On concussions, players and fans can’t have it both ways

Reuters

The death of linebacker Junior Seau has triggered a flurry of comments and articles regarding the future of football.  Former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner has said that he would prefer that his sons not play football (before later that same day saying he would “love” for them to play).  ESPN, a network that pays billions of dollars for the right to televise football games, is showcasing on the NFL home page of its website a column that makes the case for not letting our sons play football.  One of the men who currently plays the game, Ravens safety Bernard Pollard, believes football will be extinct in 20 to 30 years.

But here’s the point everyone who is pointing to the Seau suicide as a key crossroads for football is badly missing:  The NFL already has arrived at the crossroads, and the NFL has embarked on the path of safety.

Against the wishes of most players and fans.

It happened in 2009 — nearly a year after Ashley Fox of ESPN.com made her own personal decision to not let her then-unborn son play football — when Congress grilled Commissioner Roger Goodell and others regarding head injuries.  That relatively minor investment of political resources served as the proverbial shot across the bow, compelling the NFL to make a flurry of changes aimed at reducing the number of concussions that occur during games, diagnosing more effectively the players who have sustained concussions, and ensuring that players who have suffered concussions are not allowed back onto the field until their concussions have fully healed.

Does more need to be done?  Absolutely, and I’ve been at the front of the line (to the chagrin of more than a few readers) arguing for further changes, especially as it relates to the development of safeguards and redundancies strong enough to override the all-powerful head coach when a player like Mike Vick has “dirt on his face” or when Colt McCoy clearly had been (as ESPN used to famously call it) “jacked up.”

But the challenge isn’t simply to get coaches, who are driven to win and are driven crazy when rules regarding concussions keep their best players out of action, to accept the new realities of football.  Players and, ultimately, the fans must buy in, too.

As one PFT commenter recently pointed out, current players are complaining about efforts to take hard hits out of the game at a time when former players are suing the NFL for, in part, letting them hit each other too hard.  For some former players, the concussion issue becomes a convenient vehicle for venting about the fact that today’s owners and players are making obscene amounts of money, and that not enough of it is being shared with the men who made the game what it is.  Current players, however, continue to play the game without reservation or hesitation.  Indeed, 253 draft picks and hundreds more undrafted players unanimously accepted the offers of employment that have come their way in the last 10 days.

And so, at a time when so many voices are clamoring for football to change even more, the men who play the game don’t want it to.  For example, Pollard’s headline-generating prediction didn’t come from his belief that some external body will outlaw the sport, but from a concern that efforts by the NFL to make the game safer will kill it.  “This is football,” Pollard said.  “It’s not powder puff.  When Nike unveiled their new uniforms, I’m surprised they didn’t have flags on the side. . . .  You’re taking away the game of football.  If a quarterback throws an interception, get his butt down or run to the sidelines.  If you’re going to try to make a tackle, I’m going to look for you.  I promise you, I’m going to look for you.”

The fans have a role in this, too.  As the NFL has tried to make the game safer, the folks who devote money and/or time to watching it have complained, almost as loudly as the players.  Those same fans, who love the hits and the intensity of the sport, can’t then wring their hands and gnash their teeth when men who know that the sport entails a significant risk of getting hurt actually, you know, get hurt.

In the end, how far must the NFL go to protect players from themselves?  We remain a nation of risk-takers; in many ways, taking risks helped make our country what it is.  And we routinely take far greater risks for far less money than NFL players receive.

Hell, we even spend good money to take risks, whether it’s jumping out of airplanes or climbing rock walls or driving motorcycles, with or without helmets.  (Ashley Fox doesn’t mention in her column whether she’ll let her son engage in any of those activities.  Eventually, however, she’ll lose her vote.)

If grown men, who now can’t say they don’t know the risks of playing football, choose to play, why should anyone stop them?  And even if enough parents are actually able to steer that 14-to-18-year-old with testosterone pumping through his body away from playing football to the point where there is no high school football, the best of the best young athletes will nevertheless be recruited to learn football at the college level, at which point the wishes of mom and/or dad will go out the window — especially if playing football pays for tuition and expenses that mom and/or dad otherwise couldn’t afford.

Though plenty of men choose to play college football because they hope to play pro football and not because they want a college education, plenty of men know that football ultimately serves its purpose by providing a college education that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to obtain.  And if, in the end, the decision comes down to the risk of incurring CTE on a gridiron or encountering an IED on a dirt road in Afghanistan, plenty of men will gladly embrace the risks of playing college football.

