The Concussion Blog

The Concussion Blog Original, NFL Concussion Report, is a weekly compiling of the reported head injuries in the National Football League.  Concussions are added to the list each week from multiple sources to give you the reader a picture of what is happening on the field.  Each week we will bring you the information along with relevant statistics.  If we have missed a concussion or put one on here erroneously, let us know (we will also be using Fink’s Rule to classify a concussion/head injury).

Colt McCoy will most likely miss another game due to lingering effects of a concussion.  The real question I have is; would he still be out had the proper procedure taken place?  Regardless of how you viewed this incident there were many factors that compounded the situation.  Listen, the Cleveland Browns are probably the best at finding and holding players out because of concussion, this was the case before McCoy and continues after the James Harrison hit.

Speaking of Harrison, he suggested that the medical staff should be suspended for mishandling McCoy; that dude is on crack!  If anyone other than Harrison should be admonished for their mistakes it would only fall on the “observer” and that is a BIG “IF”.  Follow me here; McCoy although dazed only complained of his hand hurting to the medical staff.  They [med staff] was preoccupied with other concussions at the time and did not see the hit.  Apparently no one had the notion to ask what happened to someone other than McCoy, which is understandable.  McCoy didn’t tell the staff his head was bothering him, granted he wasn’t in a proper frame of mind, but when an athletic trainer is busy they can only go off what is reported.  You sure as heck can bet that the coaches were to busy coaching to relay all necessary information.  That leaves one person who’s responsibility (at that time, since has been changed) it was to call down to the sideline and confirm that McCoy was being looked at for a possible head injury – the observer.  However NONE of this would have been a factor had Harrison not lowered his head and used it as a weapon (reinforced with Kevlar) to decapitate McCoy on that play.

Sorry for the rant…

NOTES: Another team comes off the list of 0 reported regular season concussions, Buffalo makes an appearance…  Houston has listed eleventy-billion players on the injury list this week (26 actually) and none are concussions, not surprising because they have yet to list a regular season concussion (5 in preseason)…  Cincinnati, seriously still no concussions out there…  Ben Watson moved to IR with 3rd concussion…  Still an 8.7% increase over last year during regular season…  34% increase to this point from beginning of camp through week 15…

On to the rest of the stats through Week 15 (196 total from opening of camp);

• 150 Concussions/head injuries (138 W14)
• 10.00 Concussions/week (9.86 W14)
• 170 Projected Concussions (167 W14)
• 0.66 Concussions/game (0.65 W14)
• 11.81% InR (11.64 W14)
• 10.02% EInR (9.88 W14)
• 79 Offensive – 71 Defense
• Positionally Speaking
• QB – 6, RB – 15, TE – 17, WR – 19, OL – 22, DL – 14, LB – 18, DB – 39
• Team Breakdown
• CLE – 10
• OAK, SEA – 9
• MIN, STL – 8
• CAR, DET, PHI – 7
• BAL, DEN, GB, SD – 6
• IND, JAX, NE, NYG, TEN – 5
• ATL, PIT, SF – 4
• ARI, KC, NO, NYJ, TB – 3
• CHI, DAL, MIA, WAS – 2
• BUF – 1
• CIN, HOU – 0

Our definition of Incidence Rate (InR) is projected concussions/45 players taking the field per team per game, our definition of Epidemiological Incidence Rate (EInR) is projected concussions/53 man roster per team.