If your favored NFLdefensive linemanlooked a trivial , uh , top heavy during 2022 training camp and other preseason , it ’s probably because he was . After review several years of data and research laboratory tests , theNFL mandatedthe use ofGuardian Caps — easygoing shell helmet covers — by all nauseating lineman , justificatory linemen , tight ends and line backer through the second game of preseason .
According toNFL data , impact force is melt off by at least 10 percent when an NFL player is wearing a Guardian Cap . The number is doubled if both players in a collision are tire caps — though that figure comes fromtesting data , not from on - field play .
Still , it ’s important when you ’re utter about two very beefy men crushing their heads into each other with little more than a layer of thick plastic track their domes . But it ’s also significant to a sport that wants to do more to elevate the tenacious - terminus health and base hit of its players . In 2015,there were275 concussion , let in 83 during the preseason . Thanks to changes in concussion protocol , in 2021 there were 187 concussions with only 52 during the preseason .
Erin and Lee Hanson , Guardian Cap ’s decorator , first create a fully encompass soft - shell helmet . But football administrator did n’t wish the look or the sound of the helmet . So , the designers shifted their nidus to a practice cap , the removable Guardian Cap . In 2012 , Clemson University ’s football game team began wearing the Guardian Cap in exercise and eventually more than 200 other colleges and 2,000 high schools unite them .
In 2017 , Guardian Innovations won $ 20,000 in an R&D challenge from the NFL , theHeadHealthTECHaward , to uprise new and improved helmets and protective equipment . Guardian redesigned the helmet covers to fit NFL helmet . After further tests in the lab and on the field , in 2021 Guardian Caps were spotted in several pro camps .
But why bear the Guardian Caps in exercise and not in game ? And why these players ? Why are n’t all players required to wear the practice hood ?
childlike : Players take many more hit duringtraining campthan during a game , and sure instrumentalist — defensive and offensive linemen in particular — bear the brunt of those hits . However , the NFL plans to check their supposition with cold , hard data . Around 100 players , some wear Guardian capital and some not , are wearing mouthguards withsensorsthat will measure the encroachment of the hits the musician takes . The league will be able-bodied to liken the impacts experienced by players get into the Guardian Cap with those without the cap .
Though some folks may call these puffy helmet the further " sissification " of play , ( right up there with shin bone guards and athletic cups , no doubt ) , one player , New York Giants offensive electrician Shane Lemieux is thankful , tellingThe Athletic , " I love that the NFL is doing research to aid protect us more … because this game entail the most to me , but at the death of the day , I want to walk away healthy . "
