Independent neurologist resigns in wake of Robert Griffin III's concussion controversy
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The odd story of Robert Griffin III’s concussion has taken another strange turn: The independent neurologist who first cleared Griffin to play, then said the next day that Griffin could not play, has reportedly resigned and will no longer work with the NFL going forward.
The Washington Post reports that Dr. Robert N. Kurtzke resigned from the neurological consultant program operated by the NFL and the NFL Players Association. According to the report, Kurtzke will continue to consult with Griffin until he’s fully cleared to return to the field, but otherwise Kurtzke is done working with the NFL.
It’s unclear why Kurtzke has decided to stop working with the NFL, which has said that its reliance on independent neurologists like Kurtzke is an important part of keeping players safe after suffering concussions. But whatever the reasons, it’s a bad look after the situation with Griffin has been thoroughly botched from the beginning.
When Griffin first went down in an August 20 preseason game, the team couldn’t get its story straight about whether he suffered a concussion or not. Later, coach Jay Gruden said Griffin did have a concussion but would remain the team’s starting quarterback. Reports out of Washington said the team didn’t think Griffin’s concussion was severe, and questions were raised about whether the concussion was just used as a pretext to keep Griffin from talking to the media. Griffin then returned to practice as Gruden continued to insist that Griffin would be the starter. Asked directly if he had a concussion or not, Griffin refused to answer. The team then said Griffin had been cleared to play and would start the third preseason game. A day later, the team announced that Kurtzke hadn’t cleared Griffin to play after all, and said it could be weeks before he’d be ready to go. Then Gruden abruptly changed course and announced that Griffin is now a backup.
Gee, why wouldn’t Dr. Kutzke want to be associated with something like that?
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/09/05/report-independent-neurologist-resigns-after-rg3-fiasco/
Pure fuckery.
It’s unclear why Kurtzke has decided to stop working with the NFL,
His specific reasons sure but the NFL's track record on this issue speaks for itself.
I think it's less about the NFL's handling of concussions in general, and more about how the Redskins coaching staff seems to be intentionally sabotaging RG3.
haven't seen a team intentionally sabotage its own starting QB like this in my football watching life.
By Trey Go To Posthaven't seen a team intentionally sabotage its own starting QB like this in my football watching life.
last time I saw something like this was with Doug Williams... Can't remember what team that was tho
By jWILL253 Go To PostI think it's less about the NFL's handling of concussions in general, and more about how the Redskins coaching staff seems to be intentionally sabotaging RG3.Oh i need the DL on this.
By db Go To PostOh i need the DL on this.
https://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-swamp-the-state-of-the-nfl-in-washington-d-c/
In 2012, Robert Griffin III was a big piece of the future of the league, an otherworldly talent who was going to change the nature of the position. He made a run against the Minnesota Vikings that will live in YouTube for eternity. Since then, his career has been a long, slow-motion Zapruder film, complete with conspiracy theories that have reached a crescendo during this year’s training camp. In the 2012 NFC wild-card game, then-coach Mike Shanahan started Griffin, despite a sprained knee, against the Seattle Seahawks and Griffin’s injured knee detonated entirely. Shanahan was roasted for having risked the future of the franchise possibly against medical advice.1 Griffin and his career never were the same. Today it was apparently announced that he had lost his starting job.
His relationship with Shanahan was permanently fouled. (Shanahan kept ripping him even after being fired.) Last year, when Gruden took over the coaching job, Griffin pronounced himself overjoyed. This did not last long. And then, in the past two weeks, the whole thing turned into a burlesque of the NFL’s touchiest issue — player health and the new concussion protocols.
Mysteriously, Gruden left Griffin in to get hammered against the Detroit Lions in an utterly meaningless game on August 20. Griffin was sacked three times and hit three more times in just eight dropbacks. He fumbled twice. Gruden kept sending him back out onto the field — four possessions in a row — until Griffin finally went down with a concussion, although he’s still unclear as to when that happened.
Originally, the team said Griffin would start the next week against Baltimore. Then, an independent neurologist waved that off and recommended that Griffin sit out at least the next two weeks. Suddenly, Jay Gruden’s original decision to play Griffin against Baltimore began to look to some as though Gruden were trying to get Griffin out of town. What Shanahan did to Griffin’s knee by being stubborn, it was argued, Gruden was trying to do to Griffin’s head deliberately.
Needless to say, deliberately contriving a scenario to get an unwanted player off your team in this way would be considerably more detrimental to the integrity of the game than a few underinflated game balls. It would strike at the heart of the NFL’s strategy to obfuscate the unavoidable physical toll of playing professional football. In any case, Gruden spent the week before the Baltimore game spewing clouds of squid ink and succeeding only in making himself look worse. Griffin did not play on Saturday.
It had become clear that Cousins was Gruden’s quarterback of choice and that Griffin’s time in Washington, which had begun so promisingly, was probably at an end. Which is about where Dan Snyder came in to make even more of a hash out of things. According to an ESPN report, people in the Washington front office were trying to unload Griffin. The report also indicated that Snyder was not one of those people — and, being the owner, his opinion carries no little weight. (Also worth noting: If Griffin plays, and if he gets hurt again, Washington could be on the hook for $16 million in guaranteed money next season.) So this is where the Washington Ethnic Slurs begin their year — with the coach at war with one of his quarterbacks, with some personnel honchos at war with that same quarterback, who has nobody in his corner, really, except the owner.
bonus: https://grantland.com/the-triangle/rg3-and-the-dumbest-team-in-football/