Chris Olave's 'guardian cap' looks funny — but the financial toll of NFL brain injuries is no joke

Derided by some as a comical piece of equipment that makes players look like bobbleheads, the guardian cap serves as an important safety precaution in a league widely known for its concussion problems. In 2025, for instance, NFL players suffered 168 diagnosed in-game concussions, The New York Times reported. That’s up from 129 in 2024.

Olave is a prime example of the league’s concussion woes, as he suffered four concussions in his first three NFL seasons, including a particularly nasty head injury in 2024 that had him contemplating retirement.

The guardian cap, it seems, changed that equation. Olave, who is a father of one, started wearing the protective cap during games in the first week of the 2026 season and has no regrets.

“I know all the head injuries I’ve had in my career, so it was just a decision I had made,” he said, according to Heavy. “I got kids now, I want to be able to live the long game. It’s not all about football. I want to live [a] regular life after I’m done with football, I love my kids to death. I don’t really care how it [the guardian cap] looks no more, I just gotta throw it on.”

Ahead of the 2026 season, the NFL made guardian caps mandatory during contact practices for players of all positions except kickers, punters and quarterbacks. The caps, however, are still optional for in-game use.

Olave may have decided to use the guardian cap during games for health reasons, but there are financial implications to his decision as well.

When he signed a four-year, $132 million extension with the Saints in July 2026, the team inserted a rare injury clause into the contract that specifically mentions “concussions and respiratory pulmonary embolism.” Along with the concussions, Olave was also diagnosed with blood clots in his lung just before the 2025 NFL season began.

Under the injury clause in his contract, if Olave were to suffer a concussion (or a recurrence of blood clots) that rendered him unable to play football, the Saints could void the remaining injury guarantees in his contract.

More players are taking precautions

When it comes to wearing a guardian cap during a game, Olave is hardly alone. In fact, he’s one of 23 NFL players that wore the cap in week 1 of the 2026 season, as the risk of not just health but financial injury from concussions raises the stakes across the league.

That’s hardly a surprise, not when a player could have millions of dollars in future earnings potentially riding on his ability to stay medically cleared for football. Legal and financial experts say NFL players who wear the guardian cap are savvy in taking additional precautions as a form of career and wealth protection.

“Yes, precautions are a way to financially protect in these scenarios, and they’re a minimal cost compared to how much a brain injury will cost to care for,” Jae E. Lee, managing partner of Jae Lee Law, a personal injury law firm, told Moneywise. “That’s not just the medical side of things, but the lost ability to work and the years and years it may go on.”

Any safety feature that reduces the chance of a head injury should be in an NFL player’s financial plan, Lee said.

“If you do have a head injury, that goes into your history and will always be brought up with health and coverage questions,” she noted. “A concussion may seem like just a few difficult weeks, but from the insurance standpoint, which I’m very familiar with, it is always pulled up with every new claim or application.

“It’s always in your best interest to protect yourself in this area, though avoiding an injury in the first place is even more ideal.”

The risks are critical to a football player’s financial picture, which could sour if one has to retire due to concussions. Beyond lost salary, an early exit could also mean the end of endorsements, retirement benefits, healthcare coverage and a player’s long-term earning potential.

“Professional players won’t notice those costs until decades after their football years,” Lee stated. “Brain injuries cause all sorts of problems with focus, memory, mood, as well as judgment, and they may not show up until later on, or get worse with time.

“The ongoing care needed, including therapy and medications, can really add up while employment rates tend to fall after a brain injury,” Lee continued. “The injury that ends the football career can additionally close the door on opportunities like coaching or broadcasting because you need that memory, focus and correct temperament that injuries like these can affect, so those lost playing years aren’t the only loss.”

Making matters worse, research suggests taking repeated hits to the head may have a connection with a progressive degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Why the NFL needs to support concussion precautions

Experts believe players like Olave must strongly consider wearing protective helmet caps, and that the NFL needs to step up and encourage concussion precautions both on and off the field.

“A guardian cap, or safer helmet, is career protection, income protection and family protection,” Michael Barasch, managing partner of the law firm Barasch & McGarry, which represents more than 50,000 first responders and survivors of 9/11, told Moneywise.

According to experts like Barasch, one additional precaution against concussions may help players with preserving medical clearance, future salary, endorsement deals and decades of earning power.