The NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell talk a big game about how player health and safety — specifically head injuries and concussions — are the league’s top priority. They’ve even implemented some rules and mandates to help this epidemic in the game. However, while players wearing Guardian Caps over their NFL helmets in training camps is helping reduces head injuries, the NFL says it won’t let players wear them in games.

As NFL training camps continue on and the 2023 season nears, NFL Executive Vice President overseeing player health and safety, Jeff Miller, told NBC Sports that players are wearing Guardian Caps over their NFL helmets more and for longer into the NFL preseason, and that is reducing concussions by 52% among positions wearing them.

This may change the game in the future, making it safer for players to come, but if current players wanted to wear a Guardian Cap during a game, the league would tell them no.

“On Saturday, a coach raised that very question with us. What if a player who likes the Guardian Cap and feels safer wearing it wants to use it during a game?” Mike Florio wrote on Pro Football Talk. “So we asked the league. And the answer would be no.”

“A player would be prohibited from wearing a Guardian Cap during a game,” chief NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told PFT via email.

McCarthy added that these findings will likely lead to changes in helmets and maybe even position-specific helmets for linemen on both sides of the ball. However, this likely won’t take place for “the next two, or three, or five years.”

While the league is sticking to its guns now about Guardian Caps in regular season games, Florio raises a fascinating hypothetical. What if Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa — who suffered two scary concussions last season — publically asks to wear a Guardian Cap?

The response from Roger Goodell and the league would be fascinating and likely controversial no matter what the final answer is.