The sport of football can be considered one of the most violent team sports that exists in the world.
But there are ongoing attempts to make each sport safer for its players, and Georgia State football is trying one of these new equipments and innovations.
It’s known as the Guardian Cap, a new kind of helmet that features extra padding, invented by Georgia Tech alum Lee Hanson and his wife Erin Hanson, a Georgia State alumna.
Guardian, the company that is behind the new helmets, is based in Alpharetta where it specializes in engineering products that are more collision-resistant.
These helmets are the first item of sports equipment manufactured by Guardian. But because of their expertise in making energy-absorbent technology, it puts them right at home when trying to figure out how to take energy away from some of the violent collisions that occur on the football field.
Diverting injury
The helmets are designed to slow down head injuries in the sport and decrease the number of injuries that generally come with the territory.
“Whether it be a quarterback’s hand coming down on a lineman’s helmet, or a slot receiver cutting across the middle who gets hit right in the side with a helmet—those are injuries, but they can definitely be avoided as well. So it’s just not the brain outfit that we’re looking at benefit for,” said Matt Simonds, Guardian’s National Sales Coordinator.
During a football game or practice, a player’s helmet can also be used as a weapon in which the player spears into an opposing player with it or by making contact with another player’s helmet. Head to head collisions are being ushered out of the game all together by penalizing players and teams that practice the use of their helmets as a weapon.
But helmets don’t only make head to head contact. They can jam into fingers, thigh muscles or any other soft part of the body not properly covered. They are the hardest piece of equipment players wear, so there are dangers from the helmet itself.
Injuries such as broken fingers due to contact with a helmet have the potential to be reduced due to the soft texture of this new technology. Simonds mentioned how he is already receiving positive feedback from schools using the protective helmets.
“One of the bigger things Georgia State said is something we hear all the time from schools; that we don’t have the amount of broken fingers, the bone bruises, or the kind of day-to-day, nagging injuries that you get just from basic contact in practice,” Simonds said.
Fashion vs. protection
Many other schools at both the college and high school levels are starting to take a look into the helmets as well. According to Simonds, Syracuse, Clemson, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and UMass among others have tested the Caps with their entire teams for practices.
“We’ve probably got about 10 to 15 college programs and hundreds of high schools that use them in practice,” Simonds said.
The Guardian Caps have had extensive on-the-job testing from the consumers that will be using this technology.
But they are not seen on the field on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays during actual football games.
This is mostly due to teams’ needs to have their logos visibly displayed on the side of each helmet. In their current configuration, the Caps cover the logos and hide what makes every team unique and recognizable.
“I don’t know that we’re going to get to the point with this current iteration to games. You can’t cover the logos and the decals and all that good stuff and wear it in a game yet,” said Erin Hanson.
Caps are considered to be two to three years away from game action and it comes down to one unexpected answer: fashion. The world of football is more complex than it once was with the fashion world blending into it. Teams such as the University of Oregon Ducks, with hundreds of uniform combinations, have made it necessary to have shiny new looks on nearly a game-by-game basis.
The Panthers jumped into this new trendy uniform territory when they introduced their new look uniforms last season as well as an alternate black helmet.
Hanson said it’s hard to change the “vanity factor.” But he says when it comes to vanity and performance, you have to have both.
The company hopes to improve the logo issue in time in order to provide teams with all the things they want in a helmet.
Coaches and players weigh in
Georgia State players and coaches are not looking at to make a fashion statement. They like the Guardian Caps and like its results.
“I don’t really care how it looks. I’m not trying to look cute or anything,” sophomore defensive lineman Carnell Hopson said, who was a victim a of concussion last season.
The players see the Caps as helpful and don’t really see the fashionable side of its design and the impact on program marketing that schools would be faced with. In fact, Georgia State players are happy to have it.
“I feel like the Guardian Caps were honestly—I know it’s silly, but—a blessing. I actually had a concussion last year. One thing I remember from last year without the Caps was when we go block and have to pick linebackers on blitzes where you take a lot of helmet to helmet contact, and you’d have ringing in your ears and stuff like that,” said sophomore tight end Keith Rucker.
“But now with the Guardian Caps, it’s like a pillow or so around your head and it saves us from so much of the impact and you don’t really notice it anymore,” he continued.
Coaches are on board with the Caps as well.
“The most important thing is that we protect our athletes. That we protect our players. So if that’s something that in the future the NCAA looks into and it helps protect players like it’s protected in practice, then you know I’d be supportive of it,” Quarterback Coach Luke Huard said.
Concerns like safety could be the push that causes the game-time use of Guardian Caps.
