Announcers

Sunday Night Debacle

Dustin Fink7 Comments

Sunday Night Football (TM by NBC and NFL) was going to be a good watch with Mike Vick returning to his original place of employment.  Not only was that an underlying tone, the Atlanta Falcons faced an early season “must win”, the first half it did not disappoint as both teams scored and forced mistakes from the other team.  As the second half began it looked as though the visiting Eagles were going to take full control of  the game, and to be honest my interest started to wane a bit, then Dunta Robinson happened again.  It was his hit in Week 6 last year that started the avalanche of eyes on concussions in the NFL.  Tonight he basically did the same thing – the hit seen below (will be removed by NFL) and should be met with both a fine and suspension – and brought attention to the broadcast for what became a massive debacle in my opinion.

Later in the drive, not only did Jeremy Maclin return to the game after the hit from Robinson (and being “down”), he caught a pass from Vick, but behind the play Vick was injured.  As you can see Continue reading →

Progressively still

Nick Mercer1 Comment

Frontline recently re-broadcast a documentary about concussions that it had done in April. The story revolved around a football team from a private high school in Arkansas. The Shiloh Christian program was used primarily as a backdrop for the central theme: the intensity, pressure and the resulting disregard of health issues – notably concussions – in high school football in the US.

It was interesting – and kind of disturbing – to see how easy it is for coaches, parents, players, to convince themselves that the ubiquitousness of the basic football mantra of ‘hit hard, hit often’ somehow destined them to a football player assembly line to produce the same product as everyone else. Like there was nothing they could do but keep hitting as forcefully and as frequently as they could.

Football players in the US, the really good ones anyway, Continue reading →

Another Blogger Thinks More Education Is Needed

Dustin Fink3 Comments

Sporting Jules, presumably from Colorado was watching the Broncos/Bills preseason game last night and had some immediate observations on a hit that was penalized.  Rookie safety Rahim Moore of the Broncos hit wide receiver Donald Jones on the sideline that resulted in a flag.  Jules wrote about it on her blog;

By “hit/tackled,” I could have said “helmet-to-helmet hit” or “unbelievably illegal shot to the head,” and I wouldn’t have been wrong.

Two things bothered me greatly in this play’s immediate aftermath:

  • Despite the fact that Jones fell to the ground with his arms in a stiff posture and his helmet partially knocked off by the hit, local Broncos announcers never ever uttered the word “concussion.”  Instead, several minutes later, Continue reading →