Is NFL too lenient towards offenders? – NFL Feature-Part Two
The efforts of protecting players from concussions had a major boost since controversial handling of the head injury of quarterback Colt McCoy by the Cleveland Browns.
McCoy’s family became furious and his dad particularly flayed the Browns for mishandling his son’s head injury. He claimed he (McCoy) appeared to be not remembering anything because of the injury impact on his head when he spoke to him on the phone next
morning.
The entire football community and particularly McCoy’s fans severely criticised Browns managers and demanded the National Football League (NFL) to launch an inquiry into the incident, which the league office eventually did.
NFL officials in an uninformed visit inspected the team’s facilities at the headquarters, carried out a review and then had some meetings with Browns top-notch officials.
The investigation found a system’s failure at the headquarters in the mishandling of the player’s head injury. The Browns were lucky to escape possibility of a punishment over the outcome of the league inquiry, probably on the excuse that since the medical
staff was busy inspecting some other players on the sidelines they could not watch and assess the impact of McCoy’s head hit.
Again, the league office came under fire from all quarters over letting the Browns go unpunished, although they were found guilty.
Yet a positive outcome out of this incident was that the league office started positioning an athletic trainer along with teams' medical staff during each game to help the team’s staff in monitoring, assessing and treating players for concussions.
The move apparently has been helpful. Irrespective of the question how effective these trainers are in assessing and treating players for head injuries, at least none of them can go unchecked and allowed back on the field without inspection.
It is pertinent to note here that this move was pending since quite long because of a strong resistance within the league against its introduction. So one major incident swept away the entire opinion to its favour and it became easier at the end for the
league office to implement it immediately.
Further, the league office had finally found courage to talk and take the matter of concussion seriously.
First, it debated possibilities of banning head hits altogether during the offseason franchises' owners meeting. Although it appears to be inconclusive, progress on it can be expected in future. It remains on the agenda of the league and can be taken up
during any meeting.
Second, since then, the NFL boss has sounded clear intentions of protecting players from concussions or deliberate injuries.
Here let’s not forget the bounty scandal, brought on the surface by the league office through a secret investigation.
The illegal reward-for-hit fund was constituted and operated covertly by some officials and players. The league office has defied many odds to clearly go against it, and defended its choice of banning players and officials at all forums, even before court
of law.
Also, the league's boss has become even louder against deliberate intentions or motivation of players to hit and hurt opponents.
For example, the office looked into Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator Jerry Gray’s remarks urging his players to go to any extent in their defence efforts to win games.
It appears the league office has finally found a sense of direction and courage to promote players safety at all costs.
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