AP

DUI charges against Titans tight end Brandon Barden were dismissed, after the arresting officer failed to show up for court.

Barden was arrested in Lincoln County, Georgia in February after a single-car wreck, after which he refused blood alcohol tests.

Officer Christopher Treadwell wrote in his report that Barden lost control of his SUV, hit a ditch and flipped one and a half times. The report also said Treadwell could “smell a strong odor of alcohol.”

But according to Jim Wyatt of the Tennesseean, those charges were thrown out because of “lack of prosecution.”

“If the officer doesn’t show for court, everything is dismissed,’’ said Debbie Pruett of the Lincoln County probate office. “Brandon had an attorney and she requested it be dismissed for a lack of prosecution and the judge had no bearing to change it. It’s completely closed. . . .

“It is rare that they don’t [show up], but I think the officer had worked the night shift.”

Barden’s case can still be reviewed by the league for possible discipline.

A former undrafted rookie from Vanderbilt, Barden played in three games last year, and has been participating in offseason workouts with the Titans.

AP

Earlier this week, Steelers tight end Heath Miller said there was a “chance” he’d be able to play the entire 2013 season after tearing his ACL late last season but admitted there’s no timetable yet for his return to full activity.

“Yeah, I think it’s a little too early to say anything like that. It’s a long time before training camp, so that’s a long time to make gains positively or maybe even for something to happen negatively,” Miller said, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “So, I’m just taking one day at a time, and I hope to get better every day.”

Miller’s quarterback has a more optimistic take on the tight end’s recovery. During an appearance on WDVE on Thursday, Ben Roethlisberger said that he had “no doubt” that Miller would be on the field for the first week of the season and that his bigger concern is keeping Miller from doing too much too fast as he gets ready for the games to begin.

“The biggest thing is going to be trying to hold Heath back because I think he’s gonna want to get out there too soon,” Roethlisberger said. “I’m gonna fight to say ‘Heath, don’t play in any preseason games. Just get out there for the regular season.’”

The Steelers seem to be approaching things the same way as Roethlisberger. They didn’t draft a tight end in April and their only move of note at the position in free agency was bringing back Matt Spaeth, who has stuck in the NFL the last six years because of his skills as a blocker.

AP

Almost every article that has been published in the 24 hours since Brian Urlacher announced his retirement has included the words “future Hall of Famer.” But one veteran NFL personnel man says he’s not so sure about that.

Former Colts and Giants G.M. Ernie Accorsi said on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Radio that he isn’t convinced Urlacher is a sure-thing lock for Canton.

“I think he’s a borderline Hall of Famer,” Accorsi said. “I don’t know that he’s a definite Hall of Famer. I think there is a host of them, like Willie Lanier, that were dominant players. He was good, but I wouldn’t put him in that level.”

Asked if he’d put the “guaranteed Hall of Famer” label on Urlacher, Accorsi said he wouldn’t. Instead, Accorsi said, Urlacher was a somewhat limited player who doesn’t deserve to be mentioned among the all-time greats.

“I definitely wouldn’t,” Accorsi said. “That’s my opinion. I don’t think he’s a guarantee. I mean, he may get in because he got a lot of publicity and he was a hard player. But his span that he covered was really restricted. Now a lot of those middle linebackers were in those days. They didn’t have three or four wide receivers so they stayed on the field for three downs. They might be off today. But, no, I certainly don’t have him in [Dick] Butkus or Ray Lewis [category]. And I don’t think he should be in there, really with [Joe] Schmidt and [Ray] Nitschke and those guys, either.”

Accorsi may be right, but it’s possible to say that Urlacher falls short of the greatness of middle linebackers like Butkus and Lewis, but to still say he belongs in the Hall of Fame. And that’s exactly what I would say: Urlacher doesn’t have a case to be the greatest middle linebacker ever. But he has a strong case for the Hall of Fame.

AP

There was news made at OTAs on both coasts this week and we’ll be talking about it during Thursday’s edition of PFT Live.

Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News will join Mike Florio to talk about a Jets practice on Wednesday that left coach Rex Ryan vexed by Mark Sanchez’s interceptions. We’ll find out how much that will impact Sanchez in the competition with Geno Smith for the starting quarterback job. We’ll also try to see if Mehta can explain how any member of the Jets organization would expect much else from Sanchez after his 52 turnovers over the last two years.

