You may have noticed the large puffy extensions on some football helmets in recent years. They are kind of hard to miss. The NFL recommended the Guardian Caps to certain positions for preseason in 2022 and extended their use recently now allowing them for use in regular and postseason play for the 2024 season. While uptake was much lower in the regular season than preseason, the big question is, do they help reduce the likelihood of getting a concussion? As with most NFL data, we don’t have that readily publicly available, and it typically isn’t published.

With the NFL adopting something, that typically trickles down to the levels below. No question I’ve seen more high school and younger teams adopting the Guardian Caps as well. What do we know about concussions at that level? Today on the podcast I have the lead author from a recently published article which also won the award for the best research article at the AMSSM annual meeting in 2024 about Guardian Caps to discuss their findings.

 

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Links from this Episode:

-- Dr. Mark Halstead: On the Web -- On Twitter

-- Dr. Erin Hammer https://www.uwhealth.org/providers/erin-hammer-md

https://ortho.wisc.edu/physicians/erin-hammer

-- Hammer E, Mosiman S, Joachim MR, Taylor E, Cordum A, Brooks MA, McGuine T. The association between Guardian Cap use during practices and sport-related concussion risk in high school American football players. Br J Sports Med. 2025 Jan 28:bjsports-2024-108945. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2024-108945. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39875183. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39875183/

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2025/01/27/bjsports-2024-108945

-- Sinnott AM, Chandler MC, Van Dyke C, Mincberg DL, Pinapaka H, Lauck BJ, Mihalik JP. Efficacy of Guardian Cap Soft-Shell Padding on Head Impact Kinematics in American Football: Pilot Findings. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Oct 28;20(21):6991. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20216991. PMID: 37947549; PMCID: PMC10650906. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37947549/

-- Quigley KG, Hopfe D, Fenner M, Pavilionis P, Owusu-Amankonah V, Islas A, Murray NG. Preliminary Examination of Guardian Cap Head Impact Kinematics Using Instrumented Mouthguards. J Athl Train. 2024 Jun 1;59(6):594-599. doi: 10.4085/1062-6050-0136.23. PMID: 37734732; PMCID: PMC11220776. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37734732/

-- Breedlove KM, Breedlove E, Nauman E, Bowman TG, Lininger MR. The Ability of an Aftermarket Helmet Add-On Device to Reduce Impact-Force Accelerations During Drop Tests. J Athl Train. 2017 Sep;52(9):802-808. doi: 10.4085/1062-6050-52.6.01. Epub 2017 Aug 3. PMID: 28771033; PMCID: PMC5634228. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28771033/

-- Stark NE, Begonia MT, Jung C, Rowson S. How Shell Add-On Products Influence Varsity Football Helmet Performance? Ann Biomed Eng. 2024 Nov;52(11):2923-2931. doi: 10.1007/s10439-024-03627-5. Epub 2024 Oct 2. PMID: 39356379; PMCID: PMC11511751. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39356379/

-- Bailey AM, Funk JR, Crandall JR, Myers BS, Arbogast KB.