Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Ladarius Green is currently in the NFL concussion protocol after sustaining a concussion in last week's game against the Cincinnati Bengals. He's officially listed as "questionable" on the Steelers injury report, and there's a lot of speculation as to whether he'll be good to go for Sunday's rivalry matchup against the Baltimore Ravens on Christmas Day.
He won't be.
I promise you.
See, this shows how disconnected the media and even a lot of coaches are from the concussion crisis. Looking at this situation in a vacuum, then maybe I could see how you'd think that Green could be back in a week. But any research at all of Green's concussion history reveals that this situation is much more complex than the media is making it out to be.
I actually thought about writing an article on Green a few months ago, because I saw this coming from a mile away. It's easy to make that claim in hindsight, but as a Chargers fan I knew that Green was walking thin ice and would be for the rest of his football career. Green, who spent the first four years of his NFL career in San Diego before signing with Pittsburgh this offseason, suffered a concussion in 2014, and two concussion in 2015. The two concussions he suffered last season occurred within one month of each other, and I noticed a visible difference Green's play style after returning from his second. He was primarily used as a receiver instead of as a a blocker, and he rarely tried to break tackles after the catch or sell out for contested passes. I'm not criticizing his play, and it was pretty apparent that he was playing with hesitation on the field.
If that's not enough evidence that Green never really recovered enough to be back on the field, his rocky off season should have drawn much more concern. He underwent ankle surgery in March of this year, and signed with the Steelers in the same month. But come optional team activities (OTAs), Green was absent. Green also missed Steelers training camp practices. When different sources within the Steelers organization and close to Green were asked about his absences, different answers arose. Green was reportedly complaining of recurring headaches, a common symptom of Post-concussion Syndrome (PCS), but the Steelers organization officially commented that Green was being held out of practice to continue his recovery from his ankle surgery. Later, Green's agent told NFL.com that Green's ankle was fine, but he wouldn't comment on why Green was being held out of camp.
As a I wrote about with De'Anthony Thomas' situation last season, NFL teams will often designate concussions as other injuries on official reports, especially if symptoms are long-lasting. Obviously I can't say with certainty that this is what happened with Green early on in the season, but the evidence in indisputably there.
Green missed the entire preseason and was placed on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list to start the regular season. He missed the first nine weeks of this season, and played only five full games this year before sustaining another concussion. He won't return this Sunday, we won't return this season, and to be honest, I don't think he should ever return to football. It's an extremely unfortunate situation and my heart goes out to him and his family, but at this point he needs to look out for his long term health. The ice he's walking is only getting thinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment