Football star Jonathan Taylor has to fight head-on through walls day in, day out. The ball is pressed against his body, his head is lowered and stretched forward slightly. Eyes closed and through. There are usually four or five players standing opposite him, in the weight class of 145 kilograms and above. If Taylor, running back for the Indianapolis Colts in the National Football League (NFL), can’t find a gap, there’s a bang. And it’s a big bang.
Concussions are not an exception, they are the rule in the NFL. And with them comes the risk of secondary diseases such as dementia.
“It’s worth trying”
The league wants to minimize this risk, and the players and their powerful players’ union have been pushing for this for years. Now, for the first time, NFL pros have been allowed to wear so-called “guardian caps” – a type of additional padding that is put over the helmet and has been mandatory for most position groups in preseason training for two years – in season games as well. Taylor was one of the first NFL star players to make use of this option in the test games before the league started in early September.
Jonathan Taylor with Guadrian Cap: During games, the protective padding must be covered in team colours.Picture Alliance
Since then, an intense debate has flared up in the USA, not only because the Guardian Caps, with their unusual appearance – they make the head and helmet appear unnaturally large – do not really fit into the otherwise strictly regulated design concept of the NFL equipment (during games, an additional, third layer of fabric in team colors must be put over the Guardian Cap). But also because the effectiveness of the head protection in game situations has so far been insufficiently proven.
Studies commissioned by the NFL indicate that the force of head impacts during training sessions is reduced by ten to twenty percent, and NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills reports 50 percent fewer concussions (compared to the NFL’s three-year average) among players who wore the Guardian Cap throughout training sessions. The extent to which the additional head protection has such an effect in tough and often unpredictable game situations has yet to be investigated. There are currently no figures to fully prove this.
Neuroscientists like Chris Nowinski, who has been one of the leading figures in research into the long-term effects of head injuries in football for years, also criticize this. “But it’s worth a try,” says Nowinski, who is happy that things are moving within the NFL. More good news: In recent months, several new helmet models have been developed that are said to have already implemented the additional protective effect of the Guardian Caps. These will also be available to players this season.
