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Nothing is more important than the health of the players. OK, got it.By Cindy Boren December 11 at 10:46 AM
The Houston Texans’ handling of an injury to quarterback Tom Savage was called into question after video showed him striking his head against the ground and shaking as he lay disoriented on the field.
Savage, who also appeared to spit up blood, came out of the game and entered concussion protocol but initially returned to the field, replacing T.J. Yates on the team’s next possession.
He is now the sixth Texans player dealing with concussions and on Monday morning the Texans announced that Yates would start Sunday against the Jaguars. Tight ends Ryan Griffin and C.J. Fiedorowicz will miss the rest of the season because of concussions; running back Alfred Blue, wide receiver Braxton Miller and linebacker Jelani Jenkins missed the San Francisco game.
Coach Bill O’Brien opened his postgame news conference with a statement in which he said that, in his 25 years of coaching, nothing has been more important than the health of his players. “I love our players,” he said and went on to explain that Savage said he was evaluated and cleared to return, but that he underwent another evaluation after he returned because “because of what they saw.” O’Brien did not elaborate on what that might have meant.
All he does is coach, and he loves his players. Sure.“They try to make the best decision for the player,” O’Brien said. “Whatever they see and the testing that they do they try to make the best decision with the player and they weren’t satisfied with the results of the second test so they decided to pull him, and that’s when he went into the locker room.”
Asked if he was concerned that Savage was allowed to return, O’Brien pointed out that he doesn’t control that and added that he would have kept Savage out if he had seen the video.
“They just come to me and that’s kind of where that’s at,” he said. “I don’t have anything to do with that. All I do is coach.”
Each season, each week, I'm pulled back to watch the Redskins and the NFL, but I'm beginning to feel guilty.Because he is in the concussion protocol, Savage did not speak with reporters after Houston’s loss, but Chris Nowinski, the founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation and Boston University’s CTE Center, angrily tweeted that he was “disgusted” that Savage returned. “I would not let my worst enemy go through the 2017 #NFL sideline concussion protocol.” He continued that “the protocol is breached weekly. No one is punished. We pretend it didn’t happen.”
