Two Years Ago: The "Julian Edelman Rule"

The New England Patriots are almost undisputedly the most dominant football team of the new millennium. Currently, they have three certain future hall-of-famers in their organization, Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, and Bill Belichick, and they have countless other players year-in and year-out who seem to rise to the team's standards and find ways to win consistently. In fact, many analysts and fellow coaches have argued that Patriots head coach Bill Belichick's most valuable traits as a coach are his ability to scout valuable players that might otherwise fall under the radar in the NFL, and his ability to fit players into specific niches within his playbook that highlight their specific strengths. One such example is wide receiver Julian Edelman.

A 5'10 running quarterback coming out of Kent State, most NFL scouts believed that Edelman lacked the size and passing accuracy to be able to succeed as a professional. Though he put up great rushing stats in college, Kent State saw two losing seasons with him at the helm, and the school's football program generally isn't regarded as terribly competitive or though to be in possession of future NFL talent. Edelman was picked near the end of the 2009 NFL draft, drafted 232nd out of 256 selections, and had to make the transition to a completely new position in wide receiver while also adjusting trying to make the Patriots roster and adjust to the NFL game. Fast forward five years late to the 2013-2014 season, and Edelman was the top receiver for the one of the best teams in the league, leading the Patriots in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns. The following season, a little over two years ago, Edelman was starting in Super Bowl XLIX and caught what became the game-winning touchdown (shown below) as the Patriots squeezed out a close victory against the Seahawks, 28-24.

Several minutes earlier in the game, however, Edelman had taken a blow to the head around the 47 yard line by Seahawks strong safety Kam Chancellor. Edelman was visibility shaken on the helmet-to-helmet hit (which, by the way, went unpenalized), and although he got up and kept running after contact, he was visibly off balance after the hit, and ended up falling to the grass and taking a few seconds on the ground before jogging back the huddle. It was the kind of hit that you'd think would send medical staff running out onto the field immediately, but they didn't. In fact, Edelman remained in the game for the rest of that offensive drive, and he didn't miss any plays during the next drive, which ended in him catching the go-ahead touchdown.

Seeing a player take such a big hit in the most popular game of the year (here's a link to a video of the hit) and not be removed from play yielded countless different reactions from analysts and fans across the country during the game and in the following days. The sports website Bleacher Report called the incident "NFL's Nightmare." The New Yorker said that watching Edelman play through a possible concussion was "unsettling."

Like I said with the Matt Moore discussion a few weeks ago, I'm not here to speculate on whether Edelman indeed suffered a concussion on that play or not. I think it's very likely that he did, but he took the NFL concussion tests performed by team training staff and an independent neurologist in between the Patriots two offensive drives, and he passed them. The main problem with this situation was that everyone in the stadium and watching across the world knew that Edelman got rocked on that play, and yet no one did anything to stop the game. There was no immediate medical evaluation, no time out called, no commercial break, nothing.

Let's assume for a moment that Edelman did suffer a concussion on that hit. The chances of him or any player removing himself from the game in that situation are near zero. For one, it's the Super Bowl. It's the moment that every player on that field has been working towards for literally his entire life. No one accidentally makes an NFL roster. No one accidentally makes it to the Super Bowl. So, for better or for worse, they're willing to take the risk in order to remain in the game. Moreover, the Patriots were running a hurry-up offense, meaning that they were trying to get the next play off as soon as possible after the previous play was over in order to conserve time and wear the opposing defense out, so Edelman didn't have the opportunity to get a sub in between plays. Finally, if he did suffer a concussion on that hit, adrenaline might have prevented him from feeling immediate symptoms or from thinking about removing himself from play.

I'm not saying that Edelman doesn't have any fault here. If did indeed suffer a concussion, then the fact that he continued to play literally put his life in danger by increasing his chances of Second-impact syndrome, which is rapid/often fatal swelling of the brain that occurs when a second concussion is sustained before the first one has healed. But the bigger problem is that Edelman and other players shouldn't be the ones choosing whether they're removed from play. Because they're not going to remove themselves, especially in the fourth quarter of the biggest game of their lives. The real problem was that no training staff ran onto the field after that play. The real problem was that no independent neurologist on the sideline notified a member of the Patriots coaching staff that the game should be stopped. The real problem is that none of the referees on the field felt that Edelman needed further evaluation after he stumbled to the ground.

The silver lining to this situation is that, likely due to the media outcry after the game, the NFL incorporated a new rule last year which allows independent concussion spotters, who sit in the media box and have a bird's eye view of the game, to be able to radio officials on the field and call a medical time out, which stops the game but does not penalize either team. The Boston Globe nicknamed this new ability the "Julian Edelman Rule," because hopefully it will prevent what happened with Edelman from happening again.

With Super Bowl LI coming up in just a couple days, Julian Edelman and the Patriots will be back to face the Falcons. Over a hundred million people will be watching, and if the NFL really wants to demonstrate that it's committed to player safety, it should be adamant to stop the game whenever a player shows symptoms of a head injury.