FOIA on Michigan's Concussion Policy

Submitted by MichiganMan2011 on

Hey everyone,

Didn't see a similar topic, so please point it out if this has already been shared.

I sent a FOIA in to the Atheletic Department to see if Brandon had put any pressure on the medical staff to downplay Shane Morris' concussion in the midnight PR statement. I got the results today. Long story short, I saw no evidence to say definitively that Brandon did that. However, they did not address my request for correspondence between Brandon and Jeff Kutcher (team neurologist) so I will have to follow up.

That being said, there are a few interesting documents here on the school's concussion policy. They seem reasonable (non-doctor here) but it also seems pretty obvious that they weren't followed for Shane (obvious statement is obvious).

I thought I'd post a few of the documents I got back in the interest of crowd sourcing whatever information we can get. I'm happy to do a full scan tomorrow if there is enough interest for high quality copies. I received: cover letter, midnight press release, Brandon's email to the AD regarding the release, athletic concussion policy.

Gallery here: https://imgur.com/a/V70NM

Cheers

-G

GoBLUinTX

October 27th, 2014 at 8:50 PM ^

after Brandon placed the blame squarely on the training/medical staff.  He, Kutcher, had the chance to refute the allegations and didn't even try.  As strange as some people may think it is, maybe there really wasn't any there, there.  

This, of course, in now way excuses the comlete and utter inept haplessness we've seen on the football field.

pearlw

October 27th, 2014 at 9:31 PM ^

I found it strange how little publicity this Kutcher interview got. There was no mention of it on this board or by the writers - despite everyone clamoring all week to hear the story from the side of the medical staff. It makes me think the reason it never got much mention was because it didnt support the story that people wanted to promote that the medical staff was somehow quieted by DB and company.


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BIGBLUEWORLD

October 27th, 2014 at 7:36 PM ^

Michigan's concussion policy should be that when a player is obviously hurt and stumbling around on the field, the head coach takes him out of the game and makes  him take time with a doctor or trainer. 

We don't need more policies.  We need a coach who does his job.

bronxblue

October 27th, 2014 at 7:55 PM ^

It's your money so by all means do what you want with it, and thanks for sharing what you got back.  But I'd like to think even with this athletic department they'd have an established protocol and not a paper-trail of incompetence.

bj dickey

October 27th, 2014 at 9:51 PM ^

For the record guys, now that we have reduced student season ticket prices, and,hopefully others too, realize these incessant foia requests require additional staff at the athletic department. Hopefully tickets won't increase incrementally, but you may want to save them for something useful!