OT: Football and Head Injuries: Nothing Has Changed.

Submitted by stephenrjking on

The NFL opener was a good game.

But I'm having trouble enjoying it. Because Cam Newton was hit in the head multiple times in this game. 

It wasn't penalized until the last, worst offense.

Newton never missed a single play.

Cam Newton remains in the game after taking blow to the skull: pic.twitter.com/1wDUXWisCG

— Deadspin (@Deadspin) September 9, 2016

 

Also don't forget this hit earlier, where the guy jumped to try to hit Cam with his helmet https://t.co/gj20cBK9Wc

— Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) September 9, 2016

 

Penalty yards assessed = how much the NFL actually cares about player safety. https://t.co/YjZAcY0Bxg

— Matt Hinton (@MattRHinton) September 9, 2016

 

The NFL has a concussion protocol unless it’s an important moment

— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) September 9, 2016

All the talk about head injuries the past few years. Nothing has changed.

Why do I care? I'm not a Panthers or Broncos fan, I prefer college to the NFL, etc.

But I like football. And head injuries are a serious, serious safety issue in the sport. They could be the death of it. They certainly have affected players. The culture of the sport needs to change--leading with the head, the way Broncos players did several times tonight, should never happen. 

And guys that get hit that hard should not be in the game. Even if it's a one-point game with two minutes to go.

Nothing has changed.

MGoBoard
Football
concussions
concussiongate

EZMIKEP

September 9th, 2016 at 2:55 AM ^

The amount of it on this thread makes me laugh. Obsessing about a game and frequently visiting a site dedicated to a team of players who play that game all whole denoucing football in various ways and vilifying it's nature is ridiculous.

Joined: 10/13/2008

MGoPoints: 1070

EZMIKEP

September 9th, 2016 at 2:03 PM ^

The fact that the people that are talking about the bad things, which if we are being honest the majority of it is completely inevitable, is the issue. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. Either it's bad or it's not. Either you contribute by watching or you don't watch and it will go away because the financial means to play will have dried up. But you watch. Hence hypocritical nature of these threads for a majority of dissenting posters.

Joined: 10/13/2008

MGoPoints: 1070

Brandon_L

September 9th, 2016 at 7:10 AM ^

If you are afraid to get hurt. I'm sorry, but I played football for years and have had a few concussions and even after the research id still go out and play the game with what I know now. The game is not for everyone and that's okay. It is a gladiator sport and it is violent. The flagrant fouls and ejections by the refs in today's game is simply lipstick on a pig. The game is beautiful because it's man on man, will against will. The reason the game is great is simple, one man wants to impose his will on another and sometimes heads will collide.

Joined: 11/23/2009

MGoPoints: 2467

MGoblu8

September 9th, 2016 at 7:19 AM ^

I know from playing football that many hits look worse on film than they actually were, while others are much worse than they look. That being said, this was a failure. Newton took multiple awful shots to the head, a couple that would have led to ejections in college football. The NFL has to address this, as do the doctors who were tasked with observing and intervening.

Joined: 08/19/2010

MGoPoints: 7373

L'Carpetron Do…

September 9th, 2016 at 9:54 AM ^

Why not just add a TV booth ref?  If I understand correctly, college football now allows the review officials to also retroactively call targeting/ejections if it wasn't called on the field.  Does the NFL have anything like this?

In real time those hits may have been hard to see but it was clear as day to everyone who saw the reviews. We have the technology - why not use it to protect the players?

Harsh, harsh penalties are the only way to get guys to stop doing this - like 6 games with no pay or something like that.  This type of play is unsportsmanlike and makes the game hard to watch.  

Joined: 03/15/2010

MGoPoints: 8610

NRK

September 9th, 2016 at 9:55 AM ^

They have atheltic trainer spotters in the booth and are able to review film.

 

Apparently they evaluated the film and did not find a reason to pull him accoring to a recent Ian Rappaport tweet.

 

I agree, they need to stiffen the penalties significantly. The (targeted, in my opinion) headshots were a lot last night and pretty egregious.

Joined: 02/20/2009

MGoPoints: 6411

gord

September 9th, 2016 at 10:57 AM ^

The NFL said there was no indication he had a concussion so nothing more to see here.  Not sure what the point of a concusssion test on the sidelines is if you can just tell by looking at the film of the hit.  What a joke.

Joined: 11/02/2013

MGoPoints: 8104

late night BTB

September 9th, 2016 at 11:27 AM ^

To be fair, the NCAA doesn't either.  

In the ND-Texas game, the Torii Hunter Jr endzone play was helmet to helmet, hell they knocked him out, and nothing was called.

Neither organization cares enough about head injuries to have them alter a game, and thus their ratings and money.  That'd get people talking about the injury/call instead of the game.

Joined: 12/05/2010

MGoPoints: 978