Team Insight

END ZONE 34 • Team Insight ~ May/June 2022 teaminsightmag.com NFL Mandates Use of Guardian Cap In an eort to reduce head contact, the NFL has mandated the use of Guardian Cap helmet covers for certain positions during a key portion of training camp when concussions and head contact typically elevate. e resolution requires oensive and defensive linemen, tight ends and linebackers to wear Guardian Caps for every presea- son practice between the start of training camp contact period and the second preseason game. NFL Pushes For Flag Football In Olympics e NFL wants to continue growing its market outside of the U.S. and the ultimate goal for the next 10 years is to attract about 50 million new international fans to the sport. Toward this end, Damani Leech, COO of NFL International, says the league is looking to get more people in- volved in ag football, and a key to accomplishing this is to gain exposure in the Olympics by introducing ag football to the 2028 Summer Games. "We've got to make the game matter," Leech says. "If ag foot- ball becomes an Olympic sport, more countries will invest in playing that sport." American football has not been recognized as an Olympic sport since 1932, when it was used as a demonstration sport. Another opportunity for the International Olympic Committee to see ag football's potential is in July at the 2022 World Games that will take place in Alabama. Women's Football Is Going Global e Women's National Football Conference (WNFC) is ready to push women's tackle towards big-time league, coach and player-level brand sponsor- ship deals via the launch of a Global Football Development Program. e initiative grants all WNFC clubs access to formal relationships with professional international women's football teams and players for market- ing, football development, fan engagement, awareness and commercialization as part of a long-term, strategic eort to build prestigious global brands while driving the growth and development of women's football internationally. us far, WNFC sponsors include Adidas, Bose, Riddell Sports, United Sports Brands and global streaming company Vyre Network. In late April, global manage- ment and technology consulting company MHP, A Porsche Company, became the present- ing sponsor for the WNFC's Atlanta Phoenix team. e WNFC, which launched in 2019, currently has 20 teams and is working to expand to 30 to 32 teams. AYF To Require Tackling Course American Youth Football (AYF), a national youth partner of the NFL, is now requiring coaches on its regional/national track to take the new free "Football Tackling" course introduced on the NFHS Learning Center earlier this year. e instruction will be mandatory for coaches in the national track (involving about 7000 teams and 50,000 to 70,000 coaches) and optional for coaches on the local track. e course, a joint produc- tion between the NFHS and the NFL, is designed to assist inter- scholastic coaches in teaching, evaluating and programming proper tackling techniques. Americans Divided On Whether Kids Should Play Football Football is one of the nation's most popular sports, but Americans differ on whether kids should play. A new study from Ohio State University, recently published in the journal Social Currents, found that about 50 percent of Americans disagree that tackle football is appropriate for kids, 45 percent agree, and the remainder didn't know. The findings come as participa- tion in tackle football has declined due to growing concern about the effects of concussions on young brains, according to Mariah Warner, lead author of the study. "We found that tackle football for kids has become a contentious issue in the U.S.," she stated. Although the study didn't specify the ages for youth football, other evidence suggests that Americans are much more concerned with kids under age 13 playing football than those in high school, according to study co-author Chris Knoester, pro- fessor of sociology at Ohio State. "Support for youth football is tied to people's formative experiences grow- ing up, including whether participants themselves [in the study] played and whether their parents or friends were fans," states Knoester. EXTRA POINTS Football in the News

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