LeSean McCoy, the Philadelphia Eagles' star running back, took a blow to the head at 1:37 PM EST on Sunday September 21.
That's not in dispute.
What happened next is.
McCoy was clearly dazed by the blow, a helmet-to-helmet hit doled out by Washington Redskins cornerback David Amerson. After McCoy removed his helmet, he was helped off the field and eventually into the locker room to be evaluated for a concussion.
Here's the video of McCoy's possible concussion, courtesy of Deadspin.
But within five minutes or so, McCoy was back on the sidelines — cleared by the team's concussion protocol.
(And the Eagles did seem to take the necessary precautions; until McCoy was cleared by the doctors, Eagles staff hid McCoy's helmet from him and ignored his pleas to return to the game, in accordance with concussion protocol.)
A team that apparently followed concussion protocols; a superstar running back returning to a game against the rival Redskins.
Good news for Eagles fans?
On the contrary. Fans erupted in anger that McCoy was allowed to play on — especially after he appeared to be sluggish and unproductive. (With 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, McCoy had just 21 rushing yards on 14 carries, on pace for his worst game in two years.)
"LeSean McCoy does not look right," one friend, a lifelong Eagles fan, texted me after McCoy returned. "Needs to be out of the game."
Taking to Twitter, many other fans were less charitable. Here's a sanitized selection of their tweets:
This is what it means to be a NFL fan in the concussion era. Praying that players stay healthy; playing doctor from the couch when it seems like they don't. And not trusting the NFL to be honest — an understandable reaction, given the league's history of concussion denial.
But it's a decidedly different way of watching football than even five years ago, when concussion awareness was much lower. And it's unclear whether fans' growing knowledge of football's concussions risks bodes well for the NFL — with some fans seemingly coming to accept concussions as a run-of-the-mill injury — or poorly, as it keeps head injuries in the spotlight and foments doubts about football's safety.
If McCoy suffered a concussion, that would mean at least 80 NFL players have suffered concussions this year — and the season is just three weeks old. That's slightly ahead of last year's pace, according to the @NFLConcussions feed, the well-regarded Twitter account that tracks concussions in pro football.
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