In the world of football, there’s a deep-seated admiration for players who demonstrate the resilience to play through injuries. This unwavering determination, a testament to both mental and physical fortitude, often hinges on a player’s ability to assess their pain tolerance and push through without further risk to re-injuring themselves.
But head injuries are a totally different ballgame.
What we now know about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, has certainly changed perspective. Football raises the risk for CTE, and players are generally susceptible to suffering concussions or head-related injuries at any point. Sure, the NCAA has tried its hand at protecting players with the targeting rule, which according to the rulebook, aims to protect players from dangerous hits by prohibiting forcible contact that goes beyond the bounds of a legal tackle, block, or attempt to play the ball.
But even then, head injuries are bound to take place, which we saw happen in Saturday’s Florida-Florida State game.
With three minutes and 54 seconds remaining in the annual “Sunshine Showdown,” Seminoles quarterback Tate Rodemaker was knocked out of the game with an apparent head injury. As he slid short of the first down marker on 3rd-and-14, Rodemaker was met by two Florida players — freshman safety Bryce Thornton and redshirt junior cornerback Jaydon Hill — who both appeared to make forcible contact with the quarterback’s helmet
Hill was ejected from the game for targeting following the dangerous hit.
Obviously, he was removed from the game and went through concussion protocol, as his eyes appeared to have rolled back in his head after that targeting hit, However, the redshirt junior out of Valdosta, Georgia, returned to the field of play after about seven minutes.
This drew the praise of ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit, who lauded the quarterback’s toughness.
“After that hit, I thought, man, in the world we live in today with quarterbacks and concussion protocol and that hit, I thought, alright, 18’s done,” Herbstreit said. “Now, still, let’s see what (Florida State coach) Mike Norvell when he looks to his left, see…He is, he is. Good for him. Tough guy. Love it.”
Many on social media disagreed with Hebrstreit’s portrayal of Rodemaker returning to the game, and understandably so.
https://twitter.com/MrsEPannell/status/1728627016763900378?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1728627016763900378%7Ctwgr%5Eca910025b238bd4611f9ff8907efba09b981f5fb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FMrsEPannell2Fstatus2F1728627016763900378widget%3DTweet
Maybe we should stop calling players “tough” for coming back after head hits
— bob saccamano (@bobsaccamano13) November 26, 2023
Well, as long as Kirk Herbstreit is happy. Who cares about the collateral damage.
— Manprin (@Manprin) November 26, 2023
While it had been about seven minutes between Rodemaker getting hit and his return to the field, it hadn’t even been over a minute on the game clock. It’s hard to envision that Rodemaker was given a thorough assessment needed, especially considering the fact he was allowed to return to the field on the same drive.
With Rodemaker’s eyes appearing to have rolled back in his head after that targeting hit, it certainly raises more questions, as to how he was able to return to Saturday’s game. So, while Herbstreit isn’t the main culprit here and it ultimately wasn’t his decision to allow Rodemaker back into the game, it’s a weird point of view for an ESPN analyst to take, especially when there was an altered level of consciousness (LOC) and seven minutes being on the low-end of a thorough enough assessment, according to The Concussion Blog on Twitter/X.
There’s obviously a bigger discussion at play here, but perhaps we shouldn’t be praising players for being “tough,” for returning a mere couple of minutes after a head injury. It sends the wrong message, especially when the sport itself is trying to limit these types of collisions, as well as put an emphasis on player safety.
It’s instances like these where it’s hard to believe that the NCAA puts player safety at the forefront of its agenda. And as for Herbstreit, well, he should know better, especially with being a former quarterback himself.
[Awful Announcing on X]