Look, maybe it wasn’t a concussion, but the dude obviously suffered some sort of brain injury. Given the recent research on them, it seems pretty terrible to just throw him back out there this early. At least give him a week or two off, for his sake. The football culture’s “walk it off, kid” attitude towards head injuries is awful and needs to change.

says 100%, so i’m assuming he’s feeling pretty good. And if being KO’ed from a knock to the head means a serious concussion then i guess i’ve had about 4 more concussions than i previously thought. No wonder i’m showing signs of senility at the ripe ol’ age of 21.

But I am one in real life, although I am not a neurologist. Anyways, Duez I Said is pretty much exactly right. I don’t want to go Bill Frist on you and diagnose someone from a video, but it sure looked like Sandeman lost consciousness as a result of that hit. If he did, he suffered a concussion. I should note that loss of consciousness is a poor predictor of the severity of a concussion; you can have a severe concussion without losing consciousness. A mild concussion with loss of consciousness would be more rare.

The best predictor is the performance difference from baseline, as determined by a cognitive test. It is becoming standard practice for many football teams (even in high school) to perform baseline cognitive testing. Then, if a head injury does occur, you can monitor these tests as the brain heals, and not rely on a kid to tell you the truth, rather than lie to get back onto the field. Hopefully, the Iowa football trainers have performed baseline cognitive testing on the whole team, and will be able to assess his progress using these tests as he heals. They are listed as a client of ImPACT testing, which is a company of sorts set up by one of the leaders in the concussion field from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (imPACT). As an aside, if any one you have kids playing high school football now, or soon, I would try really hard to get the trainers or coaches to adopt cognitive testing. It looks like high schools can sign up for $100/year, but you need a physician to give the test, interpret the results, and perform any follow-up if a concussion occurs. Oh, and full disclosure; I have no connection to ImPACT at all; they are just the one I have heard of.

There is now a single case report of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (i.e. punch drunk) in a college player, who never played in the pros. It ruined his life. (CTE)

I hope/expect they are monitoring his cognitive function, and I would be shocked if he plays next week. I bet we see him for OSU, and to be honest, that might be too soon. Even if he is back to his baseline this week, he should probably sit out a week or two. These cognitive tests aren’t perfect, and we should probably hold them out for a week or two even after they are back to normal. The brain appears to be more sensitive to hits even after a player is back to baseline.

And Snley, I understand exactly where you are coming from. Hits like that turn my stomach. Is it really ethical to encourage, and derive enjoyment from, 18-22 year old kids playing a sport in which they could suffer permanent neurological damage?

I haven’t stopped watching yet, though…….

prudent, and cautious about something like this, be the team 8-0, 4-4 or 0-8. Sandeman’s presence on the Monday 2-deep means very little. I trust they will allow him to play when it is safe to do so and not before. I am also not a doctor but I know it also matters whether it’s his first concussion or not, everyone heals and responds differently (although one week would seem to be pushing it regardless), and that brief loss of consciousness doesn’t necessarily mean a severe concussion and vice versa (although clearly Ratface has more knowledge than I).

From reading this thread it seems like maybe some people are not giving Ferentz and company similar benefit of the doubt. That seems a tad unfair IMO. Mabye I’m over-generalizing the tone of the thread but that’s kind of how it reads.

That makes perfect sense to me. I have no doubt there are programs where there is pressure from the HC to get guys on the field more quickly than they probably should. This staff doesn’t strike me as being of that mindset. That was my only point.

As for evidence that accepted practice errs on the wrong side, sadly, I have no reason to think you are the least bit mistaken about that, and no doubt many who play football for any length of time pay the price for that down the road. Hopefully as we learn more we’ll do better.