All right. Football, yeah, football season is back. High school football kicks off this week in Northeast Ohio and NFL preseason in full swing. One major concern always each year concussions and now the NFL is taking an extra step to combat that for the first time the guardian caps players wear during practice can be worn during regular season games. That's right. The helmet add ons offer an added level of protection from concussions. And as we continue our winning at Youth Sports Series, Maureen Kyle explores how this may impact high school football, hard core Browns fans may have noticed something soft and odd looking on the players helmets in preseason practice. The NFL has been requiring them since 2020. These are guardian caps and are the reason players are seeing a decrease in head injuries. We have some really good statistics that show they decrease concussion both in season and during the preseason. Dr Sean Cupp with university hospitals says a 2023 study of linebackers tight ends and linemen shows a 52% reduction in concussions both preseason and in season for youth sports studies show using guardian caps can reduce concussion risks by 30%. The Waffle design absorbs a lot of the energy that can be dissipated during helmet to helmet or helmet to ground injury that often can lead to a concussion. The results have been so promising. Doctor Cupp says he's had requests from 70 different schools all the way down to youth sports for Guardian Caps as much as you try to keep the head away from contact. It's going to happen in live football. And for a coach, you really, it really bothers you, you, you lose sleep at night with people get hurt in practice. Former s nation's head football coach Chuck Kyle served on the nfl's Concussion Committee innovations like the Guardian Caps were part of the ongoing discussions. The Guardian cap for sheer skull fracture would be, you're looking at that kind of helmet to helmet contact, but again, concussions can happen a lot of times where you're taken to the ground and bang your head. Now there's added cushion may be less shock to the brain. Does it prevent concussions? No, it's just another added protection for it so far. Nothing prevents concussions 100%. But the NFL is constantly working on ways to reduce the risk as for these funny looking but effective caps. Would we ever see them in games? Doctor Cupp says probably not. I personally think we probably won't have many takers. My guess is maybe one or two guys in the entire league may wear it during the season, but we're probably not going to see many of those during the games this year. Maureen Kyle Three News. It'll be interesting to see the Ohio High School Athletic Association does allow players to wear Guardian caps during football games, but there aren't many takers so far. We'll see if those numbers go up. If more NFL players wear them on Sundays, you would imagine it would. I mean, if the youth are watching the, you know, professional players do it, of course they're the ones who are going to set the standards. So if you see one, but you know what, I think they look odd and that's what it's gonna come down to. If they would figure out a way to make them look cool, you know, then everybody would wear them. But I, I think, you know, the, here's the thing though, the technology is constantly evolving so as the technology gets better, you know, hopefully we're gonna figure this out sooner rather than later. But, I mean, we've been talking about this problem for, you know, decades. Right. So.