If today is the day that doctors clear Lions running back Jahvid Best to return to the field after a year off following two concussions, the Lions aren’t letting on.
Although Best expressed optimism that he could be cleared today, Lions coach Jim Schwartz told reporters that the team wasn’t ready to announce that Best is back.
“I don’t have any updates,” Schwartz said. “He’s been through a lot of testing this week and as far as I know, they’re still going over the results. I don’t know if we’ll even hear anything today. It’s still an ongoing process, this testing, which as far as I know has been completed.”
Best suffered his second concussion of 2011 on October 16 and hasn’t been cleared to play since then. Schwartz stressed that the Lions are cautious about clearing players to return from concussions.
“What we all know about concussions is there’s nothing simple about them,” he said. “They’re never just, ‘Hey, you can go play with pain.’ It’s not like any other injury. We’ve said that before. It’s also not just a red light or green light. There’s a lot of shades in there. We’ll just defer to the people who know the most and wait just like everybody else.”
And so the yearlong wait to hear if Best can play will have to continue.