What many media outlets have been discussing the past few hours, however, is not just the close finish to the game, but the hard hit that Cam Newton took with less than a minute left in the game.
You can clearly see Broncos safety Darian Stewart lead with the crown of his helmet, and his contact with Cam Newton turns Newton's head around 90 degrees. In addition to getting hit directly by Stewart's blow, Newton also takes another hit to the head when he goes horizontal and slams into the ground.
Stewart's hit, whether intentional or not, was certainly illegal, and he was penalized on the play. I suspect he will also, for what it's worth, receive a fine from the NFL1. But my real concern is the fact that Newton clearly took a hard shot to the head right in front of a referee (let alone a national audience of millions), grabbed his head, was on the ground for over 20 seconds before getting back on his feet.
The referees, coaches, players, team trainers, team doctors, and the NFL's "independent concussion specialists," who are supposed to be present at every game, all saw what you and I saw on that video, and yet no one stepped up. Cam Newton wasn't tended to by medical staff while on the ground, he didn't go through the NFL's concussion protocol, he didn't even miss a single play. I'm not a medical professional, and I obviously cannot definitively say whether Newton suffered a concussion on that play. But for him to go through no concussion protocol whatsoever? That's a clear violation by the NFL of it's own policy, and it's completely unacceptable.
Look: I understand that when millions are watching a prime time game between two exceptional teams and the losing team has the ball and is within one point with 40 seconds remaining, the last thing that anyone wants to do is remove a star player like Newton from action. I understand that if one of the team doctors or a referee were to remove Newton from play, he or she would receive unbelievable scrutiny for the next few days, or possibly longer, from fans and possibly from the Panthers organization. But a player's health, especially when it comes to the brain, is much bigger than football.
For a variety of reasons, many players, maybe even most, will not remove themselves from a game due to a hard hit to a head. Some reasons why are obvious: in the moment, they care more about winning the game for their teams, and they don't want to be seen as weak or defeated. They might also not realize that they are concussed, due to a late onset of symptoms or due to confusion and dizziness that results from the injury itself. Additionally, a coach is unlikely to remove a player from action unless he is specifically told to do so by a doctor.
The responsibility, then, falls directly on the shoulders of the independent concussion specialists and injury spotters to step up, stop the game, and allow players to receive an adequate examination before returning to action. That's their one and only job. Now, I'm sure there's circumstances surrounding the situation that I don't understand. Maybe the coaches are ignoring the specialists. Maybe the specialists don't have access to the referees in the middle of a fast-paced game. Maybe players sometimes refuse to see the specialists and want to remain in the game. Whatever the reasons for failure were, on that type of hit with that type of attention drawn to it, there should be absolutely margin of error. Newton should have been attended to and removed from play immediately, and not allowed to return until examined by one of the independent concussion specialists present on the sideline.
The referees, coaches, players, team trainers, team doctors, and the NFL's "independent concussion specialists," who are supposed to be present at every game, all saw what you and I saw on that video, and yet no one stepped up. Cam Newton wasn't tended to by medical staff while on the ground, he didn't go through the NFL's concussion protocol, he didn't even miss a single play. I'm not a medical professional, and I obviously cannot definitively say whether Newton suffered a concussion on that play. But for him to go through no concussion protocol whatsoever? That's a clear violation by the NFL of it's own policy, and it's completely unacceptable.
Look: I understand that when millions are watching a prime time game between two exceptional teams and the losing team has the ball and is within one point with 40 seconds remaining, the last thing that anyone wants to do is remove a star player like Newton from action. I understand that if one of the team doctors or a referee were to remove Newton from play, he or she would receive unbelievable scrutiny for the next few days, or possibly longer, from fans and possibly from the Panthers organization. But a player's health, especially when it comes to the brain, is much bigger than football.
For a variety of reasons, many players, maybe even most, will not remove themselves from a game due to a hard hit to a head. Some reasons why are obvious: in the moment, they care more about winning the game for their teams, and they don't want to be seen as weak or defeated. They might also not realize that they are concussed, due to a late onset of symptoms or due to confusion and dizziness that results from the injury itself. Additionally, a coach is unlikely to remove a player from action unless he is specifically told to do so by a doctor.
The responsibility, then, falls directly on the shoulders of the independent concussion specialists and injury spotters to step up, stop the game, and allow players to receive an adequate examination before returning to action. That's their one and only job. Now, I'm sure there's circumstances surrounding the situation that I don't understand. Maybe the coaches are ignoring the specialists. Maybe the specialists don't have access to the referees in the middle of a fast-paced game. Maybe players sometimes refuse to see the specialists and want to remain in the game. Whatever the reasons for failure were, on that type of hit with that type of attention drawn to it, there should be absolutely margin of error. Newton should have been attended to and removed from play immediately, and not allowed to return until examined by one of the independent concussion specialists present on the sideline.
1 Fines are a common occurrence after illegal hits, yet the amount of repeat offenders continually receiving them reveals that fines don't contribute much to their prevention. Part of this ineffectiveness may be due to the relatively small fines given in relation to the multi-million dollar contracts players receive. More will be discussed in a later post.
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