Nabers still in the early stages of the concussion protocol

[coggs]

If medical professionals with degrees clear Nabers to play, and he wants to play, I would not hold him back. You can sit him for 5 weeks and he could get another concussion in his first game back. That's the reality.

I would not keep him out if the doctors say he's good to go and he himself wants to play. What's the point of that? Do people without medical degrees know more than people with them?

I guess you are not on facebook?

[spiderblue43]

The future has Nabers too important to worry about this game..rest him..it's a spiral of bad football again The Giants have been the worst team in football for years collectively. And this year is painfully hopeless again.

[kartanoman]

I'm no doctor and have never even played one on TV or the internet.

However, I am human and have been injured. Those injuries, especially muscle/soft tissue, need time to recover from the trauma. A concussion is brain trauma; players correctly diagnosed as having been concussed should sit a minimum of 4 games. GAMES! This is a GAME these people are playing and there's no need to rush them back from a potentially life-threatening and debilitating brain injury.

Plus, the more games he sits, the less we likely win and get closer to a top pick in the draft.   

I actually suffered my very first concussion on a baseball field when I was 13 when a high fly ball cracked my head but good when I lost it in the sun. My coach told me I was knocked out cold and didn't respond for almost five minutes. Not a great way to start my sports career! The doc at the hospital called it a concussion and told me to not go to sleep for a while, keep ice on my head and for my parents to keep an eye on me over the next 24-48 hours for any irregular signs or behaviors. It hurt for a few days and I thought I'd be OK to play the next game; however, my coach pat me on my shoulder and said, "Son, I care about you and that ball hitting your head may have caused other problems the doctor didn't see. I don't want to take a chance and have those problems come out because I let you play. You relax and take today off, be the scorekeeper and manage the book today, and next week I'll let you play as long as you're feeling good and up to it, OK? At the time, I was a but disappointed because I wanted to play, but I look back on it now and even though this was 1983, and he was no doctor, he knew enough to realize my situation and to make the right decision for me at that time and moment. He was a great coach and his son and I were in the same grade at the Catholic School we attended in Elizabth, NJ.

It wouldn't be my only concussion either. I suffered several traumatic blows to the head in college and the worst was when I was 30 and rollerblading, lost control and crashed, full-speed, into a telephone pole which nearly killed me. That one knocked me completely out of my senses and I needed an ambulance to take me to the ER. That concussion was either my fifth or sixth and, by far, the worst I've ever experienced in my life. Immediately afterward, and ever since, I've noticed that some of my cognitive skills aren't as sharp as they used to be, I started to forget little things that I've never had issues with before and I began getting migraine headaches every now and then. Also, from the blows to the left side of my head, part of my hearing in my left ear has been negatively impacted and I can no longer hear lower frequency sounds.

Since then, I have stayed away from competitive sports and anything that has to do with wheels, apart from driving a car. But when it comes to concussions, I can probably write a book about the experience of having one, having two, three, four, and so on, and what that actually does to a person cumulatively, as it takes a toll on one's body and, more importantly, one's brain.

I'm sorry. I do not have any medical degrees; although, my wife is a Physician Assistant and she is the one with the degrees and the impressive knowledge base of nearly three decades. I use her as my medical consultant and she wastes no time in calling me an idiot for damaging my brain all for the glory of what? Precious gladiator fun and games? She then points to my mangled left leg, half the nerves no longer working due to multiple surgeries gone wrong, a replacement knee, a permanent gimp in my gait and an Engineer with mush for a brain.

Just get me ten more years so I can get my youngest into and out of college and I can finally retire. That's all I ask. No more concussions, please!

Peace!

[AZGiantFan]

I respect what you're saying, but my counterpoint to this is simply why is a coach in a better position to make the judgment of what is best for his health than the doctors?

If it is more dangerous than normal to Nabers to play this weekend I am 100% for him not playing. That's not in question.

But if the doctors do not give him that label, and he himself wants to play, then I just don't see why a coach should make an executive decision to deny him the ability to play. Why is the coach better qualified to come up with his prognosis of being sidelined than a doctor?

Nabers is pretty much the best player on the team, and this is a must-win game. Those are not legitimate reasons to play him if he is borderline, but they are realities to keep in mind for anyone who wants to sit him just because, even when the doctors are saying he's good to go.

Drs. are far from infallible and are judging a moment in time.  The coach has, or should have, a longer term perspective for the well being of the team and the human being.  That is why the wise thing to do, IMO, is to err on the side of caution.