Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson says that after he suffered a concussion during the 2009 season, offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg questioned his toughness and pressured him to return to the field.
“I can remember we went up to New York [Week 14] – that was a huge game for us,” Jackson told Sporting News. “The week before, [the Giants had] beaten Dallas and I didn’t play [at Atlanta] because I had a concussion. It was iffy if I’d come back and play. Our offensive coordinator, Marty Mornhinweg, said some things, trying to question my toughness. I was like, ‘Coach, I just got a concussion. This [is] my brain. If it’s anything else, my shoulder, whatever, I’m going to play.'”
Jackson’s comments came from a Sporting News interview that we’ve mentioned a couple of times because it led to a back-and-forth between Jackson and Donovan McNabb, and because Jackson demonstrated supreme confidence in his and the Eagles’ abilities.
But I hadn’t noticed the comments about Mornhinweg until I saw them at the Off the Record blog, and the comments about Mornhinweg are a bigger deal than the comments about McNabb.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made clear last season that he expects every NFL team to take concussions seriously, and that decisions about when players can return to the field after concussions are to be made by doctors. If the attitude in Philadelphia is that those decisions are to be made by assistant coaches, then Goodell may need to get in touch with the Eagles’ coaching staff and remind them of the league’s concussion policies.