This past weekend, the University of Michigan came under scrutiny for allowing Shane Morris to continue to play after "exhibiting concussion like symptoms." Coach Brady Hoke has been weathering fans calling for him to lose his job all week because of this... and because Michigan is very, very, bad.
And that's the problem here. If Morris stayed in and led Michigan to a victory, we would still be hearing about this, but, frankly, no one would care. That's the problem with sports. Whenever a league, team or coach preaches player safety as their highest priority, I laugh. Winning is the highest priority. If player safety happens to allow for winning, then they will follow that protocol.
Look at what has happened to Robert Griffin in his career in the NFL. He was thrust onto the field in his rookie year clearly not 100%, but he presented the Washington football team with their best chance to win. He's still beat up in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, and his knee explodes in a loss to Seattle. Nobody was decrying the injury during the game, but once Washington lost, it became a massive story in sports - why did he(the coach) keep Griffin in, why did he allow him to keep playing, why did he risk further injury to his superstar quarterback?
Because a coach isn't retained based on the health of their players. They're retained based on wins and losses.
After Griffin's knee surgeries in the offseason, his projected recovery time was conservatively listed as one year. So he instead comes back after eight months, doesn't take a single snap in the preseason, but since he represented Washington's best chance to win, he's handed the ball opening weekend on a "healed" knee and played absolutely terrible. When head coach Mike Shanahan's job was clearly lost, THEN he decided to look out for player health, and that was when he benched Griffin for the remainder of the season for player safety reasons.
So what does it take to get a team to care about player safety? Have a lost season and a lame duck coach. That's the combination needed to get it done.
But wait! Michigan has that! So why the hell did Hoke not pull Morris?
Because Hoke still thinks he has his job.
This massive blunder has had Hoke and the University apologizing all week for the "oversight" and "mishandling" of Morris. I'm really glad smell-o-vision doesn't exist yet, because I can nearly smell the bulls**t in those answers through my television. Michigan plays in the third largest stadium in the world. That is not a typo. Number three in the ENTIRE WORLD. It seats almost 110,000 people, and the entire stadium saw Morris stumble around and look greatly confused after taking that hit. He was wobbling like a frat boy. And yet, somehow, the entire coaching staff of Michigan didn't notice this. Of course they saw him wobbling around. But they didn't think they could win without him. So they kept him in.
With all the new information coming out about concussions, the frequency at which they occur, and more importantly, the permanent damage that they cause, the fact that not a single person has lost their job for this is sickening. As far as I'm concerned, leaving a concussed player on the field in today's game is grounds for being charged with reckless endangerment. But an important thing to remember, is college football often emulates the NFL, and once again, that is where they got this idea from, even in an era of heightened concussion awareness.
In 2011, the Cleveland Browns kept Colt McCoy in the game after he suffered a concussion, and never administered any of the league's concussion protocol on the sideline, even though McCoy lost consciousness on the field, and couldn't remember the play that knocked him out. Even after claiming that they (the Browns) did not know that McCoy was concussed, in his postgame interview they dimmed the lights because they were hurting McCoy's head.
What?!?!?!
It's not like he was suddenly hung over! He had a F**KING CONCUSSION! And still they adamantly claimed they did not know he had suffered a concussion during the game. Medical personnel attended to him on the field, they helped him walk off the field and still claim he was fine. This was at the beginning of the NFL's player safety "crusade" and the Heads Up program. This was allowed to fly under the radar nationally because 1) the NFL was still infallible at this point, and 2) it was the Cleveland Browns.
Brady Hoke does not have either of those things to hide behind, and he will lose his job this year, but unfortunately, it won't be because of his blatant disregard for the safety of his players. And from a college coach no less, he's supposed to help mold these kids into adults, not mentally disabled young men. College coaches go into the homes of their players, and convince their parents that they will be there to look out for the best interest of their kid, and to ensure that they receive everything they need. In sports, this has always been a lie, and at least now, everyone at Michigan knows that Hoke never meant any of that.
Here are the week 5 picks. Home team in bold
Green Bay (-8) over Minnesota
Bears (+2.5) over Carolina
Cleveland (+1) over Tennessee
Philadelphia (-7) over St. Louis
Atlanta (+4) over New York Giants
Tampa Bay (+10) over New Orleans
Houston (+6.5) over Dallas
Detroit (-6.5) over Buffalo
Indianapolis (-3.5) over Baltimore
Pittsburgh (-6) over Jacksonville
Arizona (+7.5) over Denver
Kansas City (+5) over San Francisco
San Diego (-6) over New York Jets
Cincinnati (-1) over New England
Seattle (-7) over Washington
After reading my last week's picks, I'm pretty sure I wrote down the wrong pick in more then one situation (like Carolina over Baltimore), but I'll stick with what I wrote.
Last Week: 6-7
Overall: 27-32-2
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