De’Von Achane became the first Miami Dolphins player to wear a Guardian Cap during a regular season game in the team’s Week 7 loss against the Indianapolis Colts. Tua Tagovailoa made it clear Monday that he has no intention of being the second.
In April, the NFL changed its rules to allow players the choice to wear a Guardian Cap — a helmet with additional padding — during games. To this point, no quarterback has worn one and Tagovailoa dismissed the idea in his first press conference since suffering a concussion iN September.
“Nope,” Tagovailoa said. “Personal choice.”
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel told reporters Monday that Tagovailoa “has a better understanding of his responsibility towards to the entire organization” following his concussion, and “he needs to be smart about how he engages in contact.”
But McDaniel also made it clear that the Dolphins will not, and can not, force him to wear a Guardian Cap if he doesn’t want one.
“We aren’t allowed to mandate things that aren’t mandated in terms of their attire,” McDaniel said. “I always preach that it is the individual player’s determination if they want to do so, and so what you don’t do is skirt the information gathering process and you make sure they’re well-informed and they have access to all the available options which is supremely important to me.”
Will it matter, though?
When the NFL began requiring players to wear Guardian Caps in training camp in 2022, the league said wearing one “can reduce the force from head contact by 10 percent.” But there are at least a couple studies that concluded that they don’t make much of a difference at all.
The truly safest way for Tagovailoa to avoid further concussions would be to walk away from football, and he made it clear Monday that’s a conversation he’s no longer interested in having.
“How much risk do we take when we get up in the morning to go drive to work?” Tagovailoa said. “[You could] get into a car crash, I don’t know. Everything I think takes risk. Every time we all suit up, we’re all taking a risk that we could potentially get hurt, whether it’s a concussion, a broken bone, anything. You get up off of the bed the wrong way, you potentially could risk you spraining your ankle. There’s just risk in any and everything and I’m willing to play the odds, that’s it.”
