Hit Rodgers took from Peppers-Concussion? Or no?

There was a thread on this yesterday I think, but I noticed something when I was re-watching the game a little closer.

He looked an awful lot like he did during the second half of that Redskin game earlier this year after he took that shot. If I remember there was an awful lot of debate on whether or not he suffered a concussion early in that Skins game as opposed to later. He just looked off, accuracy went WAY down, bad decisions on where to go with the football. Just looked lost.

I REALLY hope he didn't take another concussion on that play. McCarthy said he was fine, but with that much on the line you gotta wonder...

I don't know, just what I noticed when re-watching it...

his play was definitely not as sharp after the hit... here's hoping that these two weeks off gives him time to recoup from any bruises or head issues...

He looked fine to me, but the medical staff probably should have evaluated him. Who knows, maybe Flynn could've provided a spark?

Peppers' cheap shot happened at 11:08 the 4th quarter. Rodgers was off way before that. Not only Peppers nailed him, they could have called two personal fouls. One on Peppers and one on Briggs. I love how the Bears act all incensed by the penalty. And the D-Coord is spitting mad on the sidelines. The Bears D started to lose their composure around this time and started getting chippy.

Rodgers took a beating on the play. Surprised he got up. He wasn't wobbling after getting up, but I"m sure his bell was rung. The doctors checked him out on the sidelines for sure after that hit. Guess the new helmet worked.

I did notice Peppers was talking to Rodgers after the game. Apologizing!? We'll never know I guess.

I think it had more to do with his shoulder being sore from his TD run.

It looked like it hurt. Did Julius Peppers apologize later for that hit after that play. I was told that he did, and it may sound dumb but it would change my opinion on him slightly if he did apologize.

I saw him talking to Rodgers after the game for awhile. I guess he was apologizing at that point.

Okay I will take it then that Peppers gave Rodgers an apology. Still pretty unforgivable but its also the heat of the moment, and Peppers was probably looking for a way to start a fire.

You know, Peppers doesn't come across as being a dirty player. I remember reading that after he crushed Stafford week 1 and separated his shoulder, he went and found him in the locker room after the game to apologize to him.

Rodgers possible third concussion?

Very interesting article I stumbled across this morning.



Vital Signs: Conspiracy of silence over possible Rodgers concussion?

SHAWN DOHERTY | The Capital Times | sdoherty@madison.com | Posted: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 6:15 am

I'm a health reporter, and I have a crush on Aaron Rodgers, so maybe I'm being a bit overprotective. But there's something about Sunday's Green Bay Packers game I don't get. After all the attention paid to concussions in the NFL this season, after all the recent Congressional testimony about long-term brain damage football players can get from the sport, and after all the drama over Rodgers suffering two concussions and getting pulled out of one game and missing the next last fall, why haven't there been more questions about what most of us saw Sunday, even if some of us don't want to admit it?

I'm talking about how Rodgers looked and acted right after Bears defensive end Julius Peppers' illegal helmet-to-helmet whack to his head. Rodgers was woozy and wobbling about with dazed eyes. If you didn't notice he was wobbling, surely you noticed his football was wobbling. His magic was gone for the rest of the game. He couldn't even hit the mark with a couple of short passes.

And yet for all the consciousness-raising lately about the dangers of concussions in football, hardly anybody seems to be talking about the possibility that our star quarterback suffered another one Sunday. I mean, those Fox announcers don't stop yakking, but their silence on this was deafening. Nobody on the Green Bay coaching and medical staff on the sidelines called Rodgers over for a check-up, either, at least that we could see, and there was little in the papers about the whole thing Monday.

On Monday, Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy addressed the issue, saying Rodgers was "fine."

I called Dustin Fink, an athletic trainer from central Illinois who writes theconcussionblog.com, to ask him if he noticed anything weird about Rodgers' behavior after that hit Sunday. Fink, who coaches high school football, told me he sure did. "If this had happened to one of my players on Friday night I would have pulled him off the field, just based on his gaze," Fink says. "We call it ‘the gaze' when we see somebody concussed. It's like they're looking right through you. Their eyes don't look like they're as focused."

