Tradition vs. protection. Safety or swag?
That’s the debate that’s come now that the NFL will allow its players to wear helmet covers in-game during the 2024 season.
But this didn’t just come out of the blue; Guardian caps made their first appearance on the scene at Jacksonville Jaguars training camp in 2022. Since then, the league has made them mandatory for all linemen, linebackers and tight ends from the start of training camp through every practice leading up to the second preseason game. The NFL expanded this mandate to all running backs and fullbacks last season.
Heading into 2024, the league approved Guardian caps for in-game action, including 12 new helmet models as effective alternatives to the new helmet covers.
In August, six players, including Indianapolis Colts star running back Jonathan Taylor, opted to wear the new helmet covers during the NFL preseason. On Sunday, the Guardian cap made its Regular Season debut.
But how exactly did we get here? Well, for starters, football is by far the world’s most dangerous sport.
Over the past decade and a half, the NFL has received tons of backlash for the risk the league puts its athletes in. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, widely known as CTE, is a brain disorder caused by repeated blows to the head, which has been commonly found in former NFL players.
“What we have seen in all of these players is a trauma-induced disease. It is caused by trauma. And so, I don’t think there is any question about what has caused the disease in these players,” Dr. Ann McKee said in testimony about her research on CTE before the U.S. House Committee in October 2009. “None of my colleagues have ever seen a case of CTE without a history of head trauma.”
Studies have shown that CTE can lead to depression, loss of clear judgment, incontrollable outbursts of rage and memory loss that can ultimately lead to dementia.
The worst part? Symptoms of CTE can take up to 10 years after the repeated head trauma before finally showing up. There are football players who have recently decided to hang up their cleats who won’t even know that they have the disorder until a decade from now.
In 2017, the league’s concussion total hit an all-time high, with 281 reported cases occurring between all NFL preseason and regular season contests and practices. These numbers don’t include the postseason or any concussions that might have been missed or never reported.
A group of 5,000 former NFL players sued the league in 2013 for failing to protect them from head-related injuries. Two years later, a federal judge approved a new settlement estimated to cost the NFL $1 billion over 65 years. Players are entitled to up to $5 million each, depending on the severity of their condition, although most are awarded far less.
The NFL had to do something to make the sport of football somewhat sustainable for the human brain. Otherwise, it would face a whirlwind backlash and more future lawsuits for its negligence for the safety of the very people that make its product so successful: the players.
Enter the Guardian cap, an invention of Erin and Lee Hanson of Guardian Sports. The Hansons were inspired to create a safer football helmet when their son, Jake, first picked up the vicious sport. The more they researched the data and read the studies on the dangers of concussions, CTE, and consistent head trauma, the more they felt the responsibility to develop the Guardian cap.
“We’re like, OK, now we know too much,” Erin Hanson told ESPN. “We’ve done too much of the background. We’ve got too much of the data under our belts. Somebody’s got to do something to get soft-shell technology back into these guys’ hands.”
So far, the Guardian caps have worked. 
Here are the facts: a Guardian cap can reduce concussions in helmet-to-helmet hits by 10%. That number doubles to 20% if both players in the collision are sporting the new helmet cover.
According to Guardian Sports, Guardian caps reduce impact force by up to 33%, with the ones used by the NFL bringing that number closer to 40%.
“We now have two years of data showing significant concussion reductions among players who wear Guardian caps during practice,” NFL Executive Vice President Jeff Miller said back in April. 
It’s true: Concussions have gone down 52% in training camp over the past two years, according to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
“The Guardian cap has been a very important change for us as it has shown to reduce impact,” Goodell said at the annual league meeting in March.
Unintentionally, Guardian caps have proved their safety in other areas.
In 2021, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford hit his hand on one of his offensive linemen’s helmets, an injury that could have derailed a Super Bowl-winning campaign.
“It’s almost like you heard a gunshot,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said. “I thought he broke his hand.”
Thanks to the Guardian Cap, hand-to-helmet contact during practices for the league’s most valuable position is no longer a concern.
“I’ve seen multiple times where the quarterback’s hand hits the top of the guard or center’s helmet,” Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan said during minicamps. “The impact is a lot less because it’s padded. I’ve seen a couple of saves from those Guardian caps. I’m all for them.”
