Over the last several years, the NFL and NFLPA has given much more attention to player safety concerns surrounding head injuries.
This has drawn attention to the mishandling of New Orleans Saints tight end Coby Fleener's concussion against the Los Angeles Rams that eventually led to him being ruled out for the season with a brain injury. According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the NFL Players Association is still deciding whether to go through with a formal investigation of the situation.
The NFL’s position, as explained via email to PFT on Sunday, is that no policy violations occurred in connection with the failure to immediately remove Fleener from play. The NFL Players Association, however, currently is exploring whether to conduct a formal investigation