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The NFL has attempted to address its concussion epidemic with the help of the Guardian Caps that have become a standard piece of training equipment over the past few years, and it’s finally addressed the biggest hurdle it was facing after approving a measure permitting their use in actual games.
In 2017, the company that produces Guardian Caps won the inaugural HeadHealthTECH Challenge that the NFL organized in its quest to “develop new and improved helmet and protective equipment” in the hopes of cracking down on the concussions the league spent far too long attempting to minimize.
The Jaguars became the first team to use them during training camp in 2020, but it only took a couple of years for every single franchise to adopt the protective shells that contributed to a 50% drop in reported concussions during the preseason in 2022.
As things currently stand, quarterbacks, punters, and kickers are the only players who aren’t required to rock a Guardian Cap at practices, and earlier this year, it passed a new rule that permits their use in regular season games.
However, there were a couple of major issues that hadn’t really been adequately addressed when that change was announced.
The biggest was that Guardian Caps look objectively ugly—an admittedly trivial but nonetheless notable hurdle in the quest for widespread adoption—and it was hard to imagine NFL teams were going to be thrilled about players wearing a piece of equipment that covers up the branding on their helmets.
I’ve personally found myself wondering why teams hadn’t designed some sort of outer layer to address that aesthetic issue, but as Albert Breer noted on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Chargers have done exactly that based on the new look players were sporting at training camp.
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It appears the Chargers are the first team to harness this approach—based on a cursory search, the Saints, Raiders, 49ers, and Colts are still rocking the comparatively hideous old look at their mandatory training sessions—but it’s definitely a big step in the right direction.