a step in the right direction for the concussion crisis, there is much more to be improved upon for professional football to reduce its alarming concussion rates, ranging from more equipment changes to rule changes to player attitudes.
Indianapolis Colts tight end Kylen Granson was one of the few NFL players to wear a Guardian Cap in games this past season. In a video posted to ESPN’s TikTok, Granson states, “I’m going to get married this coming year. I want to be able to remember our first dance 30 years from now. I want to be able to remember my kid’s first steps, I want to be there at their first day of school,” expressing his concussion concerns that many players likely share.
The future of head safety in football
From all of the data and research on these Guardian Caps, their future will likely depend on further research and player attitudes towards them. However, as for now, it seems they will continue to be used in practices, with question marks around their future in-game. UCLA quarterback Luke Duncan seems to follow the opinion of many experts, saying, “I definitely think Guardian Caps should be mandatory for any teams that do direct contact in practice. I don’t think you should have to wear a cap in games, but it should be allowed if a player wants the extra protection.”
The view of mandatory for practice, optional for games, is shaping out to be the consensus on Guardian Caps at the moment. Broglio advocated for a similar implementation, stating that “you don’t want to invent a new product and then just push it out onto the field to everybody. There’s always a risk that it could cause more harm than good.”
As Guardian Caps see more widespread popularity in the NFL, their influence has already spread across many levels of football, from professional to collegiate to the youth level. AP News found that “more than 300 college programs, 3,000 high school and 750 youth programs across the country use the caps,” and these numbers could see major growth as research continues and NFL players continue to wear them.
The story of Guardian Caps demonstrates football’s struggle to find a balance between an incredibly violent, physical sport, while ensuring its players are safe, and the rising awareness of long-term brain and head injury. As more NFL players like Granson continue to advocate for and prioritize their brain health over aesthetics and comfort, player attitudes may shift, and the caps may eventually be mandated across the NFL for games.
“I want them to also know that Dad isn’t just telling you to be safe, he was also safe when he played,” said Granson, when talking about his future children in a TikTok video. “He did everything he could to protect his head, protect his brain.”
Feature photo: Player wearing a Guardian Cap at Miramonte High School, Orinda CA, 2023. Photo Credit: James Foster