Guardian Caps Not A Hit With Some NFLers: “Messes Up Everybody’s Swag”

Of the several rules changes to the NFL this season, perhaps none is more important aesthetically than the league approving the Guardian Cap for in-game use.

This has already set up a situation in which several players have embraced the cap’s safety features, and Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman James Daniels became the first player to wear a Guardian Cap in the team’s first preseason game, making history in so doing. He wasn’t alone.

He was joined by perhaps the most high-profile player so far, when the Colts’ running back Jonathan Taylor also sported the padded helmet cover in a Colts’ preseason game.

If you’re not aware, the Guardian Cap is a soft-shell pad which wraps over a regular helmet to absorb contact, and which can help minimize the impact of violent collisions and cut down on concussions. Guardian Sports, the company that makes the caps, claims that they reduce impact similar to a soft wall around a NASCAR track.

And while most NFL players probably will agree that wearing the Guardian Cap as a safety feature will reduce concussions (and hopefully CTE), not all are on-board with the caps’ appearance. Earlier this year, the Miami Dolphins (as a team) basically said they will not wear the caps during games.

Several other notable players have also indicated they won’t be sporting the soft-shell caps for reasons of vanity.

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Rashod Bateman said, “It messes up everybody’s swag on the field. You will never see me wearing that in a game.”

Tennessee Titans center Lloyd Cushenberry said the Guardian Cap looks “goofy” even while noting its safety aspect. He elaborated:

“I don’t know about wearing it in games. Swag over safety a little bit. It looks kind of goofy, but I get the safety to it.”

Guardian Caps have been shown to reduce impact by up to 33%, according to the manufacturer’s website. The ones used by the NFL reduce the head acceleration response metric (HARM) up to 40% (HARM is used to measure “brain strain” during a collision).

You may ask, “Why wouldn’t a player want to wear a safety device that can prevent concussions and possible future CTE?” It seems the aesthetics are the sole reason.

According to SI, “Some feel it doesn’t look cool, that it doesn’t jibe with the league’s archaic warrior ethos.”

Former NFL offensive tackle King Dunlap said on a podcast that players should “raw dog the helmet and get CTE like the rest of us.” Jon Feliciano, a 49ers guard, tweeted, “Y’all mfers better not be wearing guardian caps.”

OK then.

While I don’t quite understand the logic of the aesthetics-only argument, I do get it. Often the first players to wear new safety devices have been the subject of ridicule (and most of them have been worn in reaction to injury). Baseball players who first wore the “C-Flap” batting helmet attachment received ribbing, but now many top players wear them, and no one seems to think having one isn’t “swaggy.”

And sadly, some athletes may be best remembered for the additional safety equipment they wore, rather than their playing careers. If you remember former NFL players Mark Kelso (Bills) and Steve Wallace (49ers), you may remember them more for wearing “Pro Cap” padding (a precursor to the Guardian Cap) than for anything they did on the field.

When the New York Mets’ David Wright suffered a concussion after being hit in the helmet with a fastball, he wore a large helmet with extra padding and was ridiculed mercilessly — with the most common comparisons being to cartoon character The Great Gazoo and Rick Moranis’ character in Spaceballs.

I’m not sure that today’s players are even familiar with those two examples, but their resistance stems from the same place. They consider the protective covering to somehow be unmanly, or a sign of weakness — but couched in an opposition to the equipment’s looks.

Titans running back Tyjae Spears is another player who is resisting the new technology while simultaneously touting its positive effects:

“The Guardian Cap might take the swag a few points down. I might wear it. You might not see those effects right now, but you got to get older. So, I think I’m going to protect myself.”

Let’s hope that “might” becomes a “will.”

Despite the opposition from a number of players, six NFLers actually wore the caps in-game during the first week of preseason games — and none of them wore it because of injury, but rather to reduce the likelihood of a future concussion or CTE. This alone may lead to greater acceptance of the Cap.

But the news isn’t all bad. Not only are some current players either wearing or considering wearing it during games, some former players are in favor of it as well. According to SI, former NFL MVP Cam Newton was asked on his podcast if he would wear the Guardian Cap if he’d had the chance. His response?

“Hell, yeah,” Newton said. “You ever got concussed?”

There is also, perhaps, one new feature of the Guardian Cap that will encourage greater in-game use: covers are now available in team colors with all logos, so those wearing them won’t look that different. In fact, unless they’re seen up close, it’s difficult to even tell when a player is wearing one.

Sure, in iso and somewhat close, you can tell there’s a cap being worn (as seen on James Daniels, above). But look at him in this group shot:

It’s not impossible to tell he’s got a cap on, but IMO the aesthetic is unchanged. In fact, when I first saw that photograph (which Jimmer published a couple weekends ago), I couldn’t even tell what was out of place at first.

I’m sure we’ll see more Guardian Caps worn on the field during actual NFL regular season games, but we’ll also still have plenty of players opposed to wearing it. I know what it was like to be young and feeling invicible (and I’d imagine when you’re one of the very few physical specimens to actually play in the NFL, you’d feel invincible too), so I completely understand the reticence to wearing the caps. Hopefully that will change over time as more and more players wear the caps and they become an accepted accessory. And hopefully the older (and retired) players will also be more supportive of their use, making the guys still opposed less worried about the swag aspect, and more concerned with the long-term effects of concussions and CTE.

We can only hope.