MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Miami Dolphins players certainly know the safety benefits of wearing Guardian Caps, the soft-shell helmet covers that are now mandatory for most everyone who takes an NFL practice field.
They just don’t care about those benefits enough on game days to wear something that they think makes them look goofy.
PFN asked six Dolphins players Tuesday if they plan to wear Guardian Caps this football season, which the NFL is allowing for the first time. All said no, with varying degrees of derision.
Why Miami Dolphins Players Won’t Wear Guardian Caps
“No way,” said Dolphins linebacker Jordyn Brooks. “It’s like an extra 10 pounds on your head, makes it a lot hotter, heavier. No, I wouldn’t do it.”
Brooks then quipped: “They call them UFO caps.”
Brooks does have a point. They are borderline cartoonish, harkening back to the Great Gazoo and Marvin the Martian.
But they’re also effective in minimizing the risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the potentially deadly brain disease caused by repeated head trauma. The NFL is determined to put its concussion controversy behind it, and its researchers believe that Guardian Caps can help make that happen.
“We’ve got two years of data now showing significant concussion reductions in those players that wear Guardian Caps in the NFL,” said Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s Chief Medical Officer. “We might actually see a Guardian Cap on a player in a game this year.”
They’ve already made a big difference in practice. Concussions in recent years have been down significantly during training camp, and the NFL believes the usage of Guardian Caps is a big reason why.
Guardian Caps are said to reduce the force caused by a helmet hit by more than 10%, and the concussion rate for those wearing them has been more than halved.
FREE: Subscribe to PFN’s NFL Newsletter
If the long-term health benefits associated with Guardian Caps usage can’t convince players to wear them, perhaps the bottom line will. Concussions cause players to miss games, which in turn hurts their team and also their ability to earn in the future.
“I think anything that gives players confidence and conviction with how they play is an added benefit,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said. “Player safety is of the utmost importance. Players can’t do what they’ve worked their whole lives to do if they can’t be on the field, and you want that to be done safely. So I really have zero idea. I would expect they’ll have large numbers that there would be some players [who do].
Perhaps. But PFN couldn’t find any Dolphins players open to it on Tuesday.
“I don’t like the aesthetics of it; I’ll leave it at that,” said Dolphins safety Elijah Campbell, who told reporters he doesn’t plan to wear them in games after being forced to in practice this year.
“Just for the aesthetics, I prefer not to wear it in games,” added tight end Tanner Conner.
Tackle Terron Armstead was more diplomatic when explaining why he’s passing on the option of wearing a Guardian Cap in games:
“I’ve just been playing football a certain way for a long time. I’m not really getting into changing it up.”