Troy Polamalu says football players suffer an alarming amount of concussions during a typical season and that he’s even lied to hide his concussions so he could continue playing.
The Steelers safety joined “The Dan Patrick Show” to talk about his experience filming “Dark Knight” and was asked how many concussions he’s suffered during his career.
“I’ve had, I believe, eight or nine recorded concussions,” Polamalu said. “We’ll have another conversation after I’m done playing football.”
Polamalu was asked how many unrecorded concussions he’s had.
“Well, you know, when people say that you kind of just feel like a little buzzed or dazed, if that is considered a concussion, I would say any football player records at least 50-100 concussions a year.”
If players only have a fraction of their concussions officially recorded, does that mean they’re lying to hide them? Polamalu says he has.
“Yes I have, for sure,” Polamalu said. “There’s so much built up about team camaraderie and sacrifice and football is such a tough man’s game. I think that’s why it’s so popular. That’s why so many blue collar communities and people can really feel attracted to this because it is a blue collar struggle that football players go through.
“I wouldn’t say that I’ve had any major lies. Where someone said ‘Hey, is your knee messed up?’ when it may be kind of messed up and you just push yourself to be out there with your brothers.”
Polamalu acknowledged that there are some situations where a player is too injured to hide it. His comments shouldn’t come as a surprise; Rob Gronkowski admitted last season he would hide concussions symptoms to play, and Peyton Manning has joked about fudging a baseline concussion test. Players may continue to hide symptoms so that they can play, but maybe comments like this will alert team doctors to be more proactive when it comes to testing players for such serious injuries.
