The NFL has authorized the use of Guardian Caps, a layer of padding for the outside of a football helmet, to be used during games for the 2024 season.
The caps are meant to “reduce player risk and continue driving innovations in equipment technology,” the league said in an announcement.
“Guardian Caps have been authorized for in-game use this season,” the league added.
The NFL has identified two specific areas where there have been an unnecessary amount of head injuries. The first being practice and training camps.
“We now have two years of data showing significant concussion reductions among players who wear Guardian Caps during practice so players will be permitted to wear the cap during games this upcoming season,” said Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president overseeing player health and safety.
After introducing the Guardian Caps during training camps in 2022, the NFL then mandated them during 2023 preseason practices and every regular-season and postseason practice with contact.
The league cited a reduction in force from head contact by 10% if one player is wearing a cap and 20% if all players involved in a play are wearing them.
Kickoffs are another area of concern. With players running into each other in a full sprint all over the field, kickoffs had two times the amount of concussions as a regular football play, the NFL found.
“For several years, Player Health & Safety has been tracking kickoff injury data, so it’s been an area of focus,” Chief Football Administrative Officer Dawn Aponte stated.
“We’ve had discussions with the Competition Committee, with Owners Health & Safety Committee, and it was something specifically related to concussions, that that injury rate was showing up as 2x the injury rate of a play from scrimmage.”
Dr. Ann Bailey Good, asenior mechanical engineer at Biocore, explained that typically there had been one or two new helmet designs that showed progress toward fewer head injuries. “This year,” she stated, “with five, it really speaks to the new technology that’s been built into [the helmets].”
The NFL then announced that there are a total of 12 new helmets for players to choose from in 2024, including eight specifically for linemen and quarterbacks.
“There are new helmets this year that provide as much – if not more – protection than a different helmet model paired with a Guardian Cap. These developments represent substantial progress in our efforts to make the game safer for players,” EVP Miller added.
As for the Guardian Caps at practices, they were mandated for players in positions that engage in significant amounts of contact on most plays: running backs, fullbacks, linemen, and linebackers.
This left just kickers, punters, quarterbacks, wide receivers, and defensive backs as those who weren’t required to wear them.
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