49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, six days after suffering a concussion Monday night in Minnesota. He has received all necessary and required clearances, both from team doctors and an independent neurologist.
So he can get started. Ready to get started. Fit as proverbial.
And if he suffers another concussion today, the NFL will be scraping something smelly off their shoes.
Even if it was a separate injury, the obvious outcry would be that he shouldn’t have played. Last year, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa played on a Thursday night and ended up leaving the game on a stretcher, four days after suffering a “back injury” that left him unsteady while walking. The setback was sudden and violent.
The stark difference in this case comes from the fact that Purdy was properly diagnosed with a concussion. He approved the protocol and eventually received the blessing of a neurologist who was not on either team.
Of course the neurologist is affiliated with the league. And the league has an obvious interest in Purdy playing in arguably the biggest game of the day: Bengals at 49ers, 4:25 p.m. ET on CBS.
The NFL billed it as that #1 overall vs. Mr. Irrelevant. This pitch would have been even more irrelevant than Purdy if Purdy hadn’t played.
“Independent” simply means independence from the player’s team, which had a direct bias in granting a player clearance to play. It’s not about independence from the broader NFL apparatus.
This does NOT mean that there was pressure on the independent neurologist to clear Purdy; it is just an acknowledgment of the basic facts. The league doesn’t pick a neurologist from the phone book with a one-time request to examine a single player. There is an ongoing relationship, and it is impossible to separate the neurologist’s desire to maintain that relationship from the larger process of whether discretion is exercised in favor of leaving or whether caution is thrown to the wind.
Was it a coincidence that after Tua’s concussion on Thursday night, only one player (Kenny Pickett) was allowed to return from a concussion in 2022 without missing at least one game? Is it a coincidence that, with no league-wide concussion controversy this year (yet), a player like Purdy was given a game card after just six days?
One thing is clear. The NFL will actually have its first concussion controversy of 2023 if Purdy suffers another concussion today.