Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis shared some thoughts on Wednesday about concussions that probably won’t make the league happy. During his scheduled press conference, Lewis was asked if he has any concern for Vontaze Burfict’s health given that the linebacker has suffered multiple head injuries this season.
The response was cringe-worthy. In short, Lewis said he believes concussions are blown out of proportion now because of the media.
“Well, he had a concussion against Atlanta. That’s that biggest concern that way,” Lewis said, per Paul Dehner Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “You don’t want him to have, you know, but again I coached defenses and linebackers for a long time and concussions didn’t linger. Now we have found that because of the media and things they seem to linger longer. There’s a lot of attention paid to it. I don’t know why they linger longer. I don’t remember them lingering like they do now.”
Basically, Lewis doesn’t sound like he believes in some of the recent discoveries doctors have made regarding head trauma. He must not buy into the medical reports about former Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher suffering from CTE before he killed his girlfriend and then took his own life.
It’s almost as if Lewis views head injuries the way people viewed smoking 50 years ago. Since less was known about the negative effects cigarette smoking can have on health, the media must be blowing things out of proportion now with their banning of cigarette commercials and warnings from the surgeon’s general.
Good thing NFL teams now have independent doctors on the sidelines to deal with head injuries. We don’t want people like Lewis tackling the tough problems himself.