There's a big difference between how such situations get handled at the high school and professional levels, though, he says. Prep players' immature brains are at much more risk from the jolting and shaking they get on the field, and coaches now must take them off the field if there is any suspicion at all of a concussion. The kids can not return to play until cleared by a doctor, which can take anywhere from a day to weeks.

The NFL also now forbids a player who suffers a concussion from returning to play without clearance from medical experts not on the team. But there's a catch: it is up to the players themselves, and their trainers and coaches, to admit that someone has suffered a concussion, or may have suffered one. And naturally most pro athletes and teams are loathe to do so, especially during a playoff game. Fink says he would have been "shocked" if Packers staff had hauled Rogers off the field after that smack. And given how tough Rodgers is, he probably was determined to scramble back up to his feet no matter what it took. "If he gets up quickly, even if he does have some symptoms, they can quietly test him for a concussion later," Fink says. "But they almost always will tell you everything is fine. There's a lot riding on this game."

And that is their call, he says. "These guys get paid millions of dollars to make their own decisions," he says. "If they want to go out there and beat their brains out, that's OK."

He is less understanding about the media, noting that one of the announcers, Fox commentator Troy Aikman, has "distanced" himself from the issue even though he was forced to retire from quarterbacking for the Cowboys because of concussions. "The media should have at least asked about it," he says. "But they're afraid to get the NFL mad."

One reporter who hasn't worried about getting the NFL mad is New York Times reporter Alan Schwarz, who has done a bang-up job of riding herd on the issue of NFL players and concussions for years. (For some of his articles on how brain injuries in football have led to serious problems with memory, concentration, speech impediments, depression, and Alzheimer's disease click here.)

On Dec. 17, the New York Times even did a piece on Rodgers and his concussions. It was a feel-good story about how Packers veteran receiver Donald Driver managed to persuade the young quarterback to pull out of the December game against the Lions after sustaining his second concussion of the season.

According to the piece, written by Mark Viera, Driver saw the same look in Rodgers' eyes that some of us worry we saw Sunday. "I was very concerned about him," Driver said. "I kind of whispered in his ear, walked behind him during the time he was sitting on the bench and kind of told him: "This is just a game. Your life is more important than this game.' I told him I love him to death, and you've got to make the choice, but this game is not that important."

So what does the silence mean now? Maybe when it comes to the Super Bowl, the game is that important.

He did look dazed for a while after that hit. He seemed fine after the game but I thought he should have been looked at at least after the hit. Maybe he's just getting better at hiding it from the sidelines when he gets hit like that? Or, maybe he is just fine.

"Sorry doesn't put thumbs back on the hand, Marge!" Or unconcuss my quarterback. OK, maybe he did apologize, and maybe Aaron didn't get his bell rung for the third time, but where is the fine?

Rodgers was def getting clobbered early and often in the redskin game. Some people said he got the concussion on that last play and that isn't true.

To me, his performance after the concussion just seemed "off". He missed some passes that he usually makes in his sleep.

I could swear the new rules state that 3 concussions = IR for season. ANyone else remember seeing this???

I found an article about this, interesting read that they too thought the same.Vital Signs: Conspiracy of silence over possible Rodgers concussion?

No concussion. The whole offense just didnt play well in the 2nd half.

Well, lucky us Rodgers has 2 weeks to rest.

Even if he had a concussion, there's no way in hell he'd tell, or anyone would tell. It's just the way it is. Not with 2 weeks to rest, and not after what happened to Jay Cutler.

I think anyone would be jumping to conclusions if they said he sustained a concussion, because he didn't seem disturbed by it, not in the way he moved, maybe in the way he played, but he didn't get confused, or lightheaded, or anything.

When he was on the sidelines he was behaving normally. When he was celebrating, he was behaving normally.