If you’ve seen photos or video from the first few days of NFL training camps, chances are you’ve seen some players wearing something on their heads that does not look like a traditional football helmet.
That something is called a Guardian cap, a padded shell that is placed on top of a helmet. It is the NFL’s latest initiative to try to protect players’ heads.
Guardian caps have been used at the high school level for quite sometime, and even a bit at the college level. The Los Angeles Rams wore them during practices last season (as an aside, they wound up winning the Super Bowl) and the league is having them be more widely worn during training camps this year.
All offensive linemen, defensive linemen, linebackers and tight ends are required to wear them through their teams’ second preseason games.
The NFL Network produced a video explaining the caps and how they work.
“That padding is intended to reduce the severity of impact by reducing the forces and motions that eventually make it through the head,” said Dr. Jeff Crandall, chair of the NFL’s engineering committee and an expert on injury prevention, in the video.
It is estimated that the cap can reduce the severity of impact during a collision between two players by up to 20% if both players are wearing it.
“I think that you’re always trying to be as safe as possible when you’re playing this game,” Rams offensive lineman David Edwards said in the video.
“Any little thing that can prevent injuries or make the game safer, why not try it?”
Edwards said that when he wore it last season, he noticed that he didn’t feel the vibrations after impact as much.
“Wearing the Guardian cap is ultimately going to keep you safer,” he said.
Crandall said the league is “optimistic” it will see similar results on the field as it did during laboratory studies in terms of the cap’s effectiveness.