'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
NFL doctors and experts in heat-related illnesses have spoken with each NFL team this week.
NFL doctors and experts in heat-related illnesses spoke with each team this week. The message, delivered loud and clear: practice caution.
Many more concussions are being reported in the NFL this season, which the league considers evidence that players and teams are taking head injuries more seriously. According to NFL data obtained by The Associated Press, 154 concussions that happened in practices or games were reported from the start of the preseason through the eighth week of the 2010 regular season.
With a late-season game on the line, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers exits with a concussion and doesn't return. Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Heath Miller and Arizona Cardinals quarterback Derek Anderson sit out games altogether because of head injuries.
The NFL will consider running a study that would examine whether playing in the league is more likely to result in long-term brain disease than only playing college football.
The co-chairman of the NFL's Brain, Head and Neck Medical Committee doesn't see four concussions sustained by players in the first weekend of the regular season as a trend.
"Based on the opinions of the trainers and the team physicians and everyone we communicate with, it appears to be a cultural change," Batjer said in an interview with the AP.
"We're trying to make sure that players have the message: Playing through pain is good; playing through pain is what sports are about. But that's leg pain. That's arm pain. Not brain injury," Batjer said.
