When Colt McCoy took this brutal hit from James Harrison on Thursday night, he reportedly suffered a concussion. It is unclear at this point if the Browns knew he was concussed when they checked him out or simply didn’t pick up on it, but McCoy missed only a play before returning. As you might imagine, that is a big no-no in today’s NFL with how cautious the league has tried to become in dealing with concussions. Colt’s father, Brad McCoy, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Friday that Colt didn’t even know what had happened when he woke up on Friday other than the Browns lost the game. Now, Brad is furious with the Browns.
“He never should’ve gone back in the game,” McCoy’s father said. “He was basically out (cold) after the hit. You could tell by the ridigity of his body as he was laying there. There were a lot of easy symptoms that should’ve told them he had a concussion. He was nauseated and he didn’t know who he was. From what I could see, they didn’t test him for a concussion on the sidelines. They looked at his (left) hand.
“After the game, the (public relations staff) made sure Colt’s interview was brief and he couldn’t face the lights in his press conference. The TV lights and the Stadium lights were killing him. Why would you say he was fine? That makes it even worse.
“If he took another blow to the head, we could’ve been talking about his career here. And I certainly didn’t think he’d be out only a play. It would’ve taken my high school trainer longer than that to determine if he was okay after a hit like that.”
I can’t imagine this is good for the Browns — at all. Whether they detected the concussion or not, chances like that can’t be taken no matter what the circumstances. You can certainly imagine where Brad McCoy is coing from as a father. If everything we’re hearing about Colt is accurate then Brad is right and he had no business returning to the game.
Chest bump to Pro Football Talk for passing the story along.
