a statement from the NFL and also confirmation from
the nflpa that they support, the NFL's conclusion here,
regarding the decision to allow Cameron great to return to
action on Sunday night after he suffered an apparent
air quotes. Blow To The Head.
Here's the NFL statement,
immediately following the game, the NFL contacted team and
unaffiliated. Medical personnel to gather information
concerning the injury sustained by Tampa, Bay's, Cameron breit
the league reviewed the information.
Nation with the NFL players Association
based on the standardized game day reports it is clear to both
parties that the spotters in the booth concluded that bright
was hit in the shoulder and therefore did not trigger
the concussion. Protocols soon, as medical personnel identified
concussion symptoms,
they removed bright
from the game. That's the NFL's position and they're apparently
sticking to it even though are Lying Eyes.
May suggest otherwise it'll Kinder stand.
This is a delicate time.
The NFL's concussion
protocols with the to Otunga by Louis situation and they're
taking a closer look at whether or not, the protocols need to
be changed and the probably having some doubt as to whether
or not this system even works,
that doesn't mean
you ignore reality
when another
example of a failed application to the system lands right in
front of you.
And that's exactly
what I believe. The NFL and the nflpa are doing here.
The kitchen is already too hot. We don't want the Heat.
Go up any higher.
So we are going to embrace
some good old-fashioned alternative facts. Here,
he hit his shoulder
when we know the millions who watched the game 22 million. If
you were watching the game, as the two spotters in, the booth
should have been doing because
they were receiving a paycheck
for this purpose, in this purpose, only
to watch, for signs of someone who needs to be checked for
a potential head injury. Chris, I don't know what else, Cameron
Bright needed to
Have to do in this moment to cause someone to say
whose job, it is
to monitor the game for the potential for an injury that
needs to be evaluated. He hit his head, I am, I losing my
mind here.
I mean, it's his head. He is his head right into this,
right? Squarely into the chest of Chris godman
and then if we want to go back and show the original replay
one more time, I mean showed sot laid on the ground.
And then got up and did look a little wobbly but not like
crazy wobbly. But we got to watch here too is when he's
running to the sidelines.
He runs into the ref like unaware that the ref was in
front of him watch as this plays out. So first off you're
right, you know, he got his head went right into the chest
of course, Godwin at full speed. Now watches his plays
Outlook
little wobbly. Look at this, here's our and putting my head
down. Oh hey, he ran in the rough. You didn't even know he
was standing in front of them, that would be
Like a thing for me on the sidelines, to go, wait, he's
a little discombobulated. He doesn't know where he is like,
well, and they had to get him off the field because they're
a no-huddle, they know he can't continue. Get him off
the field, right? Go go, he's gone. And Mike Tirico said it all.
He's gonna go get checked out on the sidelines,
but he didn't. And that's what's astounding to me
the flow chart that the NFL has out there, they call it the game
day concussion checklist. It starts with player receives
impact to the Head. Then
after that, the protocol is activated, if the player shows
symptoms or reports items, or if one of the seven different
categories of people who have the power to say initiate,
the protocol
team members, coaches
officials. But also
there's a spotter in the booth
who is a certified athletic trainer
and another spotter in the booth who is unaffiliated.
Neurotrauma consultant. There are two people in the booth
watching the action. And I remember when they first did
this, I thought boy, you know, it's going to be difficult
because it may be some contact away from the play sometime.
How are you really focusing on the entire field?
You have, you know, you may miss some things
you aren't Gonna Miss This one. When the guy who has the ball
is the one who hits his head into a teammate.
It's not something you miss.
So yeah. Okay, it's clear that they I
I don't, I don't even want to read it again. Well, I don't II
like,
I understand. You feel like you're under siege right now.
This doesn't make it any better NFL. How are you standing for
this? How is it Union standing for this
with all the, all the rhetoric we've seen from the union about
to a tongue of Aloha? How is there? No rhetoric about this?
I think they understand Chris,
there's a point
and I'm reluctant to say this because, look, my, I've got
a direct financial interest in the continuation of the NFL.
I don't want it to go away. I don't want it to be diminished.
I don't want it to become two-hand touch, but I think
this is one of those where you just got to acknowledge.
It's kind of impossible to catch all of them
and yeah maybe one of these days there's going to be a guy
who has a concussion and he gets back in the game and he
gets another head injury
and he has a serious outcome
and we're just going to have to deal with it when it happens
and I hate that that's where we are and there's no excuse for
it, there's no excuse for it
because if that's ever going to happen it shouldn't happen in
situation like this where we all saw the guy hit his head
into a teammate. Well that's if you're not going to press
the button, then when else are you going to miss the but no, it
listen, it's hard. I understand that.
