Aaron Rodgers certainly did not pull any punches on the topic of concussions on Bill Simmons’s “Any Given Wednesday”
It’s pretty simple: the NFL has a concussion problem that they don’t want to address, because admitting the issues with concussions would cost them money. That didn’t stop Aaron Rodgers from being very honest with Bill Simmons on Simmons’s new show, “Any Given Wednesday”.
Rodgers detailed a time when he was hit so hard he couldn’t see out of his left eye, saying,
"“We were playing Washington. I got hit by like three guys on a blitz. London Fletcher was one of three guys the kind of hit me. Side of the head and … [my vision] was metallic — silver metallic in the left side.”"
Simmons went on to ask Rodgers what the biggest obstacle to athletes who need help with concussions. Rodgers once again didn’t beat around the bush, stating,
"“The biggest obstacle, I think, would be the mindset of players… When you’re competitive, the last thing you want to do is come out of a game, regardless of what kind of injury it is. Whether it’s an ankle, a knee, a rib or a head injury. You know the head injuries are obviously more dangerous but it’s that mindset to play through those things, and until that mindset changes there’s going to be guys like Calvin [Johnson] who come out and say ‘Yeah, I’ve played through a lot of concussions.’”"
Woof. That’s a pretty scorching indictment of the NFL and how it handles concussions.
The NFL has long been accused of not caring enough about its players, especially their mental health. With the recent suicides of Tyler Sash, Adrian Robinson, and Junior Seau all being tied to mental illness that stems from CTE, it’s pretty apparent that the league has to make a change.
The movie Concussion attempted to tell the story of Dr. Bennett Omalu, a forensic pathologist that fights the NFL blocking his research on CTE. The film itself got mixed reviews, but the message remained the same: The NFL needs to do more about concussions and their aftereffects.
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