How Times Have Changed Since the Day Greg Lloyd's 'Three Count' Knocked Al Toon out of Game with Concussion

I wanted to include the Mike Webster stuff, but I thought it would be too morbid considering how he went out. I listen to a lot of local sports talk, and Stan Savran and Guy Junker often speak of how quickly Webster went down hill towards the end. Just sad stuff.

To Hombre’s point about the bigger and faster athletes, last year, I was watching a game between Atlanta and Cleveland, and an Atlanta defensive lineman (don’t remember who it was) tipped a pass at the line of scrimmage, dove and intercepted the football just before it hit the ground, and then got up and ran it in for a touchdown. And he didn’t even seem to be much of a struggle for him physically. When you have guys that big and athletic, there’s basically only so much you can do about the violent hits. But at least they’re taking some measures.

Like you said, Hombre, I do remember the very end of Ali’s career and subsequent health problems, and it was pretty tragic.

….on how we now approach head injuries. We certainly have more examples than we wish we had as for what concussions can do to a man (Mike Webster and Chris Benoit are the first names that come to mind). Also, having experienced a couple of concussions before, I can tell you, it’s something I wouldn’t wish on anybody.
That being said, I just despise the NFL’s approach to concussions. First, I agree with Hines about the hypocressy of the fines; if they want to protect players, I think better invesment in the player’s medical benefits would be much better than just fining players for H2H hits. The only way in which they will make an impact this way is to eliminate contact from the game. Most of the hits I’ve seemed get fined were not IMO dirty hits; the speed of the game just makes it impossible sometimes to avoid contact with the head. The NFL is fining the injury, not the intention of the hit, which is what I think should be fineable.

I love the hard hitting, don’t come across the middle without your head attached firmly brand of football! I do….

I don’t like the National Fining League or NFL of today! I don’t…..

Head injuries suck! They do….

The NFL is losing a fan…………I mostly only watch Steeler games anymore…..

The big hits over the weekend seem to have taken center stage for the NFL fans and the league. I’ll leave those individual hits alone, as they are covered ad nauseum in other places.

Let’s talk about the Steeler history with head trauma. Let’s start with Mike Webster, who is arguably the best center ever to wear Black and Gold. His story ends sadly, as he dies wrapped in homelessness and solitude. ESPN covers Iron Mike and his condition best:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1972285

Terry Long, who played OG, died in 2005 after drinking anti-freeze. His autopsy revealed a “punch drunk” brain caused by repeated head trauma from playing football. Boxers often suffer from chronic encephalopathy from repeated blows to the head. As an aside, I believe the boxing “10-count” adds to this. After enough trauma has been delivered to stagger a man, repeated trauma after that is just asking for trouble…even if you wait for a few second before re-starting the fight.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2307003

Long, as well as Webster, played OL. Surely, there couldn’t be a third Steeler offensive lineman to succumb to the effect of head trauma. Could there?

Enter one Justin Strzelczyk. An odd character who I remember best for wearing a German helmet. I also remember him for playing hard-nosed football in the 90s. Note Bettis’ comment. Justin would puke in the huddle, and it probably wasn’t from the exertion. He played with everything he had. Justin died in a fiery crash as he fled from police for a traffic violation.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_257181.html

Running from the cops seems like something Pacman would do. Not Justin. Until you factor in the head trauma and the attendant problems with rational decision making.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/sports/football/15brain.html?_r=1

Add to this Merrill Hoge’s experiences with head trauma. He actually stopped breathing after two concussions a few weeks apart. He suffered memory loss, forgot how to read and had other cognitive problems.

http://www.gatorsports.com/article/20091001/ARTICLES/910029997/1136?Title=Dangers-of-a-concussion&tc=ar

So, what’s my point here? The recent high profile hits have the NFL in a regulatory tizzy, but this is really a fraud. A cover. It is brand management and public relations. The NFL feels that it can’t let these go by or moms and girlfriends everywhere will put the NFL into the same category as MMA. However, if the NFL really cared about head trauma, they’d pay attention to offensive linemen and defensive linemen. These guys bang heads, literally, every play. Have you ever seen the NFL seriously address the trench position head trauma as seriously as they address the QB and receiver? Yeah – me neither.

Education.

James Harrison is fined beyond recognition.. Before long the old-timers may not recognize he brand of football being played in the NFL. I am glad the Steelers are still a team of guys who are rough on the field and good citizens off it.

