How a 12-Ounce Layer of Foam Changed the NFL
How a 12-Ounce Layer of Foam Changed the NFL
Even the makers of the Guardian Cap admit it looks silly. But for a sport facing an existential brain-injury crisis, once unthinkable solutions have now become almost normal.
Late in his team’s game against the Green Bay Packers on September 15, Indianapolis Colts tight end Kylen Granson caught a short pass over the middle of the field, charged forward, and lowered his body to brace for contact. The side of his helmet smacked the face mask of linebacker Quay Walker, and the back of it whacked the ground as Walker wrestled him down. Rising to his feet after the 9-yard gain, Granson tossed the football to an official and returned to the line of scrimmage for the next snap.
Aside from it being his first reception of the 2024 National Football League season, this otherwise ordinary play was only noteworthy because of what Granson was wearing at the time of the hit: a 12-ounce, foam-padded, protective helmet covering called a Guardian Cap.
Already mandatory for most positions at all NFL preseason practices, as well as regular-season and postseason practices with contact, these soft shells received another vote of confidence this year when the league greenlit them for optional game use, citing a roughly 50 percent drop in training camp concussions since their official 2022 debut. Through six weeks of action this fall, only 10 NFL players had actually taken the field with one on, according to a league spokesperson. But the decision was easy for Granson, who tried out his gameday Guardian Cap—itself covered by a 1-ounce pinnie with the Colts logo to simulate the design of the helmet underneath—in preseason games before committing to wear it for real.
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Would I be way out there to suggest that if you have to go to these lengths to protect a player, maybe it's not a good sport for the 21st century?
If people want to play it & people enjoy watching it, why discard it rather than make it safer?
I enjoy skydiving, drinking copious amounts of alcohol, & eating fried foods. It’s on me to do those things in moderation.
You aren't practically guaranteed to have life changing injury from skydiving, drinking, or eating. Several studies have shown that over 90% of football players have CTE. It's not the same, and not a question of moderation.
The majority of football players do not have CTE. Could they get it? Yes, that’s why this padding has been invented.
These are grown adults taking measured risks & being paid for it, so others can enjoy it.
Don’t like it? Fine. Don’t watch it. But don’t start winging your judgement around thinking everyone who does like it is lesser than you.
People enjoy competition. People enjoy violence. People enjoy booze. People enjoy drugs. People enjoy fuckin’. Get over it.
I guess if you don't like facts, what you said could be true.
Oh, I LOVE facts. This is the 3rd paragraph of your first fact:
“The NFL player data should not be interpreted to suggest that 91.7 percent of all current and former NFL players have CTE, as brain bank samples are subject to selection biases. The prevalence of CTE among NFL players is unknown as CTE can only be definitively diagnosed after death. Repetitive head impacts appear to be the chief risk factor for CTE, which is characterized by misfolded tau protein that is unlike changes observed from aging,”
Never said CTE wasn’t a thing, just pointed out that these padded covers are helping protect against it.
is unknown as CTE can only be definitively diagnosed after death.
So you didn't look at the second link, the diagnosed after death part. Which was pretty definitive.
To be fair, I don't care if grown men want to brain damage themselves. I enjoy watching both boxing and MMA. I don't think it's something younger people should be doing though, the head striking at least. At the same time, I'm not going to fool myself that these people I'm watching aren't damaging their brains.
Neither am I. Those are grown adults getting paid adult wages & who are given adult options to measure their risk vs reward.
The second link doesn’t prove anything as long as football is still a billion dollar industry in this world. Study as many deceased brains as you like, doesn’t change the fact the living ones still like making millions of dollars smashing into one another.
I’m just not willing to call for the dissolution of the NFL or NCAA Football programs because of the possibility.
Football isn’t the enemy here. We put those folks on their pedestals & now everyone wants to blame them for being there.
Because in order to allow them to play it, we are literally damaging our children's brains?
Don’t let your kids play it? That is your responsibility, not society’s.
Only the parents that allow their children to do it though
People enjoyed playing and watching jousting. We stopped doing it because it's dangerous and stupid.
Also, drinking copious amounts of alcohol isn't just on you if you have a family.
No, we actually didn't stop doing it. You probably haven't heard of it because fewer people no enjoy watching it.
I watched numerous jousting matches in my life.
What we did stop was pretending it's real combat. Today's jousting matches are more like pro wrestling, where the bruises are real, but the outcome is scripted.I mean that's cool about jousting, but I think you're missing the point. Which I don't believe was about jousting specifically.
Maybe they should have referred to how we used to watch lions eat humans for sport in the colosseum. Popular shit from what I understand. Should we keep doing that because people liked it?
