Concussions

With all due respect, Herbert, that's what drives me up the friggin' wall when people debate in here. People get shown they're wrong, and they won't even acknowledge it. You did; good. You just had to get knocked over the head with it ...

 

Well, some of us, we'd rather lose the fight than admit to the mistake.

 

And I do think getting a public apology is the kind of thing that OoP would get off on.

 

And he had to be a jerk about it. I didn't ask for an apology or want one. I wanted an admission that he was wrong. I have ripped the commish as much as anybody on this site and I constantly criticize the league for its handling of concussions.

 

I have seen conflicting reports on that, including ones that said that McCoy wasn't tested for a concussion at all until after the game. Not sure I believe Holmgren on this one.

 

Holmgren and Pat Shurmur were both insistent that their doctors played it safe. He must not have shown immediate symptoms. It is strange to see a Steelers fan complain about how the Browns handled things when your coach sent Meathead back into a game a few years in Kansas City, after his bell had clearly been rung.

 

My son played college football at Acadia U for five years and got a concussion this year and wasn't allowed to play again until he passed the baseline test. He was out for about three weeks. As his coach told me when I called him, "GR ain't playing until we think he's ready. His health is way more important than football".

The thing about concussions is that they're not like, say, a broken leg where you can diagnose the injury and predict how long it will take to heal completely. Every person reacts to concussions differently so there's no template

I was watching the game online (Acadia vs St. Mary's) when I see this kid come in to assist on a tackle and get a knee on the head and was down for about two minutes. I thought, "Geez, that guy really got clocked" It wasn't till they showed him being helped off the field that I realised it was my kid. Just about shit my pants.

He told me he didn't remember anything of the rest of the game (this happened in the first or second quarter). For the next week he was basically in his dorm room, couldn't watch TV, work on his computer or read.

I think this was probably his second or third concussion, the other ones likely happened in either high school football or Little League when took a ball in the head during warm-up.

I hope Doc Talk weighs in more on this discussion because he probably knows more about concussions than all of sj combined.

 

Zag is stuck in the 1950s, so no, he is not right.

There are far too many athletes and coaches who still don't take concussions seriously enough. In my experience, that is a FAR larger problem than people being overly concerned.

 

Bullshit. Go look at the NFL thread from that week. There were people watching from home that could tell something was wrong with McCoy. At the very least, the doctors were incompetent.

The NFL is trying to make a show of dealing with concussions by hitting the players with fines for illegal hits, but refuses to enforce its own rules when the teams fuck up. That is what I'm talking about.

Now if you want to talk about something you think the Steelers did wrong in terms of protecting a player, that's fine. But at least come up with a year. I don't remember the case you are talking about. I just remember them rushing Polamalu back a couple of times, which I have criticized them for.

 

2009 at Kansas City. You will remember that started their tumble and they missed the playoffs.

I get tired of doing all your legwork for you, so I am not going to go find the clip.

But they did put his big dumb ass back in the game when he was obviously not all with it.

 

You are the one making the accusation, so you are doing your own legwork. I appreciate the reminder. I knew he had left that game with an injury. Forgot that it was the concussion that kept him out the next week at Baltimore. That was the day they lost Batch for the season, too.

I am absolutely not defending the Steelers on that one. Their record with concussions is as bad as anybody's. I have never argued the point.

Truth be told, it doesn't really fit in with the point I was making. I was talking about the league cracking down on the players since the middle of the 2010 season, but refusing to do so against the teams.