If 49er quarterback Brock Purdy had suffered a second concussion on Sunday, six days after suffering an initial one, the NFL would have had a mess on its hands. But you don’t have a concussion if you don’t get checked for one.
Purdy struck his head on the ground in Sunday’s loss to the Bengals. For some reason, Purdy was not checked for a concussion.
On Monday, Shanahan acknowledged a “scare” for Purdy, “but just talking to him after the game and talking to him today, he has been totally fine.”
Shanahan said he didn’t notice the hit when it happened, because he has other things to do. For whatever reason, the people charged with noticing such incidents did not.
“I don’t get the TV copy in the game, so I don’t see how they hit from where I’m at, so we don’t see that at all,” Shanahan said. “But I’m always assuming that there’s people spotting that stuff and spot checkers and that everyone’s going to do that when they see it. So that’s not something that I’m looking for during the game. I’m usually watching defense and I am looking at my call sheet getting ready for the next down.”
After Shanahan saw the hit, he suggested that Purdy be checked for a concussion, right?
“I didn’t ask,” Shanahan said. “The fact that nothing is wrong is why I didn’t ask. I also understand your question and I didn’t ask.”
Shanahan was pressed on whether he would have removed Purdy from the game to be checked for a concussion, if Shanahan had seen the hit.
“I don’t know,” Shanahan said. “It’s a pretty hypothetical question. If I think any of our players are hurt, I always want to get them out of the game.”
It’s hard to knock Shanahan for not being more candid than he was, because he was. Despite his reluctance to admit that he would have taken Purdy out of the game if Shanahan had seen the hit, his comments highlight the fact that someone with his or her hand on the proverbial red button failed to press it when it was obvious that Purdy needed to be checked.
And, yes, it’s very possible that none of the various people with the authority to buzz down to the field for a concussion evaluation wanted to be the one to start in motion a process that might have ended with Purdy being diagnosed with a second concussion and the league having a major mess on its hands for letting him play only six days after suffering a first one.
Which speaks to a deeper problem with the NFL’s entire concussion protocol.
