Vicious. Just a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit. When I saw the highlights for the game and had to endure listening to SportsCenter call Big Ben ‘courageous’ 50 times… I cringed when I saw that hit. Whatever, Rapelisberger played with a rolled ankle. The only thing courageous I saw was Colt McCoy coming back out and playing after courageously keeping his head attached to his neck. Turns out it wasn’t very smart to get back out there after all. Here’s what PFT is reporting about Colt’s dad:
Brad McCoy, the father of Browns quarterback Colt McCoy, has teed off on the team for allowing Colt to return to last night’s game two plays after suffering an apparent concussion.
“He never should’ve gone back in the game,” Brad McCoy told Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “He was basically out [cold] after the hit. You could tell by the ridigity of his body as he laying there. There were a lot of easy symptoms that should’ve told them he had a concussion. He was nauseated and he didn’t know who he was. From what I could see, they didn’t test him for a concussion on the sidelines. They looked at his [left] hand.”
Brad McCoy also echoed something that Will Burge of ESPN 850 in Cleveland reported last night — that Colt McCoy was experiencing sensitivity to light.
“After the game, the [public relations staff] made sure Colt’s interview was brief and he couldn’t face the lights in his press conference,” Brad McCoy said. “The TV lights and the stadium lights were killing him. Why would you say he was fine? That makes it even worse.”
It’s unknown whether and to what extent Colt McCoy was tested for a concussion. (We’ve submitted a list of questions to the team on this point.) Brad McCoy thinks his son wasn’t properly evaluated.
“Josh Cribbs suffered a groin injury earlier in the game and he was out for the rest of the game,” Brad McCoy said. “Colt takes a severe hit like that and he’s back in the game a play later? If he took another blow to the head, we could’ve been talking about his career here.”
Here’s hoping that the media continues to push this issue, that the league fully investigates, and that the situation causes the league to once and for all implement meaningful procedures to ensure that players are properly evaluated after absorbing obviously violent blows to the head.
Everybody seems to be telling Colt’s dad to shutup about this. That’s ignorant. I don’t care how old you are, or how old your kid’s are… you defend your son. You go out of your way to make sure your family is taken care of and safe. The Browns are gonna mishandle your son and his career? Call their asses to the carpet. Good for Brad. Good for Colt being alive still. Go fine James Harrison some more money… dude is out of control.
-bp