November 25, 2024
TOPEKA — Player safety is a hot topic of conversation around the country. Football is a tough sport with crunching tackles and big hits, and making the sport safer and limiting concussions is an objective for many administrators, coaches, and parents across all levels of the game.
The latest innovation to help player safety is the Guardian Cap. It was created in 2010, and is an outside shell was created to limit the possibilities of concussions.
Last spring, the NFL announced that players could wear Guardian Caps in games. Some players have been seen wearing them during game action this year.
Following the NFL rules, the National Federation of High School Associations also allowed teams to wear the Guardian Cap in games.
The future of high school football could look different with teams wearing the extra protective layering. But, nine of Shawnee County’s 10 high school teams do not wear Guardian Caps even in practice.
The only school that has the outer shell is Topeka High. The cap was in the equipment room when first-year head coach Jason Filbeck arrived. He had his offensive and defensive linemen wear it throughout practice this season.
“It helps with the successive and repeated blows with the lineman hitting every play, helmet to helmet,” Filbeck said. “Who knows if that pad can stop the concussion, if that hit would have been a concussion. But, if it makes them feel good and feel safer, then I say it’s a good thing. If parents like it, it’s a good thing, too.”
The scientific studies behind the Guardian Cap
The added protection around the helmet is designed to reduce impact. According to the Guardian Caps website, the materials of the cap can absorb energy and can lower forces transmitted to it.
Very similar to a NASCAR driver and the soft wall technology that tracks have adopted or even automobiles and the soft bumpers and airbags that are now required,” The Guardian Sports website says. “The Guardian Cap serves the same purpose for an athlete’s head—a soft shell barrier between it and impact.”
The NFL has been researching the use of a protective layer around the helmet and they have seen positive signs.
“The position groups required to wear Guardian Cap during the mandated period in the preseason saw a more than 50% reduction in concussions versus a previous three-year average (2018, 2019, 2021; the anomalous 2020 season is excluded),” an NFL study said in 2022.
Cleveland Browns lead medical physician, Sean Cupp, MD., confirmed the NFL’s findings and added his own.
“In addition, there was an estimated average of 15-20 percent reduction in impact severity for every helmet-to-helmet shell contact in which both players were wearing the Guardian Cap,” Dr. Cupp said.
Eight different NFL players are currently wearing Guardian Caps during play this season. There hasn’t been a Kansas City Chiefs’ player that has worn them during games this year, but the Chiefs did wear them during training camp, which is mandated by the NFL.
Kansas State does wear Guardian Caps during practice, while Kansas and Washburn do not.
Scientists are starting to these the the efficacy of Guardian Caps. Some studies are different from the NFL’s previous study. David Camarillo, PhD is an associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford University. Dr. Camarillo and his associates found that the caps were not as successful in limiting concessions.
“In a preliminary on-field investigation, we did not observe any significant reductions in any measure of impact severity after implementation of the padded helmet shell cover,” the study said.
While there are differing opinions, discussions of wearing the outer shell or not continue to be had across the NFL, college, high school and youth ranks.
Guardian Caps used in high school football game action
There aren’t many, if any schools in Kansas, that are using an extra layer of protection over their helmets in games. Around the vicinity, schools in Arkansas, Minnesota and Iowa are starting to copy the NFL.
Tripoli High School in Tripoli, Iowa, is one of the first teams in the country to play with Guardian Caps in games. Tripoli is 30 minutes north of Waterloo, and they play in 8-man football. According to the Iowa High School Athletic Association, the Panthers have an enrollment of 81 students, just less than Topeka’s Cair Paravel.
The Panthers had serious concussions that sat players out for extended amounts of time over the past few years. Head coach Joe Urbanek went to Tripoli’s athletic director, and they were both in agreement in using the Guardian Cap. According to Urbanek, the conversation lasted 15 seconds to purchase the caps.
“If this has any affect and is proven to have any affect and I knew about it and didn’t do anything,” Urbanek said. “I would feel pretty negligent in that deal as a coach knowing that we had the means to make them available to our kids.”
Once it was announced, the players of Tripoli were hesitant. They had never practiced or played in these shells before, but after a few days of contact practice, they didn’t know any better, Urbanek said.
“We got a little bit of backlash from Facebook stuff. Like, ‘I can’t believe you are making your kids wear these,’” Urbanek said. “I just thought that was idiotic myself. If this has any chance of being safe why and the heck are questioning that.”
One of the players that received a concussion last year was hit in the same manner this season with the Guardian Cap attached to his helmet. Urbanek explained how he was ready to see his player on the ground, but instead, he jumped right up, ready for the next play. It was at this time that Urbanek was a believer of this added protection.
Tripoli did suffer a few concussions this year. That is still the nature of football; it’s an aggressive sport. None of the concussions that the Panthers suffered were long-term injuries, thanks to the Guardian Cap.
Is the price of Guardian Caps keeping high schools away?
Purchasing Guardian Caps is the main hurdle for many athletic departments. Tripoli’s small school made it easy to buy the necessary amount for their roster. Urbanek is hoping to purchase new caps in the future, too. This way, the caps will cycle down into the middle school for their program.
“If it saves one kid from a concussion, I think it’s money well spent,” Urbanek said.
According to their website, the Guardian Cap costs $69.99. That’s not much when it’s for one player. Many of the schools in Topeka have upwards of 100 players on their roster, which would include junior varsity and freshman teams.
Shawnee Heights head coach Jason Swift explained that they have explored purchasing Guardian Caps, but the price of the expense has been tough to navigate.
“It would have to be something that we would have to raise some money to be able to support every kid, not just a couple,” Swift said.
The future of high school football in Kansas
It’s hard to tell if Guardian Caps will make its way to game action in Kansas. But, with teams in nearby states doing it, it’s not out of the question.
“The use of the Guardian Cap is not illegal, but because a Guardian Cap is an add-on to a helmet, we tell all of our schools that before you are to wear those, you would contact your helmet manufacturer to see how it would affect the warranty on the helmet because they are two different materials,” Kansas State High School Activities Association’s football administrator Mark Lentz said.
Football continues to make progress by making the the sport safer from the NFL to college and to high school. The Guardian Cap is a new piece of equipment that can shape the sport as they try to lower the amount of concussions.
“Football is constantly evolving to make the game as safe as possible, whether it’s the rules that have been implemented in the last 10 years to the way that we teach blocking and tackling,” Swift said. “The game is safer than it has ever been. Whatever advantage that you can to keep the game safe should be in your first thoughts as a football program and to keep this great game of football going.”