The Raiders will have wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey for the first time since he suffered a concussion in Week Three against the Steelers.
Heyward-Bey sat out Week Four and the Raiders were on a bye last week, giving Heyward-Bey a little more time to recover from being knocked out by hit to the head by Steelers safety Ryan Mundy that went unpenalized. There was a scary-looking aftermath to the hit, which left Heyward-Bey hospitalized for a night, but the wide receiver told Andrea Kremer of the NFL Network that he doesn’t want to know anything about the potential problems he could face in the future as a result of the injury.
“I don’t want it to affect me on the field,” Heyward-Bey said. “It’s all about the next game. When I’m 50, I’ll worry about that when I’m there. Fear, I don’t think I can have fear going into a game.”
That take would probably be one that found a lot of agreement around the NFL. With a short career and limited opportunities, players are willing to take risks with their health to be on the field. For the sake of Heyward-Bey (and the others), let’s hope that he doesn’t have too much to worry about when he gets to 50. As we’ve seen too often in recent years, players aren’t always that fortunate.