With the fall season in full swing, the National Football League (NFL) football is primed to sit atop the weekly to-do lists of millions of ardent fans across the world. People congregate in a manic mass Sunday after Sunday, sporting team colors in every way physically achievable.
The game of football has arguably become America’s modern day pastime. The clockwork consistency of the sport for decades on end has played a large part in its popularity, and to that point, noticeable rule changes within it are as rare as my team, the Falcons, making a Super Bowl. That’s happened twice in the team’s 59 year history, and they’ve lost both times.
Personal disappointment aside, change in the league is a big deal when it comes. With the beginning of the 2024 season, three major shake-ups are being introduced into the NFL’s long-worn fabric: overhauling the kickoff format, banning the hip-drop tackle and the allowance of Guardian Caps in games if players choose to wear them.
The former two rules are relatively inconsequential, at least in comparison to the third. The kickoff change should inspire safer, more exciting return plays, and the hip-drop ban exists simply to bolster the safety of players by getting rid of a notoriously dangerous takedown. Funnily enough, it’s the lone cosmetic change that has caused the most drama among fans.
Guardian Caps are effectively just that: cosmetic. They’re nothing more than soft-shelled covers that fit over the top of traditional helmets and provide a layer of additional padding, working to combat the highly reputed mental and physical damage that NFL players take over time in the league.
If that seems like a no-brainer, that’s because it is. You can’t overthink it.
Yet many people have. Trading a minor visual stitch in an athlete’s aesthetic for improved long-term brain health should be an easy trade, but for some, the health of their favorite player is less important than how cool their helmet looks.
Are they a bit bulky? Maybe. From the stands as someone who’s only job it is to watch the games, that’s an easy argument to make–after all, you’re not the one taking the hits.
But consider a recent study from Boston University, which surveyed 376 former NFL players. The study concluded that 345 of those players (92%) suffer Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
CTE is a degenerative brain disease commonly linked to depression, impulsive behavior, aggression and just about any and every other negative mental side effect you can imagine. The disease’s impact is not only evidenced cognitively, but by the physical deterioration of the subject’s brain as well. In many cases it shrinks drastically, and changes color unnaturally.
Now follow that with a statistic put forward by the NFL’s Executive Vice President Jeff Miller, which marks a 52% decrease in concussions endured by players wearing a Guardian Cap in training camp. This is staggered against metrics taken over three years prior to the study of players in the same positions.
Further research released by the league noted that 11-12% of an impact’s force was absorbed in scenarios where one player had a cap over their helmet. In collisions where both players had a cap, the impact was reduced by approximately 20%.
The NFL also concluded that, as a result of including Guardian Caps in training camp, a seven-year-low in concussions during the period was achieved. The nail in the evidential coffin, undoubtedly.
Guardian Caps aren’t wishful thinking. The NFL has gone out of their way to support their overdue delivery of choice in the matter of athletes wearing them in-game.
Perhaps these advancements of safety will even encourage more potential players to invest in the game of football long-term. Making the sport less dangerous, even if just marginally so, can only grow it.
If players so choose to take precautionary measures and sport a Guardian Cap in game, there simply isn’t a good reason fans should stand in their way. There is a clear, thick line between an athlete’s safety and how you may prefer their uniforms to look. As banal as it sounds, those guys are more than the score on the screen. They’re people too.
