Playing In the NFL…the side you never hear about

November 14, 2009

A CONCUSSION IS A KNOCKOUT

The Washington Redskins (3.5-point underdogs to Denver at home this Sunday at BetUS) had listed running back Clinton Portis as "doubtful" on their injury report.

Jim Zorn, who said that his team would be "cautious" with Portis about a possible return at some point, got word that Portis was still having problems five days after having been taken out of the game against the Atlanta Falcons, and said "I'm not an expert concussions, so I would not begin to even try to speculate."

You don't need to be an expert. All you have to hear is the word "concussion" and you know enough.

A concussion is a knockout, just like a fighter might suffer in a boxing ring. It is described, on Wikipedia and many other sources, as a "traumatic brain injury." You don't put people back in games with traumatic brain injury. You dn't put players back into a game when they have suffered a concussion, and you don't out them in the next week either.

I grew up in the world of boxing. For all you might want to say about it, boxing handles concussions better. Even if a fighter isn't concussed, if he is the loser on a TKO or KO, he has to sit out anywhere from 30 to 180 days. Even if he isn't stopped, in most states there is an exam after the fight by a physician that may determine a mandatory period of sitting out.

Here is an excerpt from something I wrote a long time ago on this subject, and I think it's important because some people think this is a joke:

All I can tell you is that you'll rarely, if ever, hear of any fighter allowed in the ring, or NEAR a ring, while he's experiencing "lingering effects from a concussion" or suffering from "post-concussion syndrome". It wouldn't even be a consideration.

So why is it a consideration in the NFL, where the contact is more constant, more sustained, and in many cases, of a higher impact? I don't understand why the league can't see the light, and mandate that 1) any player who suffers a concussion must sit out a minimum of four games and possibly more, depending on the severity of the situation; 2)any player who does indeed have a concussion must, after the mandatory suspension is served, be cleared by TWO doctors, with an EEG, in order to play; 3) more extensive mandatory suspensions must be imposed on players who sustain more than one concussion during a season; and 4) any team which is found to have inserted a player in a game while suffering from the effects of a concussion will be fined heavily, with suspensions imposed on the coaches, trainers, or medical staff that allow it to happen.

No player or team is going to zealously take these precautions on their own. A player wants to play. That's in his nature. And he'll have a tendency to go to as many sources as he has to until someone tells him he's okay. A team wants to win. That's IT'S nature. Every week players are sent out onto the field with injuries, of varying degrees of severity, and it is expected that players perform with pain. Okay, that's understood. But let's draw the line somewhere. Head injuries are as good a place as any.