Tag: Allen Sills

NFL players were livid over the report that the league might ban ‘hip-drop’ tackles

There is NO WAY referees would call this fairly!

If you thought the NFL’s newest rules for roughing-the-passer and whatever the heck a catch is were hard to interpret, boy, do I have awful news!

During Divisional Weekend, two critical injuries to the Dallas Cowboys’ Tony Pollard and the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes have put the seemingly staple “hip-drop” tackle in the spotlight. Pollard would suffer an ankle sprain and a broken leg after being brought down in this manner. A day earlier, a scrambling Mahomes would sustain a painful ankle injury of his own as a host of defenders tackled him in essentially the same way. (Mind you, this is an ankle ailment that could still bother the Kansas City superstar in Super Bowl 57.)

As a result, the NFL’s Chief Medical Officer Allen Sills is apparently professing that there will be a coming earnest look at the hip-drop tackle’s place in pro football:

Given that defenders sometimes have no recourse but to use their weight to bring down ball carriers — especially when chasing them from behind — NFL players past and present were understandably livid by this potential change. After all, it’s already pretty challenging to play defense in a game where offensive skill players seemingly have the board tilted in their favor. It’s hard enough having to consider whether you’re putting your entire body weight on a quarterback while bringing them to the ground; now you have to think twice about what you’re doing with your hips when a guy is breaking free into the open field? It’s just an absurd concept to think about.

If the NFL were really concerned with innovative changes for player safety, one idea would be banning field turf as a significant first step. You know, the turf that players like Pollard and Mahomes got their legs caught in while being tackled. Alas, I don’t think anyone reasonable would ever accuse the NFL of making intelligent, thoughtful additions and subtractions to pro football.

WATCH: Everything NFL CMO Dr. Allen Sills said about Tua Tagovailoa’s entry into concussion protocol

He spoke with Judy Battista for NFL Network.

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa finds himself at a crossroads, as he’s in the league’s concussion protocol for the second time this season after suffering a potential third head injury.

Tagovailoa wasn’t removed from the game on Sunday, but he did report symptoms on Monday, the day after, and was immediately placed into the protocol.

While there were many questions about the quarterback’s situation and why he wasn’t taken out, the NFL chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, sat down with NFL.com’s Judy Battista to shed some light on what’s been going on.

The NFL came under fire during Tagovailoa’s last placement on the concussion protocol, so they’ll likely be extra cautious in this situation, and both the Dolphins and the quarterback should be, as well. Miami may be fighting for a playoff spot with two weeks left in the season, but there’s so much more on the line if Tagovailoa was to go out there and take another hit to the head.

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Why the NFL/NFLPA’s concussion protocol modifications won’t work on the field

The NFL and NFLPA have released the findings of their Tua Tagovailoa investigation, with protocol modifications that won’t work. Here’s why.

On Saturday, the NFL and NFLPA released a joint statement following an investigation into the protocol followed in the matter of Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa following his injury in Week 3 against the Buffalo Bills.

“The NFL-NFLPA Concussion Evaluation and Management Protocol was formalized and adopted in 2013,” the two parties said in a statement. “Since that time, the parties’ medical experts have recommended and the parties have agreed to numerous modifications of the protocols to improve the health and safety of players (e.g., the creation of the ATC spotter program, Booth UNCs, Emergency Action Plans, mandatory post-game reports, and improved video surveillance). Rather than being simply a “check the box” process, the Protocol was designed to ensure that highly credentialed and experienced physicians – approved and paid for by the NFL and NFLPA – are available on game day and to create a standardized approach to concussion evaluation where competitive decisions never usurp quality care.

“If a concern arises over compliance with the Protocol, either the NFLPA or the NFL can request an investigation into the actions of the medical staff which will be conducted jointly. The NFL-NFLPA CBA limits the scope of the parties’ review to an objective assessment of whether each step required by the protocol was undertaken when a potential head injury is identified.”

Here’s what they were investigating.

With 2:28 left in the first half of that game, Tagovailoa was hit hard by Buffalo linebacker Matt Milano, and his head hit the turn equally hard. Tagovailoa was wobbly and shaking his head as he got up, and this looked for all the world to be a prototypical concussion.

Tagovailoa was taken into the NFL’s concussion protocol, and came out to play for the entire second half. As the game progressed, news leaked regarding the supposed source of Tagovailoa’s malady.

Given the NFL’s highly specious history regarding head trauma, this was met with massive suspicion, and rightly so. After the game, Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel echoed this diagnosis.

“That was live-speed action,” McDaniel said. “Now, Tua, he went out with a lower back, and I hadn’t had that rep with him yet. He kind of got bent back pretty significantly on a quarterback sneak earlier. I was kind of with everyone else. When he hit his head on the ground, I assumed it was a head injury, but his legs got wobbly because his lower back was completely loose and as he described it, he said his lower back was like Gumby or something. That is a challenge.

“That happens all the time in NFL games. It was kind of fast and furious. We had some skill position players get dinged. We had some linemen fight through it, but those are things that you just have to be able to adjust on the fly. Your whole staff better be in concert. You better have contingencies, and you better know some plays you want to go to if things happen. We were able to do the best we could, but it was a lot better when we had everyone back. That’s for sure.”