Matt Maiocco of CSN Bay Area will also join us to discuss the fallout from 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree’s Achilles injury earlier this week. The 49ers are holding out hope that Crabtree will return during the 2013 season, but we’ll talk about how they’ll cope with what will be, at the very least, an extended absence during the regular season.

You can watch it all live at noon ET.

Getty Images

Giants wide receiver Hakeem Nicks took the Giants by surprise when he failed to show up at the team’s organized team activity on Wednesday.

Coach Tom Coughlin expressed his opinion that Nicks “should” have been at the voluntary workout, although league rules say the exact opposite, and speculation arose that Nicks was firing a preliminary shot in negotiations for a new deal with his contract expiring after the 2013 season. Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports reported as much after speaking to a team source, but that report is now being walked back after a response from Nicks’ agent.

Peter Schaffer has not offered any explanation for why Nicks did not attend the OTA with other Giants, but “strongly denied” that his contract had anything to do with his decision to stay away. In a series of text messages, Schaffer said the wideout “takes his place in the community very seriously and wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that reputation.” The team source also got in touch to say that he was merely giving his best guess for Nicks’ absence.

“We’ve all talked about our contracts and the things we’ve been through, like what’s going on with [wide receiver Victor] Cruz,” the source said. “When you talk about money and what you think the team is doing right or wrong, sometimes feelings get really hard.”

Whether or not the contract is the issue right now, the Giants are likely to spend a fair amount of time trying to strike a deal with Nicks before the start of free agency next year. If Cruz winds up playing out this year on his restricted free agent tender, things will be even busier as the Giants try to figure out how to hold onto two receivers with just one franchise tag at their disposal.

AP

The Steelers announced the signings of third-round pick Markus Wheaton and fifth-round selection Terry Hawthorne on Thursday.

A wide receiver from Oregon State, Wheaton will compete to be one of the Steelers’ top receivers beyond starters Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown. The Steelers have been willing to play young receivers right off the bat in recent years, with Mike Wallace one example. However, Sanders and Brown also earned reps as rookies, with both garnering more opportunities as the 2010 campaign progressed.

Timed at 4.45 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, Wheaton hauled in 91 passes for 1,244 yards and 11 touchdowns as a senior.

Hawthorne will vie to be a reserve cornerback in his first NFL season. The Illinois product made 26 collegiate starts.

Getty Images

Robert Griffin III is back on the Redskins’ practice field at Organized Team Activities, four months after reconstructive knee surgery.

Griffin is able to drop back, set his feet and throw passes. Albert Breer of NFL Network posted videos of Griffin at work, and Griffin does not appear to have any difficulty moving around and passing. He’s not doing any full-speed running, but from watching what he is doing, you wouldn’t know he suffered a major knee injury in January.

Obviously, there’s a big difference between non-contact drills and playing in an NFL game, and Griffin appears to be working primarily with other players who are rehabilitating injuries, rather than partaking in the regular team workouts. But the fact that Griffin is on the field has to be taken as a good sign that all the optimistic talk about Griffin’s recovery proceeding ahead of schedule was justified.

If Griffin has progressed this far from January to May, there’s every reason for Washington fans to be optimistic that Griffin will make enough progress from May to September that he’ll be on the field for Week One.

Getty Images

Unlike some of his Eagles teammates, tight end James Casey doesn’t have to make the adjustment from playing for Andy Reid to playing for Chip Kelly.

He does have to make an adjustment, though. Casey spent his first four seasons with the Texans before signing with the Eagles as a free agent this offseason but isn’t going to have OTAs or minicamp to help him make the transition to his new offense. Mike Garafolo of USA Today reports that Casey had arthroscopic surgery to clean out loose cartilage in his right knee and will miss the remainder of spring practices.

Garafolo also reports that Casey’s surgery may have been part of the reason why the Eagles cut undrafted rookie running back Miguel Maysonet earlier this week. A person “informed of the team’s thinking” told Garafolo that Casey’s absence (as well as that of rookie Zach Ertz, who is not permitted to practice with the team because Stanford is still in session) left the team with a need at tight end. They filled it by signing Will Shaw and felt that running back was a spot where they could afford to lose a body.

While it would have helped Casey to be at practices in May and June, he isn’t likely to fall out of the team’s plans before training camp. As long as he’s healthy enough to participate with his teammates this summer, we should see plenty of Casey with the offense next season.