Being someone who last had his 10th concussion/head injury (probably) 20 years ago, i know some of the effects of post concussions. I’ve spent much time over the past 6 years or so trying to read what i can about the subject, wikipedia has plenty of info on all the different effects, btw.

i have read espn’s online story of max webster, it was truly sad. Some of the things mentioned in the story seemed similar to mine from time to time, but I in no way endured anything like must have to gone thru week after week. I also recall reading an article by Terry Bradshaw back in the winter before the Super Bowl about how he deals with the issues he has.

The larger impact of concussion, not just in professional sporting circles, is what is the big issue i think. The NFL and NHL, for example, can set an example and provide money for research where the public is laking in funding, as well as, provide a platform to create awareness. The concussions just aren’t happening in the NFL and NHL, they’re happening at all levels of sport, and beyond. Now that there have been protocols created to deal with, assess, and report concussions, i think that it will take about 10 to 20 years before major fruition will result from the changes that are starting now.

Sadly as these changes are in their infancy, we’ll continue to see inconsistency in application of them. Just as it will take time for individuals to acquire the knowledge and understanding of the effects of concussions. For example, on a local sports report about a Junior A Hockey team, a player was said to be ready for action soon since he hadn’t been concussed but rather had “whiplash”, of course i had to laugh, wonder if the team doctor associated whiplash with a head injury.

anyways, i could go on, but i’ll keep this as impersonal as possible. here’s a link to a news story regarding homeless people and head injuries that was first reported nationally in canada back in 2008.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2008/10/06/homeless-head-injury.html

We also have an obligation to act to make the sport safer. Everyone knows that football is a tough sport, but they don’t teach players to shoot for the other guy’s head in any scholastic football program that I’ve ever seen. So a lot of this talk about “that’s the way I was always taught” is pure bunk.

If we really care about player safety as we claim, NFL coaches need to back up the rules with their own players by benching “repeat offenders,” no matter how important they might be to the team’s success. And until head coaches start cracking down on players and imposing penalties of their own, no actions that the NFL decides to take will make any difference.

I thought Randy Moss pretended to moon the opposing fans and that was what made Joe Buck say that. I thought it was hilarious.

So I don’t think we can depend strictly on proper enforcement, either by the refs or by the NFL.

I agree it’s a wider problem but in the context of player safety let’s just focus on the problematic plays. In my opinion enforcment by the refs is the first and most important step. I can’t think of the top of my head a league that requires outside intervention to prevent plays that cause injuries to players.

Perhaps I’m wrong, but I don’t believe that spearing with the helmet gives your team any particular advantage, unless your goal is simply to knock out all of the other team’s key players.

If you wanted to prevent hits you need to put the whole offending team at a disadvantage and not just fine the player. Take a look at soccer (yeah I know sport for women and children but just bear with me). If an offense of sufficient severity happens the player is simply ejected from the game which puts the offending team at a significant disadvantage. The coaches and the clubs usually discourage such kind of play just because of the fact that nobody wants to play the rest of the game a man short.

So to some degree the teams police themselves into not going over the line. And yes injuries and even bad fouls still happen it’s not perfect but it’s bettter than what the NFL has where you can get away with stuff that’s clearly illegal (Ben geting slapped around the head by Ngata and Suggs would be one example).The coaches/clubs won’t do anything unless it starts costing them yardage and games.

It’s easy enough for refs to look at replays and determine if a tackle breaks the rules or not. So if they’re not sure whether a hit was legal, why not use the replay? Otherwise, you’re depending strictly on the refs’ ability to see every play clearly.

You can could go that far but there are other contact sports where this is managed better hockey, rugby, australian rules football… Hell half the time I don’t even hear a whistle called or it’s drowned out by the noise in the stadiums or even if it’s blown some players just keep going.

If you watched the Broncos v Jets last night, there was a personal Foul called on Brian Dawkins for hitting Plaxico Burress as a defenseless receiver. he hit the man in the shoulder, no helmet contact from or to eaither party, no launching, a pretty clean hit – I was pretty surprised by the call, John Fox was furious. But as Steelzombie said the hit Looked injurous – therefore – flag. The hit was about as clean as you can get as a safety coming on over the top help on the sidelines – yet, it advanced the Jets 15 yards…

and this won’t be the last time I say this. The “new” officiating is killing the game. The Broncoe broke up a pass to Plax last night and they threw a flag. Come on man, that was just a simple hit. Are you supposed to let the guy catch a pass now?

Thanks for bringing back that great memory of Lloyd. Nobody would ever get away with doing that today.