Quote: goobervision "Skullcaps tend to empower people to put their heads into stupid places, which then leads to more injuries. There was a move in Australia a couple of years ago to remove them from the kids sport so that the kids didn't lead with the head with a false sense of safety and damage their necks.'"
I suspect the skull cap protects the outer skull whereas the brain getting rocked inside the skull is the concern.
In RL we tend to tackle the chest stopping the body in its tracks the issue with this type of tackle is that the head continues to motion forward then backwards like whip lash which moves the brain inside the skull. If we tackle around the waist the upper body will continue to move forward with the neck and head with no whip lash effect.