Even the makers of the Guardian Cap admit it looks silly. But for a sport facing an existential brain-injury crisis, once unthinkable solutions have now become almost normal.

Late in his team’s game against the Green Bay Packers on September 15, Indianapolis Colts tight end Kylen Granson caught a short pass over the middle of the field, charged forward, and lowered his body to brace for contact. The side of his helmet smacked the face mask of linebacker Quay Walker, and the back of it whacked the ground as Walker wrestled him down. Rising to his feet after the 9-yard gain, Granson tossed the football to an official and returned to the line of scrimmage for the next snap.

Aside from it being his first reception of the 2024 National Football League season, this otherwise ordinary play was only noteworthy because of what Granson was wearing at the time of the hit: a 12-ounce, foam-padded, protective helmet covering called a Guardian Cap.

Already mandatory for most positions at all NFL preseason practices, as well as regular-season and postseason practices with contact, these soft shells received another vote of confidence this year when the league greenlit them for optional game use, citing a roughly 50 percent drop in training camp concussions since their official 2022 debut. Through six weeks of action this fall, only 10 NFL players had actually taken the field with one on, according to a league spokesperson. But the decision was easy for Granson, who tried out his gameday Guardian Cap—itself covered by a 1-ounce pinnie with the Colts logo to simulate the design of the helmet underneath—in preseason games before committing to wear it for real.

  • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz
    3·
    28 days ago

    is unknown as CTE can only be definitively diagnosed after death.

    So you didn’t look at the second link, the diagnosed after death part. Which was pretty definitive.

    To be fair, I don’t care if grown men want to brain damage themselves. I enjoy watching both boxing and MMA. I don’t think it’s something younger people should be doing though, the head striking at least. At the same time, I’m not going to fool myself that these people I’m watching aren’t damaging their brains.

    • HonkyTonkWoman@lemm.ee
      2·
      28 days ago

      Neither am I. Those are grown adults getting paid adult wages & who are given adult options to measure their risk vs reward.

      The second link doesn’t prove anything as long as football is still a billion dollar industry in this world. Study as many deceased brains as you like, doesn’t change the fact the living ones still like making millions of dollars smashing into one another.

      I’m just not willing to call for the dissolution of the NFL or NCAA Football programs because of the possibility.

      Football isn’t the enemy here. We put those folks on their pedestals & now everyone wants to blame them for being there.