While Guardian caps weren’t mandatory back in 2021, McVay made it a point to supply each Rams offensive lineman with one following the Stafford incident.
The numbers don’t lie; Guardian caps make football safer.
In training camp, Colts tight end Josh Whyle suffered a concussion during a joint practice with the Seattle Seahawks. It’s his second concussion in less than a year, so Whyle has become one of the first early adopters and advocates for the Guardian cap.
“I can’t mess around anymore,” Whyle told ESPN. “I want to stay healthy and if this is what it takes, then I’m all for it.”
The 24-year-old tight end opted to sport a Guardian cap on top of one of the 12 new helmets that the NFL approved over the offseason as a reliable alternative to the new helmet covers.
“It’s like wearing two Guardian caps,” Whyle joked. “I wanted double protection.”
However, Whyle was only one of only five players who chose to wear the Guardian cap during Sunday’s regular season action.
“I don’t want to speak for everybody,” Falcons All-Pro guard Chris Lindstrom said, “The injury statistics really prove its effectiveness, but I don’t think a lot of players will wear them.”
But why wouldn’t professional football players care about their health and well-being?
For some, there is a swag aspect to it.
“Ew,” Minnesota Vikings linebacker Jonathan Greenard simply posted on X, reacting to Taylor wearing the preseason helmet cover. Taylor opted not to sport the new look this past Sunday, with his reasoning behind the sudden switch still unknown. For others, there is a more practical reason to oppose it than looks: heat.
Among the early Guardian cap adopters is New England Patriots safety Jabrill Peppers, who has liked the new helmet covers thus far.
“It’s really for those plays where you might not see a guy coming from the side and get incidental contact on your head,” Peppers told The Athletic. “But I don’t really feel anything with it, so I like that a lot.”
However, Peppers noted that he wouldn’t have worn a Guardian cap if Sunday’s game in Cincinnati had been much hotter, and he plans to remove the helmet cover for future hot-weather contests.
While not required in training camp, a sleeve replicating the design of the respective team’s helmet is required to cover the Guardian cap for in-game action. This sleeve blocks out any air holes and increases the temperature inside the player’s helmet, which is a critical reason why many players have opted against it despite the safety numbers stating otherwise.
The Hansons reported that NFL studies have found that the standard hard-shell helmets conduct heat, while Guardian caps reduce radiant heat up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Most of the heat that evaporates comes out of your face mask,” Lee Hanson said. “So when they put the visors and all that stuff on, they’re blocking that heat escape.” 
As the Hansons and the rest of Guardian Sports look to solve their heat conduction conundrum, Peppers will stick with the new look.
“I’m a hitter, so the more protection I can get, why not?” Peppers said. “As long as it’s not impeding me or slowing me down, I don’t see why not.”
For the Guardian cap to be used league-wide and eventually nationwide, the Hansons must design a thinner, sleeker, and less bulky cap to attract more players.
But how much can the Hansons and the rest of Guardian Sports pull back on safety padding in favor of swagger? 
“You’ve got something that’s been unbelievable results for the last 12 years,” Erin Hanson said. “How much do you want to change it for swag? That’s the hard part. If we have less pads, is it going to be less protection?”
While it may be a while before we see an entire NFL team sporting Guardian caps, it may not take as long at the collegiate level. The NCAA has been even stiffer on player safety than the NFL has.
In the NFL, a helmet-to-helmet hit is a foul if a player lowers his head and makes forcible contact with the crown of his helmet to a defenseless player’s head or neck area. This results in a 15-yard penalty, with a chance of getting ejected or fined, depending on the severity of the hit.
At the collegiate level, the NCAA isn’t messing around.
In the NCAA, that same penalty is known as targeting, resulting in an automatic ejection for the culprit as long as the penalty is called. Also, the brand-new sleeved Guardian cap model that the NFL allows its players to wear during in-game action debuted not during the NFL preseason but in collegiate practices.
The Hansons first tested the sleeved Guardian caps during last spring’s practices for Georgia and Colorado. The NCAA could soon follow in the pro’s footsteps and allow its players to use the new technology to protect themselves.
Once the Hansons perfect the Guardian cap technology, no matter how long that may take, don’t be surprised to see the NFL and the NCAA mandate that all players wear them at every level of the game.
Both the future of football and player safety are at stake.