Seahawks may face consequences for Russell Wilson protocol
By Lee Vowell
Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was forced to leave the game for one play Thursday. Seattle may be held accountable for exatly how it handled the situation. And Wilson may be at fault, too.
Seahawks fans love Russell Wilson. And why shouldn’t we? He is basically the entire offense at this point in 2017. Seattle has no running game. Wilson and the Seahawks, however, may have blundered on Thursday when it came for him to be evaluated for a concussion.
Let me be honest, Seattle did blunder. We all saw what happened. Wilson got smacked (Wilson’s word) by Arizona Cardinals linebacker Karlos Dansby and left the game under his own power. But he didn’t want to stay out, clearly. Wilson went to the sidelines, appeared to be followed by medical staff, went into the injury tent and immediately came back out. There is no way Wilson was properly evaluated.
Russell Wilson sent off after taking hit to the chin for concussion check, ducked in the tent then sent right back out pic.twitter.com/8HXvKOGNuG
— CJ Fogler (@cjzer0) November 10, 2017
The Seahawks could have forced Wilson to stay on the sidelines longer. But would the team really ever do that? Seattle lets the players be themselves. In this case, concern should have outweighed ability. Was Wilson concussed? No. But we 12s should want him to have been looked at a bit longer than, “Hello, tent! Goodbye, tent!”
The consequences
According to Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times, Wilson said
"I got smacked in the jaw pretty good there. I wasn’t concussed or anything like that. I felt completely clear. I was just trying to move my jaw. I was like ‘ah man, it’s stuck. I think I was kind of laying down on the ground for a second just trying to get my jaw. I think maybe Walt thought I was, you know, maybe injured or something like that. I told him I was good, I was good. He said I had to come off the field."
Seattle could face a $150,000 fine for not following concussion protocol. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, The “NFL concussion policy states that a player believed to have concussion symptoms cannot return to ‘practice or play’ unless a team physician and an independent neurological consultant clear him.”
But Wilson should have allowed the Seahawks to look at him more closely.
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On the other hand, maybe he is worried he is going to lose his job to backup Austin Davis. Davis’s handoff on his one play in the game resulted in a three-yard run for C.J. Prosise. Truly, a thing of beauty.