A leading brain-safety advocate wants to know more about the latest concussion controversy in the NFL.
On Sunday, Bills quarterback Josh Allen’s head hit the turf. To the non-medically-trained eye, he reasonably seemed to be in distress. As explained on Sunday night, Allen ultimately missed six total plays (a punt, four defensive snaps, and one offensive snap; also known as, given the position Allen plays, “one play”), 2:30 of game time, and 6:06 of actual clock time.
Was that long enough to ensure Allen was fine? Was it simply an expedited application of a process aimed at getting Allen back on the field, at a time when the game was in the balance and the Bills needed their franchise quarterback?
Chris Nowinski, co-founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, told CNN that he wants to know more about how and why Allen was cleared so quickly.
“The more I watch this video, the more I’m troubled about what happened,” Nowinski said. “As Josh Allen was going down, you see he is raising his left arm to protect his head, which is a very natural movement when you’re falling like that, and then after his head bounces so high off the ground, that arm goes limp and you see his wrist catch against the ground which can break your wrist.
“That’s something that any athlete if they were aware would avoid, so I really do think he was unconscious there for a moment after that hit. . . . Ethically, the idea that he was trying to be a hero and no one told him: ‘Hey dude, you were knocked out, your teammates had to roll you over’ really makes you wonder what happened here and this does need to be investigated.”
Nowinski also has concerns about the offering of smelling salts to Allen, after he emerged from the blue medical tent, calling the optics of that move “an absolute disaster and should not happen.”
“The idea that [smelling salts are] anywhere near the blue tent when someone is being evaluated for concussion is terrible so I hope we never see that again and I hope to see a rule change that comes with that,” Nowinski said.
As Devin McCourty and I explained on Tuesday’s PFT Live, the affected team and the league have a clear interest in getting the best players (quarterbacks especially) back on the field as soon as possible. Two years ago, NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent defended during a Sunday morning appearance on ESPN the habit of officials aggressively throwing flags for roughing the passer by pointing out that pro football games have high ratings, and that those ratings depend on the best quarterbacks being available.
Although last year’s quarterback injuries and ensuing rating didn’t bear that out, the fact remains that the game itself depends on the best players playing, especially when the player who might be injured plays for the team that’s trying to complete a come-from-behind win.
The potential comeback keeps audiences engaged. Ushering in the backup quarterback causes fans to lose interest. (Which is what happened last night, when Derek Carr headed for the locker room and missed the rest of the Saints-Chiefs game.)
Even if a proper concussion evaluation should require more time (years ago, Dr. Julian Bailes told me that all concussion evaluations should occur in the quiet and calm of the locker room), the league’s unspoken objective is to avoid keeping a starting quarterback out of action for 10-15 minutes of real time, only to learn that he was fine all along.
So things move faster when the best players are injured. Devin spoke to his own experiences in that regard on Tuesday. When the best player is out of action, there’s an urgency to get him back in.
After the Tua Tagovailoa “back injury” from September 2022, the NFL Players Association emphasized the difference between checking boxes in order to get a player back on the field and health care. When a player is flagged for a concussion evaluation, it’s supposed to be about health care.
The mere fact that Allen was fully cleared to play after what everyone saw on Sunday suggests that, in his case, it was about checking the concussion-clearance boxes ASAFP.
With a dash of smelling salts, just in case.
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