Late in him During the team’s game against the Green Bay Packers on September 15, Indianapolis Colts tight end Kylen Granson caught a short pass at midfield, rushed forward and lowered his body in preparation for contact. His side helmet struck defender Quay Walker’s mask, and the back of it hit the ground as Walker wrestled him down. Standing up after a 9-yard gain, Granson threw the ball to the official and returned to the line of scrimmage the next moment.
Aside from the fact that this was his first reception of the 2024 National Football League season, this casual play was notable only for what Granson was wearing at the time of the hit: a hat The 12-ounce, foam-padded protector is called the Cap Protector.
Already mandatory for most positions in all NFL preseason practices, as well as contact regular-season and postseason practices, these soft shells received another vote of confidence this year when the league gave them the green light for use in optional games, cited a roughly 50% reduction in concussion rates in training camp. since its official launch in 2022. According to a league spokesman, through six weeks of play this fall, only 10 NFL players have actually been on the field with a game. But the decision was easy for Granson, who tried on his game-day Guard — which itself is covered with a 1-ounce pinnie emblazoned with the Colts logo to mimic the hat’s design coverage below — in preseason games before committing to wearing it for real.
“I was surprised it didn’t affect me at all,” the 26-year-old told WIRED days before facing the Packers in week two. “I think, even if it looks silly, it’s worth it.”
The goofy aesthetic of the plump, puffy Helmets is impossible to ignore. The product’s parent company, Guardian Sports, even has T-shirts for employees that say LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD, PLAY GOOD—with the words LOOK GOOD crossed out. “Condom caps, mushroom heads — we’ve heard it all,” says Erin Hanson, who co-founded Guardian Sports with her husband, Lee Hanson. “We just laugh because we agree.”
It might be hard to deny the fact that the apparent future of headgear in football looks like something out of a 60s-era sci-fi movie. But the reality is that Headgear is now available. Permission to use in games in the NFL — a league known for controlling every inch of players’ devices to protect its image — speaks to more than just its lab-tested utility (even if published, peer-to-peer). there is still a lack of data reviewed in the field). It also reflects the urgency of this moment for football in general.
The dangers of wearing helmets have never been clearer give the link between repeated blows to the head—whether concussions or not—and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (also known as CTE, a brain disorder linked to cognitive problems such as depression and dementia Progressive memory can only be diagnosed after death). It’s no coincidence that the race for answers has become faster and more lucrative than ever, between the NFL’s funding of private research efforts and the changing football headgear industry. new quickly.
And at the center of it all, on the sport’s biggest stage, is a retail outlet that, less than a decade and a half ago, was struggling to find its footing in football. as anything but a joke.
