00:00Sun's up. Good morning. 97.1 Jim Costa, John Jansen, Heather Park, Gov and Greg behind the glass.
00:08Larkin stuff's been heavy today. We were fired up pre-show talking about something else though.
00:13Guardian caps. Oh yeah, I was gonna say that's a long time ago. I don't even remember what I was
00:17doing.
00:1815 minutes ago? Yeah. Yeah, we had the story in the news and we wanted to carve out some time
00:23to talk about this
00:24because I know you have a ton that you wanted to say on it. Well, yeah, and so
00:28the NFL is, and rightfully so, trying to find ways to make football safer and I think the biggest thing
00:36that they've done is making some rule changes. Whether it's the kickoff, kickoff return, that's
00:42been, you know, I think beneficial in terms of concussions, you know, and how they're emphasizing
00:49not, you know, penalizing helmet-to-helmet contact, the way you hit quarterbacks, all of those different
00:54things. Some of them may be a little bit, you know, a step too far, but I believe that a
01:00lot of
01:00those are designed for the health and safety of the player. The guardian cap, which is those little
01:05bubble things that they put on top of their helmet. The great kazoo. Yeah. Originally, they have been
01:13saying that this is going to help reduce concussions and all of the science that you have found behind it
01:21outside of the propaganda of the NFL is that it really doesn't do much. And now there is a, you
01:29know, concussion expert, co-founder of the Boston University CTE Center, which is, what's this?
01:38Chris Nowinski, as I think how you say is. I think it's Nowinski. Nowinski. Okay.
01:44Um, the jury is out on whether the guardian cap is helping NFL players. We have no reason
01:49to believe it's helping high school and college players. That's from Chris Nowinski, who again
01:54is the co-founder of the Boston University CTE Center. And that Boston University CTE Center
01:59is where all former NFL players go to be a part of the concussion study. Um, and he goes on
02:08to say, we've created a source, a sort of nightmare scenario where people strap these things on
02:12their helmet, their kids' helmets and believe they're now safe from concussions and CTE.
02:17Nothing could be further from the truth. Because he does say the guardian helmets or the guardian
02:22caps that they wear in the NFL are very different than the youth guardian caps that you would wear
02:28on a high school student or a youth football player. They're very, very different. And I think
02:32he said there was like very, very little protection a child would get from wearing it. And he's nervous
02:38that families are going to see these NFL players wearing them and think that they're completely
02:42protected from concussions and CTE when, when they're not, they're not right. This is starting
02:47to get exposed. Um, this, this, uh, Nowinski, Nowinski guy was on, yes, he was on Pablo Tori's
02:53podcast who does all these deep dive investigations. And he said the guardian cap appears to be a bit
02:59of a scam. Another quote attributed to the expert. And he says they love that the public sees these
03:05guardian caps and, um, it's basically virtue signaling. Yes. They think it's doing something
03:11it's not doing right. It's yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's, they believe in the NFL originally was
03:18promoting these as making football safer. And so you, you look at all the, the peewee leagues,
03:24the pop Warner leagues, and you see, you know, a team of 35 kids in a program that may have
03:31150
03:31kids in it from, you know, freshmen, junior varsity, all of these different levels of pop
03:37Warner football or little league football. And they're all wearing these guardian. Is it that
03:42prevalent now? Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's when I was coaching, helping coach Jack's team,
03:47all of the kids were, it was mandated that practice that they wear these things. And a lot of the
03:55high
03:55schools have gotten away from it. I know that there's some high schools that they don't even provide
04:00them anymore because again, they don't do anything. And it is the NFL. I think they're
04:04starting to backtrack a little bit because everyone is looking and seeing that these things don't do
04:10anything. It is the NFL trying to put something, it's, it's them trying to win the PR battle of the
04:17health and safety of football players. Because there, there have been stories, especially over
04:22the last five to 10 years of, you know, moms, parents, people saying, I don't want my kid
04:25playing football. This is the guardian caps had been used as a counterweight. Oh, it's okay.
04:30Oh no, it's going to be okay. It's an hour. We're seeing, well, no, that's, it's just a bunch of
04:34hot
04:35air. Yeah. And I mean, is there a risk? I mean, I think there's a lower risk. Okay. I'm no
04:40doctor,
04:41but I have played football at a number of different levels and having watched and coached Peewee and pop
04:49Warner, like these kids, is it possible to get a concussion? Sure. And there are still some that
04:54happened, but they're not hitting hard enough. Usually it's when a kid falls down and it's the
05:00whiplash of hitting the ground that causes those concussions in my experience, not the, not the
05:07helmet to helmet contact. Cause they're just not going fast enough, fast enough, strong enough.
05:13So what does this practically mean for people? They're just going to have to accept the risks
05:18with football. If they're going to play it, that there is no silver bullet fix. The guardian cap
05:22is not making you safer. No helmet helmet, uh, and technology has gotten a lot better in and of
05:29itself. And you see all these different styles. And we heard from some of the older players like,
05:33Hey, I don't want to wear a different helmet because this is the one I've worn for 18 years.
05:37I think Aaron Rogers was one of the players that said, I didn't want to do that. I get that.
05:42Um,
05:43but helmet technology is where you are going to find a, a, a, any meaningful help in making it safer
05:51to
05:52play the game and good coaching. That's what's going to make the game safer from little league
05:57all the way through middle school, high school, and the pros. Like these are all, that's what makes
06:04the game safer is good coaching and players that understand what to do and what not to do.
06:13Some of it is inherent though. Oh sure. There's an inherent risk. There's an inherent risk. Anytime
06:16you play a sport of, of concussion or injury. Have you heard the rugby argument to take the
06:22helmets away? Yeah. Because it increases tackling, um, fundamentals. Like apparently I haven't done
06:31the research. Apparently rugby players have like, there's less concussion rates in rugby than there
06:35are in football and they don't wear helmets. They're less likely to leave. They're better at
06:38tackling. Yes. Yeah. Wow. We have to look at what's realistic, right? They're not going to
06:44take the helmets away. Let's go back to, yeah, the single bar face mask. That's what I'm saying.
06:49We can explore it more in the nine o'clock hour. We've got a lot still to do. 248-539
06:53-9797. It's 97.1.
