The Concussions Question We Don’t Want To Face
Happy Holidays to Everyone! Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend!
When asked whether he would hide a concussion or admit it to the medical staff, Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew admitted that he’d hide it and his reasoning, while understandable, is extremely worrisome.
“The bottom line is: You have to be able to put food on the table. No one’s going to sign or want a guy who can’t stay healthy. I know there will be a day when I’m going to have trouble walking. I realize that,” Jones-Drew said. “But this is what I signed up for. Injuries are part of the game. If you don’t want to get hit, then you shouldn’t be playing.”
You have to give Jones-Drew credit for his comments. I’ve wavered back and forth over the issue of concussions because decades ago, concussions were much less frequent. The reason? Players just played through them. The NHL is having a concussion epidemic now but fighting is much less than it was decades ago. Teams are now just much more careful with players and are extra cautious (and rightfully so) with concussions these days.
But what if players don’t admit they are concussed? Everyone who has ever played sports has injured himself a bit and told a coach that he was fine, even if he wasn’t. Players want to play. It’s that simple. But concussions lead to a whole new level of extremely serious problems. And yet, Jones-Drew is willing to accept those problems to play and earn a living. Here’s where I’m not sure I fully agree with Jones-Drew though. He’s the league’s leading rusher this year. He’s earned a good amount of money during his time in the league. No matter if he retires tomorrow, he’s going to be able to “put food on the table” as long as he doesn’t waste what he’s earned. He doesn’t need to risk brain damage to feed his family. Read more…
Clippers Need To Learn How To Win
After the Los Angeles Clippers defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 108-103 on Wednesday in the second of two preseason meetings between the teams, Lakers forward Matt Barnes took issue with the “Lob City” Clippers:
They definitely have a much improved team here and are looking to make a push towards the playoffs. “They have a lot of reason to be excited, but all the celebration after dunks and all that kind of stuff, I mean, I just kind of think it looks amazing and it makes ‘SportsCenter,’ but I mean, let’s just play basketball. They act like they won the dunk contest after every dunk. So, as players, people aren’t going to tolerate that.
Whether or not the last bit about “people aren’t going to tolerate that” is a threat to the Clippers is unclear, but Barnes did take exception in the third quarter of the game when he was assessed a flagrant 1 foul for shoving the Clippers’ Blake Griffin to the floor. Afterwards, Barnes spoke about the play and while he certainly disagreed with the call, he also accepted it:
I looked at [the replay] and yeah, my arms did get extended but [Griffin] flailed everywhere like I threw him to half-court. I just think the refs are so quick to judge. Even after looking at the replay, I heard initially they wanted to call a flagrant 2 and I’m just like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I guess there’s just no hard fouls anymore. It was just a hard foul. That’s exactly what it was yesterday, my reputation. I’ve fouled people much harder than that. That’s all it is. … I have a reputation for stuff I’ve done, so I’ve earned it, so I can’t be mad at no one but myself, but that definitely wasn’t a flagrant foul. Read more…
Shanahan Fumbles Explanation of Lucic’s Suspension
Milan Lucic was forced to sit out Monday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens because of a boarding penalty and game misconduct he received in the Bruins previous game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Lucic hit Flyers center Zac Rinaldo from behind in the game and was immediately ejected from the game.
On Monday morning, Lucic had a conference call with NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan to discuss the incident and Shanahan decided to suspend Lucic for a game. I have no problem with that. Lucic’s hit was bad and he has a history of walking a tight line between playing hard and dirty. What I have an issue with is Shanahan’s explanation for the suspension:
While this hit is not particularly egregious, it is illegal. However, the overriding factor in elevating this hit from behind from a penalty on the ice to a suspension is his history of similar infractions, warnings and a fine. We’ve taken into account that Rinaldo suffered no apparent injury as a result of this hit.
Emphasis is mine.
Why does Rinaldo’s injury, or lack there of, matter? It doesn’t change Lucic’s hit. It doesn’t change Lucic’s intentions. Whether or not Rinaldo is hurt should not have any affect on Shanahan’s decision. Yet, he says the exact opposite. Read more…
Ohio State Penalties Enough and Not Enough
The NCAA announced today that Ohio State will receive a one-year bowl ban, lose nine scholarships over the course of three years and face an additional year of probation. These penalties, while damaging to Ohio State, are not as severe as they could have been. The one-year bowl ban will greatly hurt the university, but this is just another demonstration of the NCAA’s inability to police college athletics.
Who pays most for the indiscretions of Terrelle Pryor and Jim Tressel? The current players at Ohio State. The ones who did nothing wrong.
Now, Pryor had to serve a five-game suspension in the NFL and that was an excellent, bold move by commissioner Roger Goodell. And any school that wishes to hire Tressel in the next five years will have to demonstrate why it needs to employ him. Thus, neither escaped unscathed from the scandal in Columbus, but they are not hit particularly hard as well. Pryor is on the Oakland Raiders roster while Tressel is now a video-review coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts. Certainly, that is not the dream job for either man, but each is making a living and still actively involved in the NFL. Read more…
Bruins Update 12/20
A Quick One:
There’s not much bad I can say about the Bruins right now. They’re up 10 points in the Northeast Division, lead the Eastern Conference and are 19-2-1 in their last 22 games. Even though they didn’t play their best against the Habs last night, a couple timely goals and a great performance by Tim Thomas led the B’s to a win over their arch-rivals. And this was with Milan Lucic suspended for the game. As I said, there’s not much to complain about with this team. Goal for the rest of the season: avoid injuries. And then we will see if it’s possible for any team to beat the Bruins in a seven-game series. Right now, it certainly doesn’t look that way.
Red Sox Update 12/18
It’s been a while since the Red Sox season ended in utter embarrassment. So now it’s time to look to 2012 and how to build a roster that can make it a full season without imploding:
Manager
Bobby Valentine is the new manager of the Boston Red Sox after a two month search. It seemed that new General Manager Ben Cherington had favored Dale Sveum to take over as manager from Terry Francona, but management were not sold on Sveum and new Cubs General Manager Theo Epstein swooped and nabbed Sveum.
Many baseball analysts have been clamoring for Valentine to rein in the Sox clubhouse and I agree. Francona has always been and will always be a player’s manager, but the current roster of players do not have the personalities that mesh well with a player’s manager. Players like Josh Beckett and John Lackey, amongst many others, took advantage of the leeway Francona gave them. It’s time for a hard-nosed, disciplined manager to set some ground rules. The players are certainly embarrassed by the September collapse, but I want to make sure that the antics in the clubhouse will stop and Valentine will certainly do that. Read more…
Jonathan Broxton Signs with Royals
Just a short post today:
The Kansas City Royals made a strong signing today in agreeing to a deal worth $4 million guaranteed with Jonathan Broxton. Broxton spent much of last year injured, making just 14 appearances for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Before his injury, Broxton was a very good closer with a career ERA of 3.19. He’s just 27 years old still and agreed to become a setup man for the Royals.
As a Red Sox fan, this is the exact signing I was hoping they’d make. Broxton could compete with Bard for the closer’s role and if he had lost it, he would have become the setup man. Not just that, but he’s okay being a setup man – something many of the other elite closers on the market are not going to be.
But even beyond the Red Sox, Broxton has proven he can be a great pitcher. Whether he pitches that well after coming back from this injury is unknown, but his price tag isn’t outrageous and it is only for one year. How many teams around the league could use a strong setup man? Or even use a chance at having a strong setup man?
Broxton is anything, but a sure thing. But he has lots of potential and has already proven that he has the stuff. So congrats to the Royals on a strong pickup and to the Red Sox: why didn’t you try to sign him?