UPDATE 11:18 a.m. ET: The original version of this post indicated Casey was set to have surgery. Garafolo has updated his report to reflect the fact that Casey has already had surgery.

AP

Giants fullback Henry Hynoski had to be carted off the field during the Giants’ organized team activity on Wednesday and the injuries he sustained will require surgery on Friday. 

The Giants announced that an MRI on Hynoski’s left leg revealed an injury to his medial collateral ligament as well as a fracture of his lateral plateau. The plateau is a weight-bearing area at the top of the tibia in the lower leg. The team gave no specific timetable for Hynoski’s recovery from the injury, but the fullback is shooting for a return in time to play in Week One. 

“I am going to set my mind to being ready for the first game of the regular season,” Hynoski said. “They said that is not an unrealistic goal, and I will do everything in my power to be ready for the start of the season.”

Hynoski played all 16 games for the Giants last year and was a key part of their run blocking while also catching 11 passes and a touchdown. Tight end Bear Pascoe has seen time at fullback in the past and could fill in there until Hynoski is ready or the Giants could look outside the organization for insurance in case Hynoski isn’t able to fulfill his goal of returning in time for the season. 

Getty Images

When the Steelers were sifting through the wreckage of their 2012 season, Steelers linebacker LaMarr Woodley came in for criticism for his work ethic.

Steelers coaches said they wanted to see him work harder during the offseason while an unnamed teammate said that Woodley was “awful” in 2012 while opining that he was always hurt because he wasn’t working out hard enough. That led to other members of the Steelers complaining that the comments broke the code of the locker room, although Woodley says that the whole affair

“It doesn’t bother me at all. They’re coming at the wrong person when they try coming at me. I don’t listen to nothing,” Woodley said, via Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Playing football my whole life growing up, and you’re in the spotlight sometimes it comes with the good and the bad. You just have to know how to accept it. I’m one of those guys, I don’t pay attention to much at all. I just go out there and do what I’m supposed to do. And these guys on the team know what I go out there and do each and every day.”

Woodley, who says he’s healthy after last year’s ankle injury, claims he took no motivation from his critics, but teammate Larry Foote told WDVE that he’s seen an “extra-motivated” Woodley at workouts this spring and thinks he could put up a “defensive MVP-type” season. The Steelers will surely take that kind of production regardless of what inspired it.

AP

The agent community is buzzing in the aftermath of the decision of Jets quarterback Geno Smith to hire a previously unknown agent who happens to be employed by the sports agency owned by Jay-Z.

It’s fairly obvious to the neutral observer that Smith picked Roc Nation to represent him not because of the previously unknown agent but because of the man who owns the firm.  If Jay-Z wasn’t involved in the recruitment of Smith, Jay-Z’s ownership of the firm wouldn’t be a problem.  But if Jay-Z helped persuade Smith to hire Roc Nation not only for off-field deals (which aren’t covered by the NFLPA rules) but for his football contract (which is), Jay-Z possibly ran afoul of the NFLPA’s prohibition on the use of non-certified agents in the recruitment of clients.

One of Smith’s advisers, former West Virginia and NFL defensive lineman John Thornton, essentially admitted that Smith picked Jay-Z, not the agent, and that Jay-Z was directly involved in persuading Smith to hire Roc Nation.”It really all came down to who he was most comfortable with,” Thornton told CBSSports.com.  “I was in those meetings and Jay-Z connected with him on many levels.”

(Thornton says, via Twitter, that he was misquoted by CBS.)

Jay-Z connected with Geno Smith, not the previously unknown agent Jay-Z has hired to work for Roc Nation.  And so the facts at a minimum suggest that Jay-Z recruited Geno Smith to sign with the agent, which if true would be a violation of NFLPA rules.

The most important question is whether the NFLPA will do anything about it.  The union has not responded to a request for comment sent via email on Wednesday afternoon.  Previously, the union allowed Jay-Z to be involved in the recruitment of Giants receiver Victor Cruz by CAA, based on Jay-Z’s pre-existing friendship with Cruz.

While plenty of agents are looking at this as a way for the NFLPA to knock Jay-Z down a few pegs as he encroaches on their turf, others simply want guidance as to what is and isn’t allowed.  If Jay-Z was indeed involved in recruiting Smith, a potentially gaping loophole in the rules has been created, which could prompt other agents to partner with non-agent celebrities who then would help attract clients.