You know, it is grown man. They trying to say they want to
play. Like we talked about all that time. All that all, you
know, everything that surrounds that conversation, you're not
going to catch them all to your point, you're not. It's still
at the end of the day. I again,
you know, I talk to people here. This ain't the Boy Scouts
the same 21 touch. Most guys know what they signed up for.
They've been, they've been signing up and begging for this
for a long time.
So, you know, I don't, you know, I know, even more reason,
all the more reason to protect them and it is all the more
reason that those spotters have an obligation
when they see a guy's head, hit a teammate's chest and He Flops
onto the ground and he gets up and he runs into an official
and your job is there
to watch the action on the field constantly monitor for
signs of distress that were prior concussion protocol.
We're not saying take him out of the game and shut him down.
This isn't a to a situation
where he should have been prevented from coming back in
that moment, although they later determined all look at
this, he has a concussion. Imagine that maybe he did hit
his head. All were saying is,
he should have been checked then, right? Not at halftime
right? When he says, I'm not feeling right? But because he
got back in the game, right? Had the ball thrown to him
twice. He almost hit his head. On the goal post for crying out
loud after one of those plays.
So, yeah, if this system is ever going to work, the people
who are being paid and I remember
hearing things about, I said this yesterday, but this is,
when you were trying to get a microphone that worked when
coach Madden was involved as a consultant,
he was very visible.
About this stuff. And if there were moments like the,
the Rams Ravens game, where Case Keenum went to the fencing
posture, and nobody said, when you check this guy,
Madden's attitude was, if these people can't get it done, fire
them and find other people who can't. Why not everybody else
that's centered in the NFL? Except people like that? It
seems like more time. Yep. Coach Dungy. Coach Dungy and
I have been talking about this repeatedly a past few days.
He said, I can put my son, Justin in the booth, and he
would have known to press the button on that one, for
a concussion protocol. This isn't a difficult one.
To spot to say, we need to check this guy's. Well the
the biggest point in the biggest picture here and then like you
said, you're not going to catch it all, but this is one that
was front and center
and everybody writes a it and
like my big thing is like, you know, the little phrase called
read the room. I mean, understand the weekend, you're
in here.
The weekend was trumped by a Thursday night concussion that
was as visually
Shocking. Disturbing as any we'd ever seen the NFL lost
fans this weekend, they lost man's.
I've got friends who, you know, we're football fans, not
the die-hard ones, but, you know, hey, and they like, I had to
turn the game off. I'm done, I'm done in
the NFL, it's just too crazy to brew.
All right, I mean, so
there was, there was a lot of parents,
a lot of dads, you know, sitting in the, in the gay, in
the family room, watching the game on Thursday night, with
their kids and the mom.
Turn it off. This is crazy. This is disturbing.
I mean, a lot of that going on. I've had like three people at
the gym. Tell me that last night. So within that you would
think, hey, let's sound a memo to all teams anything, even
close to this weekend.
Get them off the field. Check them out, that's where I'm
shocked. I'm just shocked that, like, you said, it wasn't
evaluated right away and it took him to come to them, you
know, for that evaluation to start.
And let me just say this because we pride ourselves on
being real and authentic, and being honest with the audience,
Since I believe that the NFL and the union are working
together to brush this one under the rug because if it
becomes a
thing what you're talking about, Chris is a snowball that
starts rolling a little bit more
and more. People start saying, how safe is this game for my
kids? Really? If they can't properly, police the sport at
the highest levels
and if the spotters who are being paid to spot when
someone's head slams into a teammate's chest, can't do it
in. All time.
How can we trust our children to whatever apparatus the local
public school system has in place to protect them from
second impact Syndrome
from which they could die
on the field. So, and I was trying to have this
conversation with somebody from the union yesterday
because it's like, I know you're there to protect the players
but at a certain level you got to protect the game
because something happens in the game
that kind of affects the players,
it kind of affects the
Even if all of a sudden, the NFL hits a brick wall and it
has no supply of players and you
you're just you're finding guys who did other things played
other sports and got to teach them how to play football at
the age of 23, that's not ideal for the game
so that I think Chris, that's the only reasonable explanation
for it.
It's either complete and total ineptitude about which they're
lying, or they just don't want another controversy.
Immediately on the heels
of two, a tongue of Isla. They want people to not notice it,
they Further we not talk about it but I'm sorry. You gotta
embrace the truth. You got to own the truth and you got to
deal with the truth because you're only going to cause more
problems for yourself.
If you tell lies to people
and I'm sorry and this is equal on the league in the union,
we reject. I reject Chris, I'll let you speak for yourself.
I reject and I wrote this last night, I reject what you told
me it's false
and you need to be truthful with yourself with us as your
partners and with everybody else who cares about the game?
We know what we saw.
You lose credibility with everyone
when you don't admit
what everyone else saw. Yeah, I'm laying there. Mike well said,
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