In the wake of Tua Tagovailoa's frightening concussion on Thursday Night Football, the NFL has taken baby steps to prevent another player from using the concussion protocol. Since Lawrence Taylor snapped Joe Theismann's leg on Monday Night Football, the most indelible image has been Tagovailoa's hands and arms stuck in the fence. The National Football League is getting softer. It's heard all the time by fans of Jacked Up. That hasn't been applied to their helmets. The injury of Tagovailoa will accelerate the transition to Guardian Caps by the league.
Between the start of training camp and the second preseason game, all offensive linemen, defensive linemen, tight ends, linebackers, and tight ends are required to wear Guardian caps. The number of concussions among those position groups dropped from 23 over the previous three-year period to 11 in 2022. Six of the 11 concussions were caused by blows to the face mask.
The next step is clear between the information and the focus on concussions. For live games, the Guardian Caps need to be phased in. Resistance will be there. Fight players have put in a lot of work to make sure they don't have to change helmet designs. Three years ago, a few players threw their helmets in the bin. Since pro football replaced leather helmets with protective helmets with facemasks in the 1950s, the Guardian Caps would be the most drastic change.
The helmets are not aesthetically pleasing. The soft shell over helmets made of closed cell foam would make the heads of players in the National Football League look less like figurines. Regular-sized helmets and mini-helmets are very popular for autographs. During a year in which alternate helmet designs were allowed for all 32 teams, would the league be willing to interfere with the revenue stream?
The league has come a long way, but more needs to be done. It is similar to the era in car safety standards when it was mandatory to have a seat belt. When baseball players were required to wear helmets, they didn't have to wear ear flaps until decades later. Hockey players have to wear helmets and eventually visors.
The helmet models that are derivatives of the same design are tested annually by the NFL. Having the Guardian Cap data on concussions peer-reviewed is one of the obstacles.
The NFL needs to know if the added weight, the grip of the foam, and the friction it creates will cause an increase in neck and spine injuries. When two helmets hit each other, they don't slide off of each other smoothly, and that creates Torque on the neck. It is likely that skill-position players on offense and defense weren't required to wear caps.
The ProCap helmets shouldn't be taken away from the NFL. In the 90s, Buffalo Bills safety Mark Kelso and San Francisco 49ers lineman Steve Wallace swore by their use of the padded attachment. Ben Straus, the engineer behind the ProCap, was mocked and never caught on, but he did work with the University of Baltimore on a helmet concept that sought to mitigate concussions.
The National Football League can do more to prevent concussions. Every year, the National Football League appoints engineers who design and experiment helmets. The solution is in front of them. They can't force players to wear Guardian Caps, but they can force them to.
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