September 13th, 2010 at 12:51 PM ^
for this and hopefully they foolowed them. If it comes out he was concussed, there ought to be real stink out of South Bend for how this was handeled. They big played us the 2nd half, but their first drive was more sustained. His final numbers for percentage were not very good.
September 13th, 2010 at 2:08 PM ^
September 13th, 2010 at 1:01 PM ^
That he had some sort of blood pressure issue after a hit. Perhaps one vessel temporarily dropped a whole bunch in pressure resulting in a bit of a black out. I had that happen once on the Millenium Force at Cedar Point, but it came right back on the next down hill that forced blood back to the head.
September 13th, 2010 at 1:07 PM ^
They were waving stuff under his nose at one point and he looked kind of out of it.
I hope it was nothing serious, because that would (obviously) be terrible to put someone back in the game if they have some kind of mysterious, blinding brain injury. And it's fair to say that I'd trust trainers and doctors on the field more than my judgment from my living room. But from my point of view, it looked like it was more than just the eye, he looked pretty dazed for a while.
September 13th, 2010 at 1:19 PM ^
I don't want to second guess the ND training staff, who is supposed to be world-class, but if he really had a concussion it blows my mind (no pun intended) that he went back in. As someone who had one playing football, I don't buy that there is such a "minor" concussion - if you have confirmed brain injury, you shouldn't be playing the rest of the football game.
Then again, if it was a precaution and he checked out neurologically at halftime, I can't complain. We can't be holding everybody with a headache out of ballgames because we are playing conservative triage or we wouldn't have any more players.
September 13th, 2010 at 1:05 PM ^
pretty sure he was concussed
September 13th, 2010 at 1:10 PM ^
Did they ever say which play it happened on? Because if I recall correctly didn't he take a pretty nasty hit on the play before the touchdown? That was where I thought he got hurt, but then the announcers kept saying that was on the touchdown dive.
September 13th, 2010 at 1:26 PM ^
I think it happened just after he released the pass to Rodolph (no TD call) wich set them up for their first score, i thought it was Mouton, but could have been Gordon, one of them bolted his way and layed the wood from the right of the OL just hit him 1/2 a second after DC made the pass, He got a clean hit at Crist's chest, I remember I thought that Crist had taken a real good shot, it seemed odd to me that he scored on a QB sneak right after that, but when I saw that he was not leading the offense for the next series I was sure that that hit was the one wich caused it.
September 13th, 2010 at 1:15 PM ^
he tried to watch Denard run down the sidelines.
September 13th, 2010 at 2:24 PM ^
He was just standing too close to the sideline when Denard broke the sound barrier. Sonic Booms be dangerous, ya'll.
September 13th, 2010 at 1:15 PM ^
indicated that the vision loss occurred after a knock to the head that caused reported facial swelling. Sounds like a concussion to me. A question I ask- if ND was playing Army and was up by 20 at halftime, would he have played in the second half?
I think not.
September 13th, 2010 at 1:45 PM ^
It was only a mild concussion of the eyeball, not a concussion to the brain part of the head. As any idiot could tell you, this is not something that necessitates being kept out of a tightly contested rivalry game. Especially after a qualified waver of things has waved a smelly substance near the face part of the head (in which the concussed eyeball is located), the player should be good to go.
Why worry about the future health of players? They'll most likely be long graduated by the time long term neurological damage sets in.
September 13th, 2010 at 1:46 PM ^
On Crist: "He had swelling in the left side of his face from when he hit. When he ran the ball before the first touchdown, where he got the big gain, he kind of hit the ground and a helmet hit him at the same time and he picked up some swelling after the game. It was more of a contusion that kind of got him a little off-balance. He wasn't clear. It wasn't a concussed situation. So we monitored it, we looked at him today, he was really clear.
http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/colleges/post/_/id/1043/kelly-hard-to-stomach-irish-loss
September 13th, 2010 at 2:06 PM ^
Does Kelly think this explanation makes it OK? Knocked him "a little off-balance" and "he wasn't clear"? My goodness, how is that not a concussion?
And it wasn't just for a few minutes - he was held out for quite a long time, so it obviously wasn't a momentary loss of balance, e.g., when you get dizzy if someone spins you around, but you're OK in about 30 seconds.
Football culture is going to have to change and, unfortuntaely, it will probably take a situation like this, followed by the person getting REALLY concussed (e.g., a second hit to the head) later that same game, and then the program being sued. I hope that doesn't happen (mostly for the person being long-term concussed) but with all those NY Times articles about NFL concussions and advances in knowledge of brain injuries, I think it's coming.
BTW: see this Philly.com link for a discussion of how a coach, Andy Reid, does (or doesn't) handle two concussed players. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/dneagles/Reid_defends_handling_of_concussions.html
September 13th, 2010 at 1:51 PM ^
pussyitis
September 13th, 2010 at 2:09 PM ^
Coolest. Diagnoses. Ever.
September 13th, 2010 at 2:17 PM ^
I think it's easy to bash the Irish for putting Crist back in the game. Obviously, it seems from our perspective that it was a questionable decision, but in reality, we don't really know what kind of process they went through to make that decision. And if the tables were turned and something similar happened to Denard, and we were losing, and we knew that he gave us a chance to win, do you really think he would have stayed on the sideline?
September 13th, 2010 at 3:02 PM ^
a certain starting QB by the name of Tate Forcier being sidelined during a game at Iowa in 2009, when we were losing, due to concussion like symptoms. IIRC, we lost that game due to our back up QB throwing a pick late in the game.
So yes, I think that our coaches would have kept an injured player on the sidelines. That's in the best interest of the player and that should supercede the interests of the coach and program.
September 13th, 2010 at 3:07 PM ^
Fair point; but did Tate ever say he felt good to go back into the game? I honestly don't know the answer to that, but it seems like the circumstances were a little different.
September 13th, 2010 at 3:16 PM ^
but RR and staff kept him out. I was drinking and watching the game at home, but I thought the fallout was that Tate had concussion-like symptoms, the coaches didn't want to risk further damage and Denard played the rest of the game. There was also the counter-point in that Tate was making very bad decisions with the football and the minor head-injury gave them the reason to sit him. I believe he had a slight concussion and they kept him out of the game. We didn't put winning ahead of the health of one of our players and I respect the staff for that.
September 13th, 2010 at 3:24 PM ^
I think the bashing has more to do with people being so annoyed by Brian Kelly's assertion that we're not doing what's best for our quarterback, and the definite possibility that he was not just being a jackass but also being extraordinarily hypocritical.