RENTON — The Seattle Seahawks hurrying Russell Wilson back into a game last month following a hit to his head has come at a cost.
Of $100,000, to be exact.
That’s what the NFL fined the team for how quickly they allowed its quarterback to re-enter last month’s game at Arizona, after the referee sent Wilson off the field to be evaluated for a possible concussion.
The league and the NFL Players’ Association announced their joint finding Thursday.
“The results of the joint review determined there was a failure in the application of the protocol following the tackle of Mr. Wilson during the Seahawks-Cardinals game on November 9,” the NFL’s statement said.
“As a result, Seattle has been fined $100,000 and the coaching and medical staffs will be required to attend remedial training regarding the protocol.
“The results of the joint review determined that the protocol was triggered when Mr. Wilson was directed to the sideline for an evaluation after the referee, Walt Anderson, concluded that a medical examination was warranted. Nonetheless, the required evaluation was not conducted and Mr. Wilson was permitted to return to the game without an evaluation. Once it is determined that a medical examination is warranted, a player may only be cleared to return by the medical staff; Mr. Wilson’s return to the field without a sideline concussion evaluation was therefore in violation of the Concussion Protocol. Subsequently the team medical staff did examine the player and clear him per the protocol.”
Wilson’s reaction?
“I guess that’s what they decided to do,” he said before the Seahawks (8-6) practiced for Sunday’s critical game at Dallas (8-6). “I thought that everything was done in the right way. There was a lot of confusion on why I was coming out of the game, anyway.”
The Seahawks and Wilson contend no one on the field made it explicitly clear to them why Wilson was sent off.
“I was completely clear,” Wilson said of his mind. “My jaw was messed up, but other than that … that’s what they decided.”
What will Wilson change the next time something like this may happen in a game?
“What should I change?” he said. “More than anything it was just playing ball. I felt completely clear, so there’s nothing really to change, quite honestly.”
His jaw injury from the hit had him on a liquid diet of smoothies and made it tough for him to talk for days following the game.
The Seahawks issued a statement in which they accepted the league’s penalty — and asserted Wilson’s claim of confusion during the matter.
“We did not knowingly disregard the Concussion Protocol,” the team said. “Any misstep was unintentional and the result of confusion on the sideline.”
During the third quarter of the nationally televised Thursday night game at Arizona, Wilson got hit in the chin by the helmet of Cardinals pass-rusher Karlos Dansby after throwing a pass. Anderson flagged Dansby for roughing the passer. Then Anderson — and presumably the league-appointed concussion monitor persons stationed in the press box and on each sideline — saw Wilson adjusting his helmet and appearing to feel the side of his head and face. Anderson sent Wilson to the Seahawks’ sideline. Backup quarterback Austin Davis handed the ball off to C.J. Prosise on the next play. Then Wilson re-entered the game and finished the drive.
He then finished Seattle’s 22-16 victory.
Wright’s protocol
K.J. Wright is back from a concussion. The outside linebacker finished his second consecutive full practice and will start at Dallas after missing last weekend’s loss to the Rams.
“I’m 100 percent. I’m good,” Wright said. “It takes a while to come back from a concussion, and I’m good.”
Having just gone through one, Wright has his own recommended protocol for concussions. It’s guiding principle: common sense.
“The NFL needs to make it mandatory to where you miss one game when you have a concussion,” he said. “Because you are just not right.”
To heck with the concussion protocol, the league’s five-stage process that concussed players must pass per stage by the approval of doctors before they can return to the field. Forget the macho, warrior mentality for which NFL players are famous, dating to the unenlightened days, really into the 2000s, of a guy “getting his bell rung” then taking a few whiffs of a smelling salts and returning to play.
Sure, it tore Wright up to miss what essentially was Seattle’s NFC West championship chance — and especially to watch last Sunday his defense get ransacked for 244 yards rushing and 40 of Los Angeles’ 42 points without him and with Pro Bowl middle linebacker Bobby Wagner severely limited by a bad hamstring. It angered and disappointed Wright that he ended his streak of 61 consecutive starts in the regular season dating to a broken foot in early December of 2013. He watched on the sideline in a team coat while Seahawks’ chances for a sixth consecutive postseason appearance mostly disappeared with the loss.
“I was like on a four-year streak, man,” he said.
“But I wasn’t going to mess around with that.”
Not at age 28 with a wife and an 18-month-old son.
“I don’t care what anybody says about, they feel fine. I think they should miss one game if they have a concussion — because it’s a brain,” Wright said. “It’s your brain. And you only get one.
Wright has had one other concussion in his NFL career, on Nov. 4, 2012, against Minnesota. Like he did two games ago at Jacksonville, he left that Vikings game five years ago immediately and did not return until two games later.
“I mean, you are just dizzy, doing certain things make you dizzy. The lights hurt your eyes,” Wright said.
“Think about it: if the light hurts your eyes, why are you playing a football game?”
Why can’t the entire league think this way?
“You’ve got a concussion for a reason: it’s a brain. So why would you go put your brain right back into the same thing? It just makes no sense to me,” Wright said.
Would the 23-year-old Wright, just out of college on his first NFL contract trying to get a rich, second one, think like he does now?
“Ooooooohhh!” Wright said, liking the question. “Nope. Not at all.
“As you get older you start having a new perspective on life. You starting having a wife, kids. You realize that at the end of the day it’s still just a game — it’s a really important game — but it’s just a game.
“So the older you get, the wiser you should get. …The 23-year-old K.J.? I would have probably tried to play through it. Which is not smart.
“It’s kind of dumb.”
Wright got his concussion Dec. 10 in the third quarter of the loss at Jacksonville. He met Jaguars’ fullback Tommy Bohanan head to head on an off-tackle running play.
Did Wright think it was a clean play by the fullback?
“The only person who said it wasn’t was my mom,” Wright said.
“I’ve got to do better about squaring up. One of my old coaches said, ‘Yeah, you’ve got to square up on that fullback. You can’t put your head in that position.’
“So it was all my fault. He’s a fullback. That’s what he’s supposed to do.”
Wagner misses practice
Wagner missed practice for the second consecutive day. He hasn’t practiced in the middle of weeks for most of the last month or so, because of the hamstring.
Coach Pete Carroll said Wagner is in the same condition he was last week, that playing against the Rams for the first 2½ quarters didn’t make the injury worse.
But if Wagner’s indeed in exactly the same condition, that may not work out well against Ezekiel Elliott on Sunday. The NFL rushing champion from last season is returning for Dallas from a six-game suspension.
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