With the attention brought to concussions and the diagnosis of them by Tom Brady’s wife, many are talking about the fine line between getting one and talking about it.
Saints quarterback Drew Brees has admitted that he would try to hide the injury from his wife.
But one guy who has self-reported during a game said that he’s glad he did.
In November 2015, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger took himself out at Seattle complaining of peripheral vision issues, and was taken to the locker room for testing.
“I’m proud of it,” Roethlisberger told TheMMQB’s Peter King on his podcast. “I have been just like Drew [Brees] where I haven’t reported things before either. Probably everybody who has ever played the game of football hasn’t reported an injury. For me it wasn’t about an injury—I’ve played through many injuries—but when you talk about your head, that is a different ball game.
“You can replace a lot of body parts, but you can’t replace a brain. You see the effects of it from past players, players who have taken their lives, the CTE, all that stuff and, you know, I’m thinking about my family and long term. I love this game and I love my brothers that I play football with, and I would encourage any player who has an issue with their brain to just report it properly . . . We are blessed to play this game but we also have a life to live.”
Of course, not everyone has the same kind of financial and starting job security as Roethlisberger, who can know with great certainty that he’s going back on the field for the Steelers as soon as he’s well.
So it’s worth wondering that if Brady was struggling in any way, if the presence of potential heir Jimmy Garoppolo on the Patriots sideline would influence him to keep it to himself. Brady knows all too well about backup quarterbacks getting on the field because of injury and never leaving it, so it’s reasonable to think that could motivate a guy who wants to play for many more years.
