Guardian Caps' protection data scores well with NFL player safety

This week, Chiefs Wire's Ed Easton Jr. spoke with Guardian Sports Chief Operating Officer Jake Hanson.

In his interview with Easton Jr., Hanson discussed Guardian Sports' ongoing innovations to improve player safety. He further delves into player and NFL feedback on the effectiveness of the Guardian Caps.

"The feedback that we got, honestly, back in 2012, our main thing, when we were looking at the product, and the way that we created it was, it's not going to hurt, and it might help." said Hanson, "So everything that we looked at was the NIJ neck testing and the coefficient of friction, like when two Guardian Caps collide. Is it going to cause further neck injuries? We looked at heat testing, we looked at impact-reduction testing, and everything we saw as we were building it showed that no, this Guardian Cap will actually make a somewhat of a difference."

A notable collision moment that put helmet protection in the forefront was Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes' helmet-cracking scramble against the Miami Dolphins in the 2023 AFC Wild Card game. According to the NFL, laboratory testing showed a 10-15% reduction in force whenever a helmet covered by a Guardian Cap was impacted.

"It wasn't until the NFL ran its own on-field study over the past couple of years that it saw a reduction in concussions associated with the Guardian Cap product. But before that, before we had all the testing and the proof of concept from the NFL, all we had to rely on were the athletes themselves." said Hanson, "That's kind of what grew the product more than anything else during the early 2010s, there were a lot of these athletes using them at Clemson, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Texas. They became coaches, and what we had heard from them was, "This feels way better, like my head isn't hurting as much after practice, like I'm not feeling the ringing in my ears. I feel a little bit more focused. And that's what the Guardian Cap is really meant to achieve: reducing impacts over time."

The on-field data, according to the NFL, showed a surprising benefit in the Guardian Cap's first year: a 52% reduction in preseason practice concussions among players wearing Guardian Caps compared with the three preseasons before the Guardian Cap mandate was introduced.

"I think the average high school lineman takes over 1,000 hits to the head every single season. It's not like nothing's going to stop or prevent a concussion fully. If you have two guys at 6'5 250 pounds, running full speed at each other, I don't care what you put on them; that's a car crash at that point." said Hanson, "What the Guardian Cap is really meant to do is that a non-concussive blow is the terminology within the industry of that, like 4.3 to 7.2 meters per second hit, that they're just colliding over and over again as they're coming off the ball, as they're jumping up for a jump ball. It was really the athlete's feedback: "Man, this looks a little bit goofy, but man, do I feel way better after practice." That kept us going for a really long time."

Trusted by athletes nationwide, Guardian continues to lead in safety-driven innovation. To learn more about the Guardian Cap NXT 2.0, please visit guardiansports.com.

This article originally appeared on Chiefs Wire: Guardian Caps' protection data scores well with NFL player safety