“I can tell you that not once during [my] entire time have I ever seen a coach or a general manager ask a physician to do something that was not in the best interest of the player,” said John York, owner of the 49ers. “There’s competition on the field, and there’s player health and safety. Player health and safety comes first.”
The league has ramped up its efforts to identify and treat head injuries and announced Thursday it intends to add an independent specialist on every sideline to help monitor and manage concussions. This doctor would not be on the team payroll. Other injuries would still be treated by doctors employed by the team.
Video
Watch and rewatch the ads from Super Bowl XLVII because you can’t get Volkswagen’s ‘Get Happy’ mantra out of your head and because you missed the E*Trade talking baby commercial while you were getting a second helping of nachos.
More Super Bowl coverage
Kent Babb
Baltimore holds on for the franchise’s second Super Bowl championship. Quarterback Joe Flacco is the MVP.
Mike Wise
COLUMN | Baltimore’s Super Bowl victory wouldn’t have been right as a rout. The late defensive stop better fit the way their up-and-down season went.
Rick Maese
Baltimore comes out on top, 34-31, after Super Bowl power outage almost steals the game
Rick Maese
The Superdome is plunged into darkness early in the third quarter, delaying the game by 34 minutes.
Norman Chad
COUCH SLOUCH | Super Bowl minute-by-minute all the way to Big Brother bringing home the big trophy.
Super Bowl Sunday is known not only for the sporting event, but also for the commercials.
Relive some of the great plays and key player performances from past Super Bowl games.
Complete coverage
“Make no mistake about it: There’s no game in the world that will have this level of expertise on the field. It looks like a hospital out there,” said Richard Ellenbogen, co-chairman of the NFL’s head, neck and spine committee.
The NFLPA survey speaks to underlying trust issues within the sport, “the pink elephant in the room at every level,” according to Troy Vincent, the NFL’s vice president of player engagement.
“There’s distrust with the league office, a player has distrust with the players’ association, he has distrust with his coach, he has distrust with the medical professionals,” said Vincent, who played 15 years in the league. “But we all have a shared responsibility. . . . That’s a barrier — trust is a barrier.”
While team doctors handle the big injuries and game-day medical care, the team trainers typically handle the day-to-day aches and pains. According to the survey, players were much more pleased with their training staffs. Fifty percent, in fact, said they were satisfied.
Redskins running back Alfred Morris said while he likes the Washington training staff, players entering the league hear stories about the varying quality of medical care offered from team to team.
“[Doctors] are going to do what they’re going to do, even though they work for the team,” Morris said. “There probably are some sketchy ones out there who are going to do, they’re going to lean more toward the owners and stuff. But there are some training staffs that are more concerned about the players or what the team needs and that type of stuff.”
Kent Babb contributed to this report.
Loading...
Comments