Public executions are another one...
I watched numerous jousting matches in my life.
You've watched numerous safe modern versions of "jousting" put on by SCA groups. That is not jousting.
But hey, you want scripted football, be my guest. People won't get so badly hurt.
I want no football at all, thank you.
It's the most boring sport possible, and designed to maximize the opportunity for commercial breaks.I will completely agree about the commercial breaks. Professional American sports are nothing but commercial cash grabs as it is, college is headed the same way.
Dangerous sports may be the issue in the near future, commercials & betting may prove more damaging to sports than injury ever will.
Ok, well my point to the person I replied to is that we stopped doing dangerous and stupid sports.
"Jousting" that's scripted is not what I was talking about. I was talking about the real thing. Especially the kind involving quintains, because, again, it was dangerous and stupid.
So you argue we should work to replace football with "football" over time, making the game more safe until it has your (dis) approval?
I'm not arguing anything except maybe we shouldn't encourage something this dangerous. And I've only ever said maybe.
Which I know is a terrible affront to football fans and you have my sincere apologies for saying something so incredibly hurtful.
People stopped jousting because heads were severed & blood was spilt. I quite enjoy watching the jousting at ren fairs.
Drinking copious amounts of alcohol is not something I invite my family to participate in.
Unless they want to joust. Then I might be swayed.
Heads weren't severed in jousting, what are you talking about? How would that even work? The jousting you're watching in ren fairs is scripted. Also, blood is spilled on football fields all the time.
Also...
Drinking copious amounts of alcohol is not something I invite my family to participate in.
I seriously hope you don't have any kids.
I have 40 children, they’re all drunk now because of you. Just out of spite.
What are you on about? You think those jousters knocked the other jousters off their horses & just started mocking their opponents?
“Hahaha look at the no horse dummy! You lose & I will now abscond with your princess! Hooray I am a jouster!!”
No. They got off their horses & aimed to behead, or otherwise cease the existence of, their opponent.
Yes. Ren Fairs are scripted. So is Wrastlin’ & they spill blood while wrastlin’ too.
What is your point here? You’re above it, so the rest of us are lesser for enjoying it.
People enjoy sport & specifically football. What’s the real problem here? That someone’s subjective opinion differs from yours?
I can only speak for myself, but my main problem is the culture and how these people become football players. They start from a very young age, and if I had kids, the thought of letting them destroy their developing mind like that for a sport would be completely out of the question.
Instead, in some areas of the country, we have families that are pressuring their very young children to enter a sport that will affect their developing brain in profoundly negative ways.
This isn't only encouraged, it's highly rewarded. College football coaches at big state schools, are often the highest paid public employee in their respective state.
Once again, this is not society’s responsibility, it’s on the parents.
Don’t want your child to become a roided up rage monster with CTE? Don’t raise them up to believe that sports is their only way forward.
Sports are a path for SOME individuals & those individuals have the CHOICE to decide what is right for them & what isn’t.
Yes family pressure exists, but so does individual choice & the two conflict every day. Hell, I’ve got boobs & a vag despite my parents protestations & I’m better off for it.
For many of those individuals they only see sports as their path forward. Want them to find a better path? Show it to them…
But don’t judge them when they strike out down a path you don’t approve of, if you aren’t willing to provide a better solution.
Sitting here saying football shouldn’t exist because people get hurt is just lazy hand wringing & judgemental nonsense.
That's absolutely not how the sport of jousting worked. You're just making things up. It wasn't gladiatorial combat. And even that resulted in death less often than is usually portrayed.
Well alright expert now I’m shitfaced & ready to learn. Do, please educate us all on aspects of jousting that did not lead to mortal combat.
By your logic, Football isn’t about hurting people any more than jousting is.
Sports are sports. They aren’t going away just because you think you’re better than their fandoms.
I mean, we literally have medieval rules of jousting.
https://www.medievalists.net/2015/01/medieval-rules-jousting/
Notice no mention of mortal combat being involved in determining a winner. Or being involved at all.
Maybe look these things up before you get shiftaced.
And here’s the 2024 NFL Rule book. Not a single mention of injuring, hurting, dismembering, beheading, concussions, bruises, broken bones, scabs, cuts, or scrapes. Whatdyaknow?
It’s almost like the rules were written to make the sport safer, much like I’m sure there were for jousting.
Maybe should get shitfaced. Could help you climb down off that high horse.
"It is tradition that athletes must be harmed for our entertainment."
I'm not sure that people have moved on all that much from Roman gladiatorial combat.
Dumb people can’t play chess (well)
Football is for dumb people, got it
All that brain damage, proven by countless studies, does make a person dumb.