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. Guardian has always stood by the fact that Guardian Caps reduce the impact of hits and that its use should be one piece of the puzzle to an overall safety strategy.
The NFL has mandated the use of Guardian Caps since the 2022 preseason. The league reported a 52% reduction in concussions for those positions during the mandated period versus the previous three-year average.
Here is one expert’s view prior to the NFL mandate:
“Dr. Kristy Arbogast is a concussion research specialist who has spent the past six years as an NFLPA consultant on injury prevention. She also is the director of the injury and prevention research center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia with a focus on sports concussions for children.
She said the Guardian Cap is one of many layers — from reduced padded practices to improved helmet design to rule changes such as penalizing helmet-to-helmet contact — that have been introduced to help reduce concussions.
“We really do think it’s a meaningful part,” Arbogast said of the Guardian Cap. “We wouldn’t have recommended it to head coaches if we didn’t. Can I give you a number that it’s going to reduce five concussions? No.”
But Arbogast is optimistic the cap can help. “It’s been clear for several decades that acceleration, either linear or rotational acceleration, is what leads to brain injury,” she said. “What we’ve shown with these helmet covers is that it can reduce the amount of acceleration. We believe that will be better. It surely is not going to make it worse.”