Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is involved in the NFL concussion protocol, and that’s all we can say about his condition six days before the AFC Championship.
We don’t know how long he will be out. We don’t know if he will be able to play on Sunday. We don’t even know for sure if he suffered a concussion.
What we do know is that brain health was one of the main stories in the NFL divisional playoff round. Muhammad was retired from the Chiefs ’win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday after a blow at the end of a run left him stunned. A day earlier, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was ruled out of the Buffalo Bills ’loss after his head crashed to the ground.
What’s in store for Muhammad this week? Let’s take a closer look.
How could Muhammad be in the concussion protocol if he did not suffer a concussion?
First, we know neither one way nor the other how Muhammad was diagnosed. And most importantly, it is not necessary for a player to have been diagnosed immediately with a concussion in order to be included in the protocol. All the bosses have confirmed is that he is on protocol. On Monday, coach Andy Reid stopped saying Muhammad had suffered a concussion.
Why would the NFL do that?
In 2018, the NFL adjusted its protocol to require in-game assessments for “all players who demonstrate severe motor instability (e.g., tripping or falling to the ground when attempting to stand) to determine the cause of the instability.” . This roughly fits what happened to Muhammad on Sunday. The protocol goes on to say that if a doctor “determines that the instability is caused neurologically, the player is designated ‘No-Go’ and may not play again.”
This change was in response to the horrific injury suffered in December 2017 by Houston Texans quarterback Tom Savage, who could be seen trembling on the ground after a hit but was allowed to remain in the game. He was later ruled out and diagnosed with a concussion. This adjustment allowed doctors to rule out players from the games after examining them to detect these symptoms.
In fact, Muhammad was ruled out even though he was running in the stadium tunnel after the injury, Reid said.
Does it matter if Muhammad suffered a concussion?
Of couse. But whether he did or not, he must go through the same five-step process to be allowed to return.
What are these steps?
The first thing you need to know is that before the season, all NFL players perform neurological and balance tests when they are in an uninjured state to provide a “normal” score. These results can then be used to help diagnose a concussion and to determine when a player’s neurological activity and balance have returned to their previous state after a brain injury. The five steps are:
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Step 1: Based on the symptoms, the player can practice light stretches, train balance, and eventually move toward light aerobic exercise.
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Step 2: The player can graduate to cardiovascular exercise and dynamic stretching and then do neurological and balance tests. You can go through this step once the test results match the baseline scores.
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Step 3: The player can advance to a limited amount of specific exercise for football. This includes up to 30 minutes of training time, under the supervision of an athletic trainer.
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Step 4: Soccer activities can increase to contactless exercises such as throwing and running. Another set of tests should show the baseline results again.
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Step 5: This requires the team doctor to leave contact free for the player. Once this happens, the player should be examined by an independent neurological consultant (INC). If the “INC” states the team doctor’s decision, the player is allowed to practice completely and play the next game of the team.
How long will all this take?
Protocols intentionally do not require time. They do not require a player to participate in a match, mainly because the science of concussions shows that brain injuries heal at an unpredictable rate. It is possible for players to get back to the baseline quickly, without losing a game, or they could miss several games or even the rest of a season.
So no data on that?
This is not entirely true. According to the NFL, using data from the 2015-19 season, the average time period for quarterbacks to leave the concussion protocol is seven days.
The AFC Championship is a really important game. Do players not get injured all the time?
It is and they do, but the NFL built this protocol to ensure that this does not happen with brain and neurological injuries. By demanding a return to basic test results, the NFL’s implicit policy is that a player with a brain or neurological injury may not return until he is completely healed. Contact with football after a partial recovery can only aggravate the injury.
Muhammad is not supposed to be able to “return” to the field or “aspirate” it. And bosses are not supposed to even have a chance to take the calculated risk they take when they allow a player to return to the field of play when, for example, he has a slightly torn knee.
How does the NFL stop it?
The biggest distinction of the concussion protocol is that it requires an independent physician to confirm the return. This doctor is not affiliated with the team or player, but has been approved jointly by the league and the NFL Players Association. The last step in getting permission from the independent doctor is posed as a safety tool for the player or team acting too aggressively.
On Monday, Reid told reporters, “There was a chance the day Patrick came in again [the game]. You saw him running through the tunnel. When he got to this point, he felt pretty good. But there is a certain protocol that you have to follow and that takes it out of the hand of the coach and the hand of the player and the hand of the doctor. “
So when will we know more?
This will be a story for the whole week. We may find out when (and if) Muhammad went to step 3, according to the Chiefs ’injury participation report for practice. Otherwise, we may not know if Muhammad will be able to play until the weekend. The Bills-Chiefs game will begin at 6:40 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Muhammad himself has suffered a concussion during his career during the 2014 college season at Texas Tech. He returned to play in the team’s next game, which was two weeks later due to a scheduled farewell.