Concussions. Over the past few years, they have received a lot of media attention when it comes to football and other contact sports. This is not just true at the professional level, but all the way down to youth pee wee leagues. Concussions have been linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease caused by concussions that include symptoms such as dementia, memory loss, aggression, confusion and/or depression. Tiaina Baul “Junior” Seau, a 12-time Pro Bowl linebacker who played in the NFL for 19 years, committed suicide in May 2012. Seau’s brain was donated to science and the researchers found that he had CTE, thrusting the condition into headlines across America. The Neersyde staff has previously visited the helmet/CTE controversy in the May 2013 issue titled “Leading with Your Head.”

So if there was a way to protect players and make the game safer, wouldn’t that option be a ‘no-brainer’? The manufacturers of the new Guardian Cap helmet covering think so. According to its website (www.guardiancaps.com), the Guardian Cap is a piece of protective equipment “that adds a soft-shell layer to the outside of the decades old hard-shell football helmets and reduces the impact the head takes in a hit up to 33%.” The covering, which comes in a variety of colors, sits on top of the helmet and consists of several pockets of padding (although we could not find any details on the website about what the padding is made of – i.e. foam, gel, etc.). The basic premise is that the “soft” Guardian Cap layer absorbs the initial severity of impact, reducing the force that’s transmitted to the helmet, and, as a result, the head.

There’s even some schools in Florida that are using the Guardian Cap. In a recent WPTV news Channel 5 interview with current Cardinal Newman head coach Steve Walsh, the former Miami Hurricane quarterback said, “I think a lot of athletes my age, that’s kind of the era we played in, you kind of played through [injuries]. Now they have come up with concussion tests that you can do right on the sideline.” Two of the players from Cardinal Newman also spoke about the Guardian Cap during the interview with WPTV News. “There’s not as much shock on the head and not as much head trauma,” said junior wide receiver Andrew Owers.”I’ve noticed a huge difference in my practice and play,” added offensive and defensive lineman Kyle Lawrence. However, Cardinal Newman players only wear the Guardian Cap in practice, not in games. It seems many of the players don’t want to be singled out for wearing the cap. “I probably never would wear it during a game, just for the sheer fact that no one else does it and it looks weird,” admitted Owers. “The [cap] is the ideal way to reduce the severity of the impact, and impacts over a longer duration could make you susceptible to a major concussion,” said Walsh in a phone interview with The Neersyde. “So we feel that we can reduce the concussions in practice.”

However, if the Guardian Cap reduces impact force by 33% as it claims, why is it being banned by some schools and districts? The Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) sent out a memorandum banning the use of those caps in its sanctioned games. Based on that statement, CHSAA has ruled “any use of a helmet with third party add-on equipment, such as a helmet cap, shall render that helmet out of compliance with The National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE). Therefore, CHSAA has mandated that use of the Guardian Cap makes the helmet non-compliant for game play because the helmet would then no longer meet NOCSAE standards (kind of like voiding the warranty of your iPhone by jailbreaking it). NOCSAE sets helmet certification and cautions groups and schools to “seek more information” before using caps at any time, clearly not relying on the Guardian Cap’s own research that says the equipment reduces the force of impact up to 33 percent.

Yet even though NOCSAE has not approved it, adding a Guardian Cap is no different than adding other accessories that improve player protection according to Walsh. “Technically if you put a visor on a helmet, that’s altering the helmet, but visors are worn [by high school players],” noted Walsh. “NOCSAE has not approved the Guardian Caps because they don’t need to. It’s a battle in the courtroom [between NOCSAE and the Guardian Cap manufacturers].” Walsh also made it clear that despite the ruling in Colorado, the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) is on board with the Guardian Caps. “FHSAA approved the caps for use in games last year,” said the Cardinal Newman Head Coach.
“We think it [is] a superior engineering design to a helmet with a hard, inflexible exterior material like polycarbonate because it changes the physics of the collision,” said Mr. Matt Simonds, a member of the business division and national sales for Guardian Cap. “Our lab research and field feedback from coaches and athletic trainers is almost entirely positive to reinforce this belief.” The problem is, researchers have not reached an agreement on how the results of impact absorption tests relate to concussions. In fact, upon visiting the Guardian Cap website, a disclaimer pops up that states: “No helmet, practice apparatus, or helmet pad can prevent or eliminate the risk of concussions or other serious head injuries while playing sports. Researchers have not reached an agreement on how the results of impact absorption tests relate to concussions. No conclusions about a reduction of risk or severity of concussive injury should be drawn from impact absorption tests.”

So while Guardian Cap contends that its equipment reduces the force of impact, it makes no claims about protecting athletes from concussions, which may be why some schools and districts are reluctant to purchase the Guardian Caps. Despite the lack of evidence, though, according to Guardian Cap’s website, the product is currently used by more than 20,000 high school players (including both football and lacrosse) in 30 different states and has received endorsements from several former NFL players, including Fred McCrary, Mark Kelso, Joe Burns, Izell Reese, Scott Lockwood, and Steve Walsh. Fred McCrary, a former Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champion, now coaches at Football University – a weekend football camp for students from sixth to eleventh grade. “We’re just trying it out,” said the former San Diego Charger. “Studies show that [the Guardian Cap] reduces impact by 33 percent and keeps your head cooler. So we’re going to try them out in practice, and if it means getting one more guy to game day, it will have been worthwhile.” Dabo Sweeney, the head football coach at Clemson, added, “With the concerns of long term effects of head impacts, not just during games but in practice, we feel [using the Guardian Cap] is the most effective way to reduce the severity of those hits. This protective gear will remain standard issue for our student athletes.” The Guardian Cap website also says that the company donates five percent of their profit to brain research.

Would such caps make sense for Benjamin to purchase, even at the middle school level? Coach Keller, the seventh and eighth grade football coach says that he’s “always for keeping players safe, but he doesn’t necessarily buy in to the caps. “I’ve heard of those head coverings and how they’re supposed to prevent concussions [but] we teach proper tackling technique [and] I don’t think there is enough research to use it,” he said. However, sometimes technique isn’t all you need for protection. “Regardless of teaching proper technique, you will probably have head-to-head injuries or a collision with the ground,” said Walsh. Yet while Walsh wants his players to wear the caps in practice, he doesn’t make them wear them in games, leaving the choice up to them. “We feel we can reduce the concussions in practice. The kids are allowed to use the caps in games, but they think that it looks strange and I agree with them,” explained Walsh. Will Nicklaus, an eighth grader who recently suffered a concussion in a Benjamin varsity lacrosse game, also thought the caps look a bit strange. “I would probably use the cap in practice but not in games,” he said. However, he wanted to learn more about the Guardian Cap because he had never heard of it.

Nicklaus may be in the same boat as many other students around the country who don’t know about the Guardian Cap, but that is quickly changing. The caps are on the rise thanks to news features such as the one by WPTV which highlighted their use by the Cardinal Newman football team, former professional players’ endorsements, and the growing number of programs that are using them in high school and college. Yet, the true nature of the cap’s ability to protect players is still in question. The public may not know for sure until more research is done, but it seems like many coaches, parents, and athletes across the nation are buying into the caps’ claims of protection because of the recent attention sports-related concussions and head injuries have received. If more local schools purchase the caps and the research proves their effectiveness, they may be a viable option here at TBS in the near future.