Essentially, the now-defunct “runner” industry would be resurrected, with artists, actors, and entertainers replacing the anonymous figures who previously operated in the shadows.  Maybe that’s a better alternative.  For now, other agents want to know whether that alternative will be acknowledged as valid.

UPDATE 11:32 a.m. ET:  As noted above, Thornton claims that he was misquoted by CBS.  Via Twitter, Thornton says that Jay-Z did not attend meetings with Smith, and that he was in London.  That said, Smith posted on Instagram last week a photo with Jay-Z.

AP

The Bengals must have plans for Memorial Day weekend.

According to Geoff Hobson of the team’s official website, the Bengals have signed second-round pick Giovani Bernard. That leaves just two unsigned picks from their 10-man class, first-rounder Tyler Eifert and third-rounder Shawn Williams.

Bernard, a running back from North Carolina, has an opportunity to have a significant impact for the Bengals this year.

He averaged 5.87 yards per carry in college, topping 1,200 yards in each of the two seasons he played at UNC. He’s small, but has explosive ability in the open field, adding something to the backfield the Bengals lacked.

AP

When the Cardinals lost running back Ryan Williams to a season-ending shoulder injury last October, the general reaction in Arizona was an unhappy one since it meant Williams would wind up missing all but five games in his first two seasons. 

Williams had a different reaction, though. The 2011 second-round pick was feeling less than comfortable with the state of his right knee after a torn patellar tendon wiped out his rookie season. Williams described being struck with fear in the second game of the season when the Cardinals called a toss play that would leave his knee exposed to a hit that Williams wasn’t sure it could take. It’s unusual to hear a pro be that honest about playing scared and even rarer to hear one say he felt relief about a season-ending injury.  

“It’s sad to say, but honestly I was happy because the first thing I thought about was getting my knee right,” Williams said, via Scott Bordow of the Arizona Republic.

Williams says he feels the healthiest he has since the initial knee injury, but knows that he’s “considered damaged goods” after the last two years. The Cardinals added Rashad Mendenhall in free agency before drafting Andre Ellington and Stepfon Taylor, so it is safe to say that the team’s new regime isn’t proceeding with the expectation that Williams will be the same back that the previous brain trust envisioned coming out of college. 

They aren’t blocking him from reaching that level, though. None of the newcomers present an insurmountable obstacle if the absence of fear and a return to health allow Williams to start fulfilling his potential. 

AP

The Browns used the roster spot created by waiving quarterback Thaddeus Lewis by extending the career of a guy who has been with more than 20 percent of the league already.

According to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Browns signed wide receiver Tori Gurley.

Gurley was viewed as a promising prospect, hanging around on the Packers practice squad as an undrafted rookie in 2011. Since then, he’s spent time in camp with or on the practice squads of the Vikings, Raiders, Buccaneers, Chargers and Ravens, all without appearing in an NFL game.

At some point, he should really catch up with quarterback Aaron Corp, they’d be unstoppable.

AP

When linebacker Aaron Curry went fourth overall to the Seahawks in the 2009 draft, analysts hailed the Seahawks for selecting a player who was considered the safest bet for stardom at the top of that year’s draft.

Things never worked out that way. Curry was ineffective with the Seahawks and wound up being traded to the Raiders in 2011. Things didn’t get any better in Oakland and Curry signed for the veteran minimum with the Giants this year. That may be a good thing for Curry’s chances of turning his career around because he admitted Wednesday that the $60 million contract he signed as a rookie wound up taking away his motivation to play his best.

“I knew I could do it,” Curry said, via Tom Pedulla of the New York Times. “I knew I would do it. At the time, I wasn’t motivated to do it. Football wasn’t my top priority, to be honest. I think earlier in my career I was real selfish and self-centered. I was more about me than the Seahawks.”

Curry copped to not playing at full speed if there was a defensive call that didn’t cater to his strengths, a trait that helped him fail to live up to the lofty predictions that accompanied his entry to the NFL. A knee injury in Oakland dropped the opinion of Curry even further, leaving him to try to rehabilitate his career with the Giants.

Motivation shouldn’t be a problem for Curry, who also acknowledged that he’s overweight right now, if he wants to continue playing in the NFL since suitors will be slim if he fails with a third team in five years. If he isn’t able to make things happen now, it’s hard to imagine it’s ever going to happen for him.