Matt Chaney and Stefan Fatsis Add Value to the National Football Debate
October 27, 2011Pittsburgh’s ‘Concussion Town Huddle’ Postponed – But Not Concussion Inc.’s!
October 28, 2011
Kris Dielman, an offensive guard for the San Diego Chargers, suffered a “violent” and “scary” grand mal seizure on the team plane returning from Sunday’s game against the New York Jets, in which Dielman had returned to play following an in-game concussion. Here’s the report by Kevin Acee and Chris Jenkins of the San Diego Union Tribune: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/oct/27/dielman-out-vs-chiefs/.
Mike Florio of NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk comments (http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/10/27/report-kris-dielman-had-seizure-on-plane-after-concussion/):
Here’s hoping that the NFL decides in the wake of this incident to implement meaningful procedures aimed at spotting concussions and getting players who have suffered concussions out of games – and that every lower level of the sport eventually will follow suit. Anyone who has been paying any attention to high school football lately knows that the culture has not yet changed, and that as a result players are staying in games when they simply shouldn’t be.
It’s time for the NFL to provide real leadership on this issue, not lip service aimed at placating Congress and/or CYA memos intended to satisfy the lawyers.
Hope away. Dielman told the San Diego reporters, “I just banged my head a little bit. Now I gotta deal with it.”
Irv Muchnick