[RedAlice]

Fisher, the officiating crew and the doctor they put on the sidelines to watch for these things should all face discipline for Keenum staying in the game.

Absolutely. I'm still shocked he was allowed to play.

[Hacksaw]

Looked like a downed boxer trying to beat the count while trying to find his mouth piece.

BTW, what's the future of boxing when the goal is to give your opponent a concussion?

Different bag of chips Elvis. Individual athletes who sign up vs athletes who sign up but are governed by a league avoiding potential lawsuits.

[Hacksaw]

Fisher, the officiating crew and the doctor they put on the sidelines to watch for these things should all face discipline for Keenum staying in the game.

Absolutely. I'm still shocked he was allowed to play.

fish, sideline MD and his teammates should have taken better care of him. Dude was twilight zone.

[Elvis]

[Hacksaw]

Good. Some geese need to be cooked.

BTW Happy Thanksgiving.

[Elvis]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/spo ... iolations/

Lesson from Case Keenum: NFL must hold teams accountable for concussion protocol violations



When players break NFL rules designed to promote player safety, they pay fines and face potential suspension. What happens when teams violate, or outright ignore, player safety guidelines? The league will provide an answer soon. The NFL can prove its seriousness in protecting player welfare by holding teams to the same standard as players. Or it can expose the league’s concussion protocol as a toothless suggestion, merely a public relations shield.

Sunday afternoon, in the waning minutes of the St. Louis Rams’ 16-13 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, Baltimore defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan sacked St. Louis quarterback Case Keenum and slammed the back of Keenum’s head against the cold M&T Bank Stadium turf. Keenum wobbled as he attempted to roll onto his hands and knees, and he rose to his feet only with a teammate’s assistance. As the Rams attempted a game-winning drive, Keenum never left the field, despite obvious signs he could have suffered a concussion.

In that moment, Keenum morphed from a nondescript career backup to a crucial test case for the league. The NFL began a review “promptly after the conclusion of yesterday’s game” to determine why Keenum “was not removed from the game for the necessary evaluation by a team physician or the unaffiliated neuro-trauma consultant as required by our concussion protocols,” spokesman Brian McCarthy said in an e-mailed statement. The NFL Players Association launched its own investigation alongside the league.

The joint review comes at a critical time for the league’s concussion policies because of how the protocol has evolved. Prior to 2011, the league had no standard reaction to potential concussions. The NFLPA drafted a protocol, and eventually the league put one into place before the 2013 season.

Each year, failures and loopholes have been patched over. Last year, for example, two players complained of “stingers” when they actually suffered concussions and were allowed to continue playing. In the Super Bowl, New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman appeared to suffer a concussion, but play never stopped, and so he stayed in the game.

In the offseason, the NFL and NFLPA adopted improvements. If a player reports neck pain along the lines of a stinger or “burner,” team physicians are required to test him for a concussion. To prevent another Edelman situation, the NFL gave an independent certified athletic trainer – known as an ATC spotter – the right to call time out from high above the field and have the player in question removed if he “displays obvious signs of disorientation or is clearly unstable” and “it becomes apparent that the player will remain in the game and not be attended to by the club’s medical or athletic training staff.”

At some point, the only modification left to make will be an enforcement mechanism. That point is now. In order for teams to stop sending potentially concussed players back to the field, the NFL will need to adopt formal punishments and start penalizing teams or independent medical personnel that put players at risk.

“The NFL does a great job of taking credit for things required by the Players Association,” said Chris Nowinski, the executive director of the Concussion Legacy Foundation. “They’ve been dragged kicking and screaming. This is a clear next thing they need to do: fine the teams. This is a young man with a brain injury being put in harm’s way for no other reason than the teams have no consequences for rolling the dice with his life.”

By the end of the week, perhaps, the league and the union will determine whether the Rams or the ATC spotter were in the wrong. The investigation should yield a definitive conclusion. All contact between the ATC and the sideline are monitored for review, and video is kept to determine what replays physicians did or didn’t watch. If the proper chain was not followed, the league and NFLPA will know. If it was and got ignored by coaches, the league and NFLPA will know.

Players across the league, one person close to the situation said, are watching the case with interest, waiting to see if the NFL will take any disciplinary action. McCarthy, the league spokesman, was cryptic as to possible punishment for the Rams or their medical personnel. Asked what recourse teams faced for violating the protocol, McCarthy replied, “Our focus right now is on ensuring that the protocols are followed.”

The notion of a league fining teams for a breach in safety protocol is not only reasonable in theory. It exists in practice: Australia’s National Rugby League fines teams $20,000 for violating its concussion protocol.

First, the league will need to determine if the Rams or their doctors violated protocol. Nowinski already has made up his mind.

“Everybody saw the injury,” Nowinski said. “You have to imagine nobody pulled the trigger because it was the last drive of the game. That was a very unethical thing to do: to put that player at risk for a catastrophic injury.”

Reporters did not ask Rams Coach Jeff Fisher about Keenum’s potential head injury in Fisher’s postgame news conference Sunday. While a team-employed reporter tweeted Sunday that Keenum had suffered a concussion, a Rams spokesman did not respond to an email Monday regarding Keenum’s status. On Sunday, Keenum did not speak with reporters, one indication of a head injury. Fisher has a news conference in St. Louis scheduled for Monday evening.

If the league finds a violation, it should punish the Rams, and not just to make an example out of them. An NFL sideline is pure chaos, especially in the throes of a game-deciding drive. Perhaps Fisher really left Keenum in because he didn’t notice his quarterback wobbling, the specifics and stresses of the game commanding his entire focus.

The NFL needs to send the message that the stage of the game cannot be an excuse. The health of its players always should be the priority, whether it’s the first quarter or a two-minute drill. Football is inherently violent and dangerous to its players. Desperation doesn’t change that. The NFL doesn’t care about a player’s intention when it delivers a helmet-to-helmet blow. The action is what draws a fine.

Sadly, what happened two plays after Keenum’s head met the turf might force change among coaches. Keenum dropped back to pass. He barely reacted as defensive end Courtney Upshaw rushed him and swatted the ball from his grasp. The Ravens recovered, and after a short drive they kicked a game-winning field goal.

[Elvis]

I wonder if this is the thing that will end up bringing Fisher down?

[Hacksaw]

Me thinks this get uglier.

[Stranger]

what a mess everything has become

[max]

Fisher is throwing everyone (but himself of course) under the bus.

Then he says it's no ones fault, which of course blames the NFL for having faulty concussion rules.

I think this is the beginning of the end for Jeff Fisher.