The NFL would have surrendered the benefit of the doubt on its concussion protocol Sunday in Houston, if it were getting any benefit of the doubt anymore.
Why trust that its teams will do the right thing? That they’ll follow their own procedures? That in the moment, they’ll heed their own promises about prioritizing players’ health and safety? That they won’t just revert to the same old football-first-last-and-only mindset they’re had forever?
None of that happened soon enough for Tom Savage.
When it came time to explain how Savage was immobile in the end zone after a hit during the Texans’ game against the 49ers, then ended up back in the game, then almost strode back onto the field again before a staffer had to grab him and pull him back … the Texans and coach Bill O’Brien really couldn’t explain it.
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The teams and their coaches never can. The list of teams and coaches caught wiggling through the loopholes of the so-called “protocol” was already too long. O’Brien’s on it now … along with Jeff Fisher and Ron Rivera, just from the last two years.
Fisher was caught not paying attention in 2015 when Case Keenum was rolling around on the field in Baltimore in a daze. Rivera didn't notice Cam Newton doing the same thing in Denver last season.
On Sunday, O’Brien’s answers to questions about Savage ended up just raising more questions. For example, he answered one about whether Savage tried to go back into the game with, “He doesn't want to come out of the game, but that's in the medical people's hands."
But the one answer that was jarring to everyone who wonders who exactly is watching out for these players: O'Brien said the decision about Savage going back into the game or not wasn’t up to him. “All I do is coach."
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Not quite, unless coaching no longer includes making unilateral decisions about taking players out of games. Putting them back in? Definitely have to get the all-clear sign from the medical experts. Taking them out if you have doubts about them, just from seeing them lying awkwardly enough to make a nation of onlookers fear that they’re having a seizure? All you, coach.
(The Texans said after the game that Savage did not suffer a seizure. It did not make the replay of the moment any less scary.)
The league’s track record on this is poor. It’s not about how many times it properly diagnoses a concussed player and gets him out of the game; it’s about how many times it appears to let it slide for unacceptable reasons.
Russell Wilson’s quick escape from the medical tent was barely a month ago; Jacoby Brissett’s immediate return after, again, being visibly in anguish happened that same weekend. Matt Moore’s departure for exactly one play after a brutal hit in the Dolphins’ playoff game against the Steelers is still fresh in the memory.
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The treatment of players from team to team isn’t what’s supposed to be cloudy and hard to decipher.
Savage’s situation should not have become a nationwide talking point, because the NFL is supposed to have a uniform policy in place specifically for it.
If it can’t follow that policy, or won’t, at least explain why … then find a protocol it can follow, and will.
Until then, there’s no reason to take anyone’s word on any of it.
