Protect the Player. Defend Your Future.
Every play matters. So does every decision you make to protect yourself.
Protect the Player is a new traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury prevention awareness campaign from the Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services’ Traumatic Brain Injury/Spinal Cord Injury Trust Fund.
Launched as part of The Power of 30, celebrating the Trust Fund’s 30th anniversary, Protect the Player takes the Fund’s mission beyond responding to life-changing injuries and puts a greater focus on helping prevent them.
Through partnerships with athletes, schools and safety advocates, the campaign encourages players of all ages to make protection part of their game plan—on the practice field, under the Friday night lights and beyond.
Mississippi Athletes Protect the Player
Protecting your future starts with the choices you make today. Student-athletes from across Mississippi are joining MDRS to help spread the message about TBI and spinal cord injury prevention and making protection part of the game plan.
Kam Franklin - The University of Mississippi
Kendel Dolby - Mississippi State University
Robert Briggs - The University of Southern Mississippi
Coming Soon
Three schools. Three athletes. One message: Protect the Player. Defend Your Future.
Why Protect the Player?
For 30 years, the TBI/SCI Trust Fund has helped Mississippians living with traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries access resources and services that support greater independence.
That experience also gives us an important perspective: some injuries can change a life in an instant.
Protect the Player uses the power and reach of sports to start conversations about injury prevention, safer choices and the tools available to help reduce risk. The campaign begins with football and features the Guardian Cap as one example of additional protection athletes may choose to use.
Because protecting a player isn't only about the next play.
It's about protecting the future that comes after it.
The Power of 30: 30 Years of Impact
Protect the Player is a newer initiative brought you as part of The Power of 30, MDRS' year-long celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Mississippi TBI/SCI Trust Fund.
The Power of 30 recognizes three decades of impact while looking toward what comes next—including expanding education and prevention efforts across Mississippi.
30 years of service. 30 years of impact. And a renewed commitment to prevention.
Defend Your Future
Want to learn more about the additional protection featured in Protect the Player? Protect the Player is about raising awareness, starting conversations, and encouraging safer choices in football. We want to hear from you!
Tell us how your team is protecting its players or how the Protect the Player campaign has changed the way you think about player safety. Your story could help inspire others to put safety first—on and off the field.
Protect the Player promotes education and awareness of TBI/SCI prevention. No piece of protective equipment can eliminate the risk of injury. Athletes, families and coaches should follow applicable safety guidance, rules and equipment requirements.
No helmet, headgear, or chinstrap can prevent or eliminate the risk of concussions or other serious head injuries while playing sports or otherwise. Researchers have not reached an agreement on how the results of impact attenuation tests relate to concussions or other injuries. No conclusions about a reduction of risk or severity of concussive injury or other injury risk should be drawn from impact attenuation tests. All headgear and chinstraps must be used along with properly fit and maintained helmets.