Image Credit : NFL
Coming off of a dominant win in the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots, it’s arguably never been a better time to be a Seahawks fan. Personally, the midseason hype surrounding Seattle’s premier sports franchise was enough to convert me into a full-on football fan whereas when I was a kid, I had little to no interest. Regardless of the attention you may pay towards football, viewers of all walks of life may have increasingly noticed the presence of the so-called “Guardian Caps” adopted by some players in regular season games. In a game often taken so seriously, the presence of these bulky head coverings piqued my interest. However silly they look, if they help protect players, then I fully support them. However, the reality of these safety devices is more complicated than it might first appear.
Although first appearing in practices during the 2020 offseason, the initial idea behind the Guardian Cap can be traced back another decade prior. Founded in 1996 by Erin and Lee Hanson, their company, the Hanson Group, operated as chemical suppliers working across multiple industries. In 2010 they began and completed work on a specialized foam layer for a new version of the “ProCap”, a helmet safety device that saw sporadic use in the National Football League (NFL) during the 90s. After presenting the idea to NFL officials and having the idea passed on, they began working to improve the underlying technology. To help pursue this goal and expand the technology’s use across various levels of the game, the Hansons created the company Guardian Sports.
According to Guardian Sports, beginning with use in various high school and college programs, the flagship “Guardian XT” began being used in practices by various organizations.
In 2017, the XT won the NFL’s “HeadHealthTECH” Challenge which provided funding to test the efficacy of the technology at an NFL level. After conducting the initial testing, the Guardian XT showed little to no improvement in preventing concussions or softening blows to players’ heads. However, after continued research and development on the part of Guardian Sports, they released the Guardian Cap NXT. This updated model increased the amount of padding present and made it a heavier 12 ounces compared to its predecessor, which was only 7 ounces. Following the release of this updated model, both the NFL and the NFL Player’s Association (NFLPA) cleared the helmet cover for use in practice.
Following the creation of the NXT, the Jacksonville Jaguars were the first NFL team to allow their use in practice during the 2020 offseason. However, initial use of the NXT was limited, as long term research surrounding their efficacy was still hard to come by. During the 2021 offseason, other franchises across the league began offering Guardian Caps to players, and a study was released looking at how the caps reduced harm to them. Based on research conducted by consulting firm BioCore and Stanford University, the caps “show an average reduction of 10%-25% of HARM – head acceleration response metric.”. HARM as a metric helps quantify the degree to which a “hit” of a certain speed and force will impact an athlete. The higher the measured HARM, the more likely a hit will be harmful to the player and potentially result in a concussion.
Following the publishing of the initial research results, a resolution was passed in a meeting with the NFL owners mandating the use of Guardian Caps during practices for positions with the highest impact intensity: those of Offensive Linemen, Defensive Linemen, Linebackers and Tight ends.
Following the 2022 mandate, Guardian Caps were used in practice and credited with helping reduce player concussions, although the link had not been scientifically proven. However, things changed in 2025 when a study was released that analyzed the effectiveness of the Guardian Cap NXT over the past handful of seasons. According to the report, “For concussions involving the helmet shell (as opposed to the facemask) (n = 76), there was no significant association between Guardian Cap NXT use and the concussion rate.” The report concludes that, “the reduction in concussions could not be attributed solely to the energy-absorbing effects of the Guardian Cap NXT.”
Although there isn’t a clear link between the use of the NXT and reduced rate of concussions for players, the report also discusses an additional dimension related to player use of the covering. With the NFL’s efforts to increase player safety by mandating Guardian Caps during practices, there are also growing concerns over how they will influence player behavior. Some have argued that Guardian Caps will increase the aggressiveness of player behavior based on the assumption that it will compensate for more physical play. Although the report was clear in the middling efficacy of Guardian Caps, initial reporting out of the NFL would suggest otherwise. Following the publication of the report, headlines coming from the NFL focused on a statistic of a 54% to 62% reduction in overall concussion incidence during practices in the study period.
With the NFL’s most recent safety initiative being called into question, it brings to mind the controversy surrounding the discovery of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE. CTE is a brain disease that can develop from both concussive and sub-concussive impacts that an NFL player would sustain during the course of their career. For years, stories of NFL players dealing with severe mental health issues and other cognitive struggles were chalked up to individual failings and one-off incidents. However, following both the brain disease’s discovery and documentation in 2005 and subsequent research in 2017 that found CTE in 345 of 376 samples from deceased NFL players, the extensive impact of sustained head trauma from football was revealed. Although the 2017 report faces issues with a biased sample pool, a recent study published in the British Medical Journal establishes the more accurate prevalence of developed CTE (with varying levels of severity) at 1 in 4 for all NFL players.
As the NFL continues to grow from its already unprecedented level of cultural influence, it’s important to keep in mind the risks that players continue to face. Although professional athletes can understand and accept the risks that come along with playing, those looking to pursue a career in the sport put themselves at risk with no guarantee of success. As football and its safety technology evolves, it’s important for fans and those involved in the sport to deeply consider the future of the sport. What level of both risk and actual harm to the participants is acceptable in pursuit of what is fundamentally an entertainment product?
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