Aaron Rodgers

Mr. Rodgers Not Exactly Correct

Dustin Fink3 Comments

If you follow me on twitter you know that I made a comment about the recent statement from Aaron Rodgers – concussed Super Bowl MVP – about helmets;

In his remarks he said the helmet he now wears, compared to the one he wore when he started in the league in 2005, has prevented him from “a couple” of concussions, including one against the New York Giants in a playoff game last season.

Rodgers was part of a panel of other quarterbacks that were also Super Bowl MVP’s hosted/moderated by Bob Costas – apparently a charity event.  Regardless if there was an actual quote from Rodgers about prevention of concussions from helmets or it was simply inferred by the context, it is not correct and could provide false hope to others.

Helmets were designed to attempt to eradicate skull fractures and brain bleeds, the most heinous of brain injuries that were felling many players at the turn of the 20th century.  As technology has progressed we have seen fewer and fewer of this often life-threatening injury; unfortunately it does still occur.  The helmet shell along with the interior padding is designed to absorb the massive linear forces that cold fracture a skull or provide enough trauma to rupture vessels in the head.

Concussions are a slight bit different – even though both are brain injuries – a concussion is mainly a neurometabolic and microscopic structural issue.  Concussions are set off in a variety of ways but the biggest culprit is angular acceleration/deceleration and rotation of the skull (most commonly those type of collisions in ALL Continue reading →

Three Aaron Rodgers Entries

Dustin Fink2 Comments

Peter King ran a quick blurb about how Aaron Rodgers escaped his third concussion with a NEW helmet.  He did switch from an outdated Riddell VSR4 to a Schutt AirXP, one of the newest models out there.

Interesting little-known factoid I got from my postgame conversation with Aaron Rodgers: After being twice-concussed this season, he changed helmets to one of the new, safer, high-tech models the league has been urging players to use.

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In a related article, Shawn Doherty of the Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin wrote about the “silence” of the possible head injury to Rodgers on Sunday.

Fink says he would have been “shocked” if Packers staff had hauled Rogers off the field after that smack. And given how tough Rodgers is, he probably was determined to scramble back up to his feet no matter what it took. “If he gets up quickly, even if he does have some symptoms, they can quietly test him for a concussion later,” Fink says. “But they almost always will tell you everything is fine. There’s a lot riding on this game.”

Yup I am a conspiracy theorist at heart.  What people didn’t see is that Pepper Burruss was on his way to the aid of Rodgers at the time of the hit and was waved off by Rodgers.  I am convinced that what they did was right, and they are very good at what they do.

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Finally Slate.com had a recap of their podcast and discussion of the Ben McGrath story, NHL concussions, and Aaron Rodgers.

Crosby played one game after getting knocked silly in the Winter Classic; his injury was then termed a “mild concussion,” and the team announced that he would miss about a week of action. “This is exactly what the NHL did NOT need,” Concussion Blog’s Dustin Fink wrote on Jan. 7, “a superstar pushing through and hiding his injury.” In a post on Monday, Fink extended his point, arguing that Crosby “handled this concussion like most ‘bravado’ men do, as if it was nothing. It is time for Crosby to take some responsibility for his actions.”

I am really happy about the awareness of the issues, and honored that this website is making a difference.

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