Every week, it seems, something happens to remind us just how dangerous it is to play pro football. On Sunday night, it was the Seahawks’ Darren Taylor being back-boarded and carted off the field. This week, it was Patrick Mahomes, the face of the NFL, being helped off the field by his teammates.
Here’s the errant knee from Titans defensive end Jeffery Simmons that caught Mahomes right in the head:
Mahomes didn’t look too steady on his feet getting up.
Though the Chiefs’ quarterback appeared dazed, Mahomes made it to the sidelines under his own power, with some help from teammates on either side, and did not return to the game. Then this happened, if you can believe it (of course you can):
I’m not a doctor, but I feel safe saying that if a player is that wobbly on his feet leaving the field, there’s no way he should be passing the NFL’s concussion protocol. That protocol likely needs to be revamped, tout de suite. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a player bumble off the field after getting hit in the head, only to have NFL personnel declare that player to be A-okay.
The score was 27-3 in favor of Tennessee when Mahomes went down, and, as you can imagine, things didn’t trend upwards once journeyman QB Chad Henne took over. That wound up being the final, as Kansas City falls to 3-4 on the season and Tennessee improves to 5-2. No doubt, the sieve-like offensive line in KC will continue to be the talk of the NFL this weekend. And now it looks like the Chiefs might wind up paying for it in something more meaningful than just a loss.
We’ll update this story as it continues to develop.
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