NFLPA president wants Rams punished for Case Keenum concussion ordeal

The NFL let everyone know where it really stands on the concussion issue with the Case Keenum ordeal.

After Keenum, the St. Louis Rams quarterback, was somehow allowed to remain in a Nov. 22 game against the Baltimore Ravens with an obvious concussion, the NFL didn’t seem to search too hard for answers. They didn’t make a big show of hiring Ted Wells and paying him millions to investigate. There was no 243-page report. The NFL didn’t punish anyone on the Rams, which is odd because players get hammered for illegal hits that can cause head injuries. The league — and I’m serious about this — apparently thought it was enough to have a teleconference to remind everyone of the concussion protocol. Then it hoped that swept the incident under the rug. The NFL, by the way, did not just have a teleconference to remind teams of the inflation levels of footballs this offseason. PSI > players’ brains. I guess, anyway. Keenum’s concussion was so bad he didn’t start last week’s game.

[Yahoo Daily Fantasy: $10 could win you $50K in our $350K contest for Week 13]

The league’s reaction wasn’t good enough for NFLPA president Eric Winston, an offensive tackle with the Cincinnati Bengals, and Winston is absolutely correct in this situation. Winston told Tom Pelissero of USA Today that he wants the NFL to reconsider its lack of action against the Rams and fine the team. That’s fair. You have to figure that someone on the team was “generally aware” its quarterback had a concussion.

“Complete failure to adhere to the protocol,” Winston, the Cincinnati Bengals’ veteran tackle, told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday.

“Show me someone that says, ‘No, the Rams did exactly the right thing.’ They didn’t. Everybody knows they didn’t. So, there has to be discipline then, right? Because when a player doesn’t do something that he’s supposed to do, he gets fined for that when it comes to health and safety.”

The inaction by the NFL is deplorable on a few levels. One that Winston touched on in his interview with Pelissero is that the players have been punished as the NFL tried to put on a public show that it now cares about head injuries. Players who dish out illegal hits have been fined a countless amount of money, the fines reaching into five figures or costing players even more via suspensions. But here’s a high profile case of a team totally screwing up, and nothing was done. Except reminding teams of the protocols. Players make an illegal hit, they’re fined a ridiculous amount of money. A team ignores that its quarterback is on all fours with an obvious concussion, and there’s a teleconference to tell everyone about the rules again. It’s incredibly hypocritical.

Everyone has passed the buck. Rams coach Jeff Fisher said he didn’t see Keenum in obvious distress. The league’s press-box spotter didn’t stop the game. The official didn’t stop the game. The Rams trainer supposedly spoke briefly with Keenum before officials wanted him to leave the field, Fisher said last week. No tests were done. Someone screwed up. Multiple people screwed up. You’d think the NFL would understand how its lack of action looks as Will Smith’s “Concussion” movie is about to hit theaters on Dec. 25, but apparently not.

Winston is right. Someone needs to be punished over this. But since it was a team at fault and not a player dishing out an illegal hit, a teleconference will be enough it seems. Because the NFL really, truly cares about player safety when it comes to head injuries. Right. 

– – – – – – –

Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab