'More to life than football': Concussion experts advocate for Guardian Caps in youth games

It’s been two years since Saskatchewan Roughriders running back Thomas Bertrand-Hudon became the first CFL player to wear a Guardian Cap on his helmet during a game.

Despite the soft shells over the helmets being mandatory in practices for many positions to reduce the impact of hits and tackles on players’ heads, they’re still not really being worn during games in the Canadian professional league.

They’re not catching on in high school and youth leagues either.

Derek Hogelie’s son Emerson is the only one on his Regina high school football team to wear a Guardian Cap during games.

Hogelie said the choice was selfish. As a parent, he didn’t want to see his son get hurt, but it didn’t take much to convince Emerson to make the same choice.

“He has all of his heroes in the NFL and he's seeing more and more of those athletes wearing them. Maybe not so much on the game field, but a lot on the practice field. So it wasn't a negotiation with a teenager to do it. He was all for it,” Hogelie told CBC Saskatchewan’s Blue Sky.

The distinct, puffy look of the caps can make them a hard sell, especially if no one else is wearing one, but Hogelie said safety was more important to him and his son.

“Our bodies have a lot of redundancy built into them with two arms, two legs, so forth, but one brain. And that was the biggest thing. If we can buy a cap that cost about a tenth of the helmet we bought to add an additional layer of protection to it, why not?” Hogelie said.

After making the caps mandatory for offensive and defensive linemen, running backs and linebackers during practices and training camps, the CFL found they reduced concussions by 42 per cent during the 2023 training camp period.

Bertrand-Hudon told Blue Sky host Jennifer