Earlier today, Carolina Panthers star linebacker and team captain Luke Kuechly was officially ruled out of this upcoming Sunday's matchup against the Chicago Bears with a concussion. On October 12th, during last week's Thursday night matchup between the Panthers and the Philadelphia Eagles, Kuechly took a hard hit to the neck area from the Eagles guard Brandon Brooks. Take a look at the play below.
While the hit that Kuechly took eight days ago was definitely hard, it certainly wasn't out of the ordinary-- the Eagles ran the ball with LeGarrette Blount to the left, and Brooks pulled and led with his shoulder/bicep as he blocked Kuechly and gave Blount room to run. But it's a particularly concerning sight to see Kuechly go down in this scenario, not just because of his leadership hall-of-fame level talent that the Panthers defense relies on, but due to his recent yet lengthy concussion history and his reaction to a hit that would leave most players getting right back up unscathed.
Kuechly missed 3 games during the 2015 season and six games during the 2016 season recovering from concussions. He became a media talking point last November, when he was concussed in a Thursday night game against the Saints and left the field on a cart as he was tearing up and seemed disoriented.
Besides, Kuechly is a linebacker, which is arguably the most dangerous position on the football field in terms of head injuries. It combines the sheer frequency of hits to the head that linemen experience with the acceleration and awkward angles at which hits to the head occur to defensive backs, meaning it gets the worst of both force and frequency.
Having had three concussions in the past three years, Kuechly is never going to be the same player again. Even if he never suffers another concussion. Because he's always going to hesitate. He's always going to be paranoid. He's always going to think twice before making a move on the football field. And not only is that going to hurt how effective he is as a player, but when you take that split second to tense up or second guess yourself, that's when you're most likely to get hurt playing this game. Especially at the NFL level. Some players can do it. I don't condone it at all, but there are players who have lengthy concussion histories and still play. For example, De'Anthony Thomas, a receiver and kick returner for Kansas City, suffered a concussion in November 2015 and missed the final eight games of the Chief's season. But he's really a gadget player who only touches the ball three or four times a game, during which he'll make a very obvious effort to go down or get out of bounds before he gets hit. There are plenty of similar cases across the league. But the point is that it's one thing to risk getting a concussion as a receiver, where your job is to avoid getting hit during the occasional instances where you're thrown the ball, but it's quite another when in Kuechly's position, where your job is to find the player with the ball and hit him as hard as you can every single play.
Kuechly missed 3 games during the 2015 season and six games during the 2016 season recovering from concussions. He became a media talking point last November, when he was concussed in a Thursday night game against the Saints and left the field on a cart as he was tearing up and seemed disoriented.
Besides, Kuechly is a linebacker, which is arguably the most dangerous position on the football field in terms of head injuries. It combines the sheer frequency of hits to the head that linemen experience with the acceleration and awkward angles at which hits to the head occur to defensive backs, meaning it gets the worst of both force and frequency.
Having had three concussions in the past three years, Kuechly is never going to be the same player again. Even if he never suffers another concussion. Because he's always going to hesitate. He's always going to be paranoid. He's always going to think twice before making a move on the football field. And not only is that going to hurt how effective he is as a player, but when you take that split second to tense up or second guess yourself, that's when you're most likely to get hurt playing this game. Especially at the NFL level. Some players can do it. I don't condone it at all, but there are players who have lengthy concussion histories and still play. For example, De'Anthony Thomas, a receiver and kick returner for Kansas City, suffered a concussion in November 2015 and missed the final eight games of the Chief's season. But he's really a gadget player who only touches the ball three or four times a game, during which he'll make a very obvious effort to go down or get out of bounds before he gets hit. There are plenty of similar cases across the league. But the point is that it's one thing to risk getting a concussion as a receiver, where your job is to avoid getting hit during the occasional instances where you're thrown the ball, but it's quite another when in Kuechly's position, where your job is to find the player with the ball and hit him as hard as you can every single play.
I think NFL coaches needs to start putting more emphasis on a player's concussion history when making personnel moves. It makes no sense that teams sign guys who have become concussion prone not only from a moral and medical standpoint, but just in terms of their abilities to stay healthy throughout the duration of the season. Teams stay away from guys who've had three ACL tears, broken their clavicles twice, etc. The same mentality should come with players who've had concussions-- it's just better decision making for all involved.
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