“I can understand that,” Bennett said of Joseph’s reaction. “Getting hit there is like drunk driving: all it takes is one time for it to be really, really bad.”

So given that even the “slightest graze can feel like you got crushed,” as Justin Tuck said, why do football players — who wear equipment covering their arms and legs and knees and elbows and shoulders and hands and wrists — not embrace the possibilities when it comes to their most sensitive area?

Answers run the gamut. Many players cited a feeling of restrictiveness that comes with trying to run while wearing a cup. This is not surprising; after all, Bike Athletic, the company said to have invented the jockstrap in 1874, did so as a “support for the bicycle jockeys riding the cobblestone streets of Boston,” according to the company’s Web site. It stands to reason then that the demands of an athlete always on the move — a running back or wide receiver, say — would be different from a cyclist’s.

Still, it appears that offensive and defensive linemen, who are essentially falling all over one another on every play, might be helped by a cup. Yet they seem to pass on it as well. “We’re running, too,” defensive tackle Marvin Austin said. “It’s not the same as the other guys, but we’re sliding and shifting all the time.”

Austin shrugged. “Hey, do you see horses wearing cups?” he said. “No. They’re running all the time, and so are we.”

The veteran guard Chris Snee said he was more concerned about potential movement of the cup during play. Continually bending over to get into a three-point stance involves a certain amount of “folding,” he said, which could turn painful if a cup was involved.