We've seen hard hits on the football field, including collisions that can leave a quarterback looking stunned and stumbling. Now, a valley high school is making the game a little safer for its players by using a helmet pad that cushions the impact.
More than 100 players in the Faith Lutheran football program wear Guardian Caps every practice.
"They take a little bit out of the sting of the hits between the kids," said Tom DeGeorge, whose son is a junior on the varsity team.
The Guardian Cap is a layer of padding that goes on each helmet. It's quickly strapped on and off.
Vernon Fox, the head coach at Faith Lutheran, says since they started using the caps last season, not one player has sat out for headaches or concussion-like symptoms.
"We were ecstatic about the results that we received," Fox said.
Nothing exists to eliminate concussions altogether. The makers of Guardian Caps claim their padding reduces the impact of hits up to 33 percent.
"This game has just increasingly gotten more dangerous, so it just becomes more important to us as coaches to make sure we're teaching the young men properly and taking every measure that we can to keep them safe," Fox said.
It's a technology that parents can certainly appreciate, especially when they have to watch their sons get clobbered on a weekly basis.
"It hurts me," Lisa DeGeorge said. "It hurts me just as much as it hurts them, so it's tough."
You may be asking why the pads aren't used in games.
Researchers found concussions are more likely to happen in practice for young kids. The problem is usually attributed to tackling drills.
