Two of the NFL’s larger profile gamers have opened up this week about among the challenges they’ve confronted after not too long ago experiencing concussions.
Commanders operating again Austin Ekeler not too long ago stated that he suffered reminiscence loss following each of his concussions this season. Cowboys tight finish Jake Ferguson has additionally opened up about his current struggles concerning concussion signs. Ferguson, who not too long ago cleared concussion protocol, has missed the Cowboys’ previous two video games after struggling a concussion throughout Dallas’ loss to Houston again on November 18.
“The primary two days had been dangerous,” Ferguson stated, by way of The Athletic. “I awakened in the course of the evening and I could not discover my water bottle. I began crying. I hadn’t cried like that since my canine died in center faculty. I ended and I used to be like, ‘What the heck is mistaken with me?’ I got here in right here and so they had been like, ‘Yeah, that may occur.’ Speaking to the medical doctors, they had been like, ‘Your mind will not be wholesome proper now, it is doing every part it may well to get that proper. It is feelings, it is all these items.’ That is once I was like I actually need to take this critical and actually belief our guys right here and belief what the medical doctors are telling me.”
In 2011, the NFL adopted the Recreation Day Concussion Analysis and Administration Protocol as a method to assist be certain that gamers recuperate from concussions earlier than returning to the sector. The NFL concussion protocol is a five-step course of that gamers should cross earlier than they’re medically cleared to play. The NFL has additionally adopted guidelines to assist scale back concussions, together with making vital modifications this previous 12 months to kickoffs.
In October, the NFL stated there was a 24% lower in concussions through the preseason in comparison with 2023. The 44 concussions through the preseason was considerably fewer than the 91 concussions that had been sustained through the 2017 preseason.
Regardless of the league’s efforts, concussions proceed to be a part of the NFL. Thankfully for Ferguson, he is now feeling higher and prepared to assist the Cowboys construct on their present two-game profitable streak. Dallas (5-7) will host Cincinnati (4-8) on Monday evening.