Tagovailoa really wanted everybody to know that he’s good.

“On the quarterback sneak [the play before], I kind of got my legs caught under someone, and then they were trying to push back and then kind of felt like I hyper-extended my back or something. Then on the next play I kind of hit my back and kind of hurt. Then I got up and then that’s kind of why I stumbled – my back kind of locked up on me. For the most part, I’m good. I passed whatever concussion protocol they had, so I’m good.”

Tagovailoa was not good, as it turned out, and we’ll get into that in a minute. But here’s what the NFL and the NFLPA found in their internal investigation, which is the first problem right off the bat.

Anthony Fauci: ‘Football may not happen’ in 2020

National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases director Anthony Fauci is not optimistic that the NFL will play ball in 2020.

NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills is optimistic that pro football will kickoff Sept. 10, but Anthony Fauci has a much more tempered assessment.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases joined CNN on Thursday morning and expressed his doubts that football will be played in the fall.

“Unless players are essentially in a bubble — insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day — it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,” Fauci said via the Houston Chronicle. “If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year.”

Teams are expected to report to training camp in late July. However, there have been COVID-19 positive cases over the past week, including a couple Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans players.

Though the NFL has codified policies on how to handle social distancing and ultra sanitary practices in the wake of COVID-19, each team will have its own challenges. The Texans will have complications refitting NRG Stadium, which they don’t own outright and are co-tenants, for the NFL’s COVID-19 mandates.

The NFL has never had to suspend a season, as the NHL did in 2004-05, or suspend operations that resulted in an incomplete season, as what happened to the MLB in 1994 with the player’s strike. The NFL has had two strikes since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger disrupt play — 1982 and 1987 — but they have never halted operations that led to a cancelled season.

Individual teams have suspended operations though. During World War II, when players left the game to serve their country, the Cleveland Rams bowed out of the 1943 season. The Pittsburgh Steelers merged with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1943 and the Chicago Cardinals in 1944.

If the NFL is adamant that their schedule will be play as planned, they may need to come up with more measures and allowances.

Peter King: ‘My gut feeling’ is that the NFL will delay and abbreviate season

Peter King speculates that this season’s schedule, once released, could look very different than in years past.

Typically, this is the time of year that the NFL releases their schedule complete with a hyped-up schedule release show on NFL Network.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league has decided to push back releasing the schedule. The projected date is Thursday, May 7.

NBC Sports’ Peter King believes one of the reasons the league is delaying the schedule announcement is so that it can survey the landscape; to see what kind of shape the country is in.

King speculates that the league will possibly consider the option of abbreviating the schedule by as many as 2-4 games, which could affect non-division games and bye weeks.

For the last five years, King has been embedded with the team that compiles the schedule.

“I don’t know that they’re doing this for sure, it’s just my gut feeling because they look at so many options,” King said on a recent Pro Football Talk podcast. “I would wager that they are looking at a schedule that would begin in late September of a 14-game schedule, probably keeping the byes. And then maybe a 12-game schedule beginning in the middle of October, and that would be one that maybe wouldn’t keep the bye.”

The season is currently due to kickoff on Thursday, Sept. 10 and concludes Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021.

Releasing a potential schedule and actually playing it are worlds apart at this point. The NFL is publicly stating that the season will start on time. But the league’s chief medical offer, Dr. Allen Sills, says it’s essential for there to be widespread testing with near-immediate results for the league to reopen. As of this time, however, such tests are not available.

“As long as we’re still in a place where when a single individual tests positive for the virus that you have to quarantine every single person who was in contact with them in any shape, form or fashion, then I don’t think you can begin to think about reopening a team sport,” Sills said to NFL.com. “Because we’re going to have positive cases for a very long time.”

As of now, Sills said there is no timeline for when a decision has to be made about whether the regular season could start on time.

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Carson Wentz called heroic by NFL doctor for reporting his own concussion

NFL’s chief medical doctor Allen Sills says Carson Wentz is heroic for reporting a concussion.

Carson Wentz did a lot of brave and heroic things this season but I’m unsure if Eagles fans will find this observation by an NFL doctor that awesome.

Wentz was knocked out of the Eagles Wild Card matchup against the Seahawks by a dirty hit from Jadeveon Clowney. Wentz leaving the contest subsequently cost the Eagles the game and a playoff run.

Now, the NFL’s chief medical officer is calling Wentz “heroic” for self-reporting his concussion during Philadelphia’s playoff loss.

“I think what Carson Wentz did is heroic and should be highlighted as an example of how an unbelievably skilled and competitive athlete understands the seriousness of concussion injury and is willing to honestly report it and receive the care that he needs independent of his desire and drive to continue to participate in the game,” Dr. Allen Sills told The Associated Press on Thursday. “

“Having a concussion and playing through it is not about toughness. That’s demonstrating a lack of understanding of the severity of the injury. So I applaud Carson Wentz for understanding how serious this injury is and for getting appropriate care that he needs.”

Wentz stayed in the game and actually attempted three more passes before reporting symptoms on the sideline. He was eventually examined in the medical tent and went to the locker room for further evaluation after failing the concussion protocol.