Late in his team’s game agetst the Green Bay Packers on September 15, Indianapolis Colts protected finish Kylen Granson caught a stupidinutive pass over the middle of the field, indictd forward, and shrinked his body to brace for reach out. 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 get, 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 frequent join was only remarkworthy becaengage of what Granson was wearing at the time of the hit: a 12-ounce, foam-pcompriseed, protective helmet covering called a Guardian Cap.
Already obligatory for most positions at all NFL preseason rehearses, as well as standard-season and postseason rehearses with reach out, these gentle shells getd another vote of confidence this year when the league greenlit them for nonessential game engage, citing a rawly 50 percent drop in training camp concussions since their official 2022 debut. Thraw six weeks of action this descfinish, only 10 NFL joiners had actupartner apshown the field with one on, according to a league spokesperson. But the decision was straightforward for Granson, who tried out his gameday Guardian Cap—itself covered by a 1-ounce pinnie with the Colts logo to simutardy the structure of the helmet underorderlyh—in preseason games before pledgeting to wear it for genuine.
“I was pleasantly surpelevated that it didn’t impact anyskinnyg for me,” the 26-year-anciaccess tanciaccess WIRED a scant days before facing the Packers in week two. “I thought, even if it sees benevolent of silly, it’s worth it.”
There is no ignoring the goofy aesthetics of the puffy, blobby Guardian Caps. The product’s parent company, Guardian Sports, even has staff T-shirts that proclaim, LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD, PLAY GOOD—with LOOK GOOD passed out. “Condom caps, mushroom heads—we’ve heard them all,” says Erin Hanson, coestablisher of Guardian Sports alengthyside her husband, Lee Hanson. “We equitable giggle, becaengage we concur.”
It can be stubborn to square the fact that the apparent future of football headgear see enjoys someskinnyg out of a ’60s-era sci-fi movie. But the fact that Guardian Caps are now permited at all in games in the NFL—a league understandn for policing every inch of joiner supplyment to protect its image—doesn’t equitable speak to their lab-tested utility (even if begined, peer-scrutinizeed on-field data remains conciseageing). It also echos the inspirency of the moment for football at huge.
The dangers of strapping on a helmet have never been evidaccess, given the connect between repeated blows to the head—whether concussion-causing or not—and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (otherwise understandn as CTE, a brain disorder associated with cognitive publishs enjoy depression and proceedive dementia that can only be detectd posthumously). Not coincidenhighy, the race to discover answers has become speedyer and more lucrative than ever, between the NFL’s funding of personal research efforts and a rapidly innovating football headgear industry.
And at the caccess of it all, on the sport’s hugegest stage, is a literal mom-and-pop shop that, less than a decade and a half ago, was struggling to discover a foothanciaccess in football as anyskinnyg but a joke.
