Watch: Erwin football wears Guardian Caps during 7 on 7s
Erwin football is wearing Guardian Caps for a second season, donning them while hosting 7 on 7 drills at summer practice on June 20, 2024.
When the Murphy football coaches approached him about wearing a Guardian Cap after suffering his second head injury in two years, Landon Jordan was skeptical.
The protective helmet cover was huge and looked ridiculous. And to wear one in a game? Forget it.
But when he tried it, he noticed the difference immediately, not feeling a single hit in his head. The caps also offered something Jordan couldn’t deny – a chance to stay on the field while recovering from a head injury.
So, for three games during his sophomore season, the 2021 Murphy graduate donned a Guardian Cap and kept playing.
As Guardian Caps become commonplace in the NFL and at colleges across the country, the caps are also gaining popularity across WNC, with at least five schools adopting their use. For every coach choosing to use them, the hope is to make a safer environment for each player, protecting them from the repetitive hits to the head that occur during football games and practices.
‘I looked like an astronaut’
Created in 2010, the Guardian Caps are the most popular brand of protective soft-shelled helmet covers. The caps are strapped over top of players’ helmets and are easily removeable on gamedays.
The science varies, but Guardian’s website claims its caps reduce impact by up to 33%. It’s murkier at the high school level, with no better numbers than each coach’s guess, but Erwin coach Rodney Pruett said his team didn’t suffer any concussions last season.
The NFL is buying into the helmets’ effectiveness. NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller said Guardian Caps have contributed to a 50% decrease in training camp concussions since being mandated two seasons ago. This year, for the first time, the league has approved use of Guardian Caps in games.
A Stanford study conducted in 2023, however, cast doubts on the effectiveness in the caps. While the caps could offer 15-20% more protection, the study claimed some hits were more harmful with the caps on. The protection came more from the caps shifting on the helmet than the padding itself, according to the study.
A majority of schools in WNC haven’t adopted the caps. Murphy coach Joseph Watson said the Bulldogs still only use them for players prone to concussions, noting the cost of the caps. Roberson coach JD Dinwiddie said he’s trying to keep the head out of tackles all together.
“I don’t have anything against Guardian Caps by any means,” Dinwiddie said. “I understand why people wear them. I specifically don’t know if it keeps your head from doing what your head does when you receive a concussion.”
Shortly after Jordan suffered the second concussion of his young football career, Murphy’s coaching staff told him wearing the cap would be helpful.
“It was a push more than a recommendation,” Jordan said. “At first, I was like, ‘No, I do not want to wear that.’ As soon as I put it on, I was like, ‘This is not that bad at all.’”
The helmet provided him with peace of mind, knowing he could make a hit without going down with another concussion. He was playing only special teams at the time, but he felt confident hitting bigger players.
“I remember a couple different parents online saying I looked like an astronaut, but that never got to me,” Jordan said.
Jordan never suffered another head injury in his career, which he partially attributes to having time to learn proper tackling techniques with extra protection.
Jordan, who is graduating soon from Tri-County Community College with an automotive degree and currently works at Firestone, hopes they become more common at the high school level.
Usage of Guardian Caps is on the rise in NCHSAA, WNC football
Hayesville coach Chad McClure bought the caps for his team as soon as he took over the position six years ago. For a small team like the Yellow Jackets, who had just 39 players on last season’s roster, McClure said he’d do anything possible to keep players healthy and on the field.
“Of course, there’s a cost that comes with them,” McClure said, “but I don’t think you can put a cost on safety.”
The NCHSAA has had no discussions to mandate any use of exterior helmet padding in practices. It does follow rules set by the National Federation of High Schools, which first permitted use of the Guardian Caps in games in 2012.
In a letter written to Guardian in 2012, the NFHS said it did not endorse or approve football equipment but allowed its use under its current rules.
One helmet cap is priced at $69.99 on Guardian’s website. To outfit Pruett’s Warriors with roughly 85 helmets, Erwin is paying a little over $5,000 over two years. Still, Pruett thinks wearing the caps is worth it.
“Every time you can lessen the blow, that constant hitting, you’re going to reduce concussions and you’re going to reduce the head trauma,” Pruett said.
After six seasons, McClure says the caps are still holding up. Hayesville wears them every practice but Thursdays. Pruett said the Warriors will wear the caps every day but gameday and will likely wear them during their scrimmage against Mitchell in August.
“We try to protect them as much as we can,” Pruett said. “A big part of that is wearing the Guardian Caps.”
Football has received rising scrutiny in recent years over head injuries in players. A Boston University study published in 2023 found chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in 345 of 376 former NFL players studied. That risk of brain damage stems from years of repeated hits to the head, beginning in youth football.
“I’m not sure youth league shouldn’t be flag football,” Pruett said. “I would be OK not starting tackle football until seventh grade.”
Despite increased awareness on the risk of playing football, participation hasn’t slowed. In fact, NCHSAA football saw an 8.4% increase in participation in the 2022-23 school year, its first year of growth since 2013.
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The goal is clear – keep football players safer.
“If you can eliminate just that continued low impact, medium impact hit that one might get in practice, that’s the most beneficial,” Pruett said. “Now that one big hit might not be as impactful.”
Evan Gerike is the high school sports reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Email him at egerike@citizentimes.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @EvanGerike. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.