Pickett Concussions

Big Ben played much of his career before concussion protocol. If he had played with it in place, he would’ve been in it a lot and would’ve missed a lot more time than he did and probably wouldn’t be seen as tough as he is.
It’s not the players choice to be examined and pulled out. If it were, Pickett wouldn’t have come out of either game.

 

Definitely has to learn to live to fight another down. I was surprised there was no penalty on being slammed down and I agree with a few others, for 220 he seems to come up from some hits (other games as well) as looking like he needs to take a knee for 30 seconds. Yes we are used to Ben who was a very big man, then I think of hits Bradshaw came back from and think no way Pickett would have lasted during that era. What peeves me to no end is how the blocking can break down on the first possession of the game and basically get our QB killed. It's almost on every possession a key mental breakdown or untimely penalty. Can we play a clean mental game for one game this season for God's sake.

 

in a bathroom

 

How many times did he take a hit that he shook off and kept playing that, if someone was paying attention to, he would've been pulled?

 

Again, if someone in the 1970s was watching TB after every hit, he wouldn't have 'come back from' many of them and TB wouldn't have lasted very long either.

 

If you aren't big like Ben you need to get rid of the ball and avoid hits.

Kenny was under duress, and wasn't finding receivers so he was tucking it and running multiple times.

He was off to a bad start, I'm not sure we win the game even if he would have stayed in the game.

 

Bad start? He took what, 8 snaps? And one of them was a complete jail-break where no one blocked the blitzer. I wonder if he had broken those tackles and run for a gain if you would've thought he should've gotten rid of the ball? Had concussion protocol been in place early in BB's career, I guarantee you he would've missed more time than he did. How many hits did he absorb and shake off, or sacks did he take, that if someone were watching, they would've yanked him off of the field?

 

I can think of a lot of Qb that would have been taken out if the concussion protocols were in affect back just 10 years ago.

 

The kid has suffered two concussions in the last 10 games. A third or fourth could literally be career ending and he could be retired by age 25.

If the Steelers truly believe he is the franchise QB they need they must shelve him the rest of this lost season. I don’t care if you have to play Rudolph or have Trubisky throw 7 picks a game.

Otherwise you might as well count on drafting another first round QB next year because Pickett is going to have a very short NFL career.

 

Exactly.
People are acting like players aren't as tough because they are being pulled.
It's not their choice. I guarantee you that if someone hadn't stepped in and pulled Pickett both times this year, he would've kept playing. Further, both of those hits to his head were so innocuous that they probably wouldn't have been mentioned much or even noticed if Pickett stayed in. Today, everyone was thinking it was a leg injury at first. It wasn't until they got word from the sideline that they were checking him for concussion symptoms that it was brought up. 10 years ago he would've gone back in the next series and the announcers would've commented that his leg was okay.

 

I mostly agree, but this one looked worse than the one before. I thought the one before was just because being overly cautious... This one I actually seen the head whipped, but You are totally correct on the 10 years ago stuff. Now they are scared not to pull someone. We will see how they handle a SB if this happens. Will they let it go????....,or pull them???

 

I am, but in this case, I'm also right. I know this process better than you do.

 

How do you know what I know?

 

The problem is that teams obfuscate so much on this topic that people become confused, which is actually what I think is going on with Glenn here. That, and he thinks I'm attacking the Steelers specifically by saying they failed to properly protect Pickett today. To a degree, they did, but I believe it was the medical personnel who were too quick to let him go back out there. Fortunately, he didn't take another hit, so no damage was done.

Teams are dishonest about this. They downplay these injuries and engage in double-talk rather than admit a player suffered a brain injury, especially in a situation like the one today, which was not a good look.

 

This thread alone made that much clear.

 

We don’t even know if the first one was a concussion. Even this one didn’t look that bad.

Polamalu had a bunch of them early and ultimately he seems to be ok.

Frankly I’d be happy to lose out and take the higher draft pick, so I’m fine if Trubisky starts the rest of the way. I doubt that happens though.

 

How can you possibly know what Picketts symptoms are? Maybe you’re completely wrong and Kenny is fine and they were just being overly cautious. We don’t even know for sure that Pickett has been officially diagnosed with a concussion.

 

It wasn't a judgment call. He was in the protocol twice today. The first time they cleared him very quickly. He returned to the game, did not take a hit, but went back in the protocol and was ruled out. The most likely scenario is that he at least had some symptoms, maybe even just a headache, but he kept that to himself during the first examination. Trying to play through it may have made him feel worse, so either he admitted something wasn't right or somebody observed symptoms on the sideline, and that led to him being put back in the protocol and ruled out. I don't have any inside information from the sideline today, but I don't need it. I just need a basic understanding of how the protocol works. It is extremely unlikely that the medical personnel did their jobs properly on the first evaluation, but we will never hear that because the league has zero interest in being honest about concussions.

This doesn't mean he won't be fine. Maybe he will have no further symptoms and he will be cleared to play next week, though that is where the judgment call might come into play. Sitting him down for a week just to be sure wouldn't be the worst decision at this point. This is a lost season. He is their quarterback of the future and he was knocked out of a game for the second time this season.

 

I’m not gonna get too worked up about it. They have the information right in front of them. They’ll make a decision based off the diagnosis and move forward.

 

This is absolutely correct. Concussion symptoms can take seconds or hours or days to appear. This sideline protocol stuff is not the way to determine if a guy has a concussion or not. If you suspect a guy has taken a hit and may have a concussion you need to make sure he doesn't play again that day. I'm thinking that Pickett may have played his last game in his rookie season. If you really care about concussions you need to realize that they have a cumulative effect on a person. Remember how horribly Mike Webster died???? And more than him died of concussion issues. So I agree 100 percent with you formerscribe. Pickett had no business going back in after a hit like that.

The symptoms of a severe concussion are immediate – dizziness, blurred vision, memory loss or even loss of consciousness, but for a mild concussion that doesn't involve being knocked out, symptoms may not seem obvious until days later.

UQ neurologist Professor Michael O’Sullivan explains that part of the problem is that initial symptoms of a concussion – such as memory problems – can sometimes be quite subtle, and aren’t noticed until they become more pronounced.

"It’s the recognition that something isn’t quite right that takes time," he says.

As for symptoms becoming more severe over time, there can be a few reasons for this, explains QBI’s Dr Fatima Nasrallah.

Every concussion is different, she says. The location and force of some impacts are more likely to cause immediate loss of consciousness or vision problems, and these are hard to miss.

"But It might be that the concussion or impact happened in an area that took a long time to cause further damage," she says. In this case, the associated symptoms, such as headaches and ability to multitask, may take a little longer to become apparent.

 

He was panicking and not reading the field. The throws were there to be made.