Late in Thursday night’s game, Browns quarterback Colt McCoy was on the receiving end of a thundering hit from Steelers linebacker James Harrison. Harrison drove through McCoy, who was out of the pocket, but had just released a short pass to Montario Hardesty. The helmet-to-helmet contact left McCoy dazed and on the ground, and resulted in a 15-yards roughing the passer penalty for Harrison, who will likely also be hearing from the league office with a fine or suspension for the hit.
McCoy left for a few plays, and backup Seneca Wallace moved the Browns down to first-and-goal from the five yard line, when McCoy miraculously returned to attempt to finish off what could have been the game winning drive. For those watching on TV, McCoy definitely didn’t seem to be ok. In his first three plays back – he handed off once, then was flagged for intentional grounding, then threw an interception in the end zone.
It seemed obvious to everyone watching on TV that he wasn’t ok, and appeared to have have concussion symptoms. But then why was he let back in the game? The Browns defended the action. “I feel very confident that if he wasn’t able to play we would have stopped him,” Shurmur said. “I can assure everyone that we followed protocol.”
McCoy’s dad Brad McCoy, a lifelong high school football coach, disagreed and had strong words for the Browns.
“I talked to Colt this morning and he said, ‘dad, I don’t know what happened, but I know I lost the game. I know I let the team down. What happened?” Brad McCoy said.
“He never should’ve gone back in the game. He was basically out (cold) after the hit. You could tell by the ridigity of his body as he was laying there.”
It’s not clear what protocol the Browns followed, but he seemed to be back in the game far too quickly for a thorough assessment for a potential concussion. We’re certain that the fact that the Browns were five yards away from completing a huge upset of a division rival couldn’t possibly have had an impact on the diligence of evaluating the injury.
“It would’ve taken my high school trainer longer than that to determine if he was okay after a hit like that,” Brad McCoy said. “There were a lot of easy symptoms that should’ve told them he had a concussion. He was nauseated and he didn’t know who he was. From what I could see, they didn’t test him for a concussion on the sidelines. They looked at his (left) hand.”
What happened to McCoy brings to mind the Kris Dielman incident from earlier this season, where the Chargers offensive lineman, who obviously looked dizzy and disoriented, waved off the referee and stayed in the game. Only later was it determined the Dielman had suffered a concussion, and on the flight back to San Diego from New York, he suffered a seizure. He is currently out for the rest of the season, and there are rumors swirling that he is pondering retirement.
That incident caused a string of meetings and, following pressure from the NFLPA and NFLPA Medical Director Dr. Thom Mayer, the NFL agreed to add an observer to watch for injuries from the press box at each game, with a phone line to the sideline medical personnel. It isn’t clear if the observer noted the incident or made a call, and if he did, how the medical staff responded, but this is exactly the type of circumstances that the observer was designed to flag.
There needs to be a thorough investigation of this particular incident and why the system failed. Again.
There has been an improvement in awareness of concussions and how to diagnose them over the years, but the more often incidents like those with Dielman and McCoy continue to occur, the more it becomes clear that we’ve still got a long way to go. Brad McCoy may be a protective parent, but he’s dead right in this case.
