The Cleveland Browns’ medical staff failed to recognize that Colt McCoy had suffered a concussion before sending him back onto the field in a loss to the Steelers on December 8, but McCoy is declining to criticize them.
Instead, in his first public comments since then, McCoy played the good soldier and defended the team for its handling of the situation.
“Our medical staff does an outstanding job and that should never be in question,” McCoy said, via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
What we can’t know is whether McCoy’s praise of the Browns’ “outstanding” medical staff is a candid assessment, or a calculated decision not to ruffle any feathers in Cleveland, where McCoy knows the Browns will have a major decision to make this offseason about whether to keep him in place as the team’s No. 1 quarterback, or sign or draft a quarterback who would push McCoy out of the starting job. But what we do know is that McCoy’s characterization of the Browns’ medical staff stands in stark contrast to his father’s opinion: McCoy’s dad blasted the Browns for putting his son in harm’s way after a helmet-to-helmet hit from James Harrison gave him brain damage.
McCoy wouldn’t address what he and his father have discussed privately, but he did say that he’s confident that the Browns’ front office won’t hold his dad’s comments against him. And he said he hopes to be with the Browns for the long haul.
“I love this place,” McCoy said. “I want to be part of the resurrection with the Browns.”