Brady's Alleged 2016 Concussion

[cddolphin]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/patriots/2017/08/04/don-think-that-anyone-business-tom-brady-says-his-conucussion-history/MZDO5e9gzesNHaTiJg21LI/story.html

Quote

Tom Brady was asked after Friday’s practice whether he suffered a concussion last year, as his wife claimed in May on national television.

The Patriots quarterback didn’t say yes, but he didn’t say no, either.

“You know I don’t want to get into things that happened in my past, certainly medical history and so forth,” Brady said. “I really don’t think that’s anybody’s business, you know, what happened last year. I’m focused on this year and improvement and working on things I need to get better at.”

 

This story has been largely swept under the rug by the NFL and the Patriots. In his first press conference in quite a while, Brady stated that his possible concussion was "nobody's business", although the NFL's injury reporting rules may disagree with him on that point.

It should have been fairly easy for the Pats and Brady to claim his wife misspoke and that, just as the injury reports showed, he did not suffer any kind of concussion. Instead, these ambiguous answers practically invite reporters and fans to question just how closely the NFL is actually looking into this incident.

Mere hours after Gisele's May interview, the NFL released a statment saying that "there was no evidence" that Brady suffered or complained about a concussion, and that apparently was that. The NFLPA also announced they would be looking into the incident, but until Brady's recent interview the topic had been apparently forgotten by everyone involved.

[MKnight82]

I believe the team is responsible for reporting injuries they are aware of.  I don't believe players should have to report injuries if they don't want to.  It is their own bodies and their personal lives.  

[ChazStandard]

14 minutes ago, MKnight82 said:

I believe the team is responsible for reporting injuries they are aware of.  I don't believe players should have to report injuries if they don't want to.  It is their own bodies and their personal lives.  

 

I agree completely.

 

Plus, you'd be a fool to analyse everything a Patriot - especially Brady - says in a press conference. They are schooled and encouraged to give ambiguous non-answers to questions all the time. Not to mention, he might not want to publicly call his wife a liar.

[TitanLegend]

The Colts let Andrew Luck play through a concussion vs the Titans(when he sat the next game vs Pittsburgh) and the NFL didn't say a single word. The NFL doesn't really care.

[IDOG_det]

15 minutes ago, TitanLegend said:

The Colts let Andrew Luck play through a concussion vs the Titans(when he sat the next game vs Pittsburgh) and the NFL didn't say a single word. The NFL doesn't really care.

Basically. This would be a big deal if the league actually had good protocols to deal with concussions. It's not really a shock that an important player would play with a concussion or that a team might fail to report it. 

[coors]

7 minutes ago, IDOG_det said:

Basically. This would be a big deal if the league actually had good protocols to deal with concussions. It's not really a shock that an important player would play with a concussion or that a team might fail to report it. 

My thoughts. What can the NFL really do here?

[IDOG_det]

2 minutes ago, coors said:

9 minutes ago, IDOG_det said:

Basically. This would be a big deal if the league actually had good protocols to deal with concussions. It's not really a shock that an important player would play with a concussion or that a team might fail to report it. 

My thoughts. What can the NFL really do here?

At this point? Nothing (unless of course they find texts/emails from the Patriots discussing how they want to hide a hypothetical Tom Brady concussion).

[cddolphin]

8 minutes ago, coors said:

My thoughts. What can the NFL really do here?

Commissioner cddolphin would have some ideas.

Shouldn't the "it's nobody's business" statement set off some alarm bells at the head office? If the NFL believes players are obligated to report concussions they receive to their coaches/team.. although looking through the PDF of Injury Reporting Policy, I see no such rule. The requirement seems to be for the team to report injuries to the NFL, not for the players to report injuries to the team. Rather large (intentional?) loophole.

[MKnight82]

8 minutes ago, cddolphin said:

Commissioner cddolphin would have some ideas.

Shouldn't the "it's nobody's business" statement set off some alarm bells at the head office? If the NFL believes players are obligated to report concussions they receive to their coaches/team.. although looking through the PDF of Injury Reporting Policy, I see no such rule. The requirement seems to be for the team to report injuries to the NFL, not for the players to report injuries to the team. Rather large (intentional?) loophole.

I'm not required to tell my company anything about my health.  In fact HIPPA is in place to protect that.  Why would NFL players be any different?

[cddolphin]

10 minutes ago, MKnight82 said:

I'm not required to tell my company anything about my health.  In fact HIPPA is in place to protect that.  Why would NFL players be any different?

I'm not sure those are equivalent scenarios, nor do I think that's what HIPPA is meant for. HIPPA is meant to protect medical information when it is shared between doctors / insurers / etc. I'm assuming your employer doesn't weigh you or measure your hands either.

[Jakuvious]

17 minutes ago, MKnight82 said:

I'm not required to tell my company anything about my health.  In fact HIPPA is in place to protect that.  Why would NFL players be any different?

That's not at all what HIPAA does.  HIPAA will mean that your employer (usually) cannot bypass you and go straight to your doctor or hospital to directly get health information. It also limits who your employer can tell about various aspects of your health. It does not mean that your employer cannot require certain things in terms of medical information or diagnosis. Particularly if it is job relevant. If what you're saying is true, that you don't have to tell your company anything about your health, then we'd see players opt out of physicals, doctors notes or telling your workplace why you called out sick wouldn't be a thing, etc. There are many instances where different types of businesses require their employees to disclose health information. If it's part of what you signed on to and it's job relevant, it's perfectly legal (with a long list of exceptions, mind you.)

[cddolphin]

Dr. Chao weighs in.

[Xmad]

He probably had a concussion and played through it and has probably done it multiple times in his career. It's up to him whether to disclose it to the patriots or not, so it really is none of our business. 

[Ketchup]

If he wants to be a moron and hide a serious medical condition from the team and the team doctors, that's on him. It's stupid and so unnecessarily risking to play through/hide a concussion from the team and it's Doctor's but if that's what he decided to do, it really isn't anyone else's business. 

[MacReady]

I'm pretty sure it's the business of the NFL and the team he's playing against.  If he hid a concussion, he cheated.  There's a rule for concussed players, and he broke that rule.  Once a cheater, always a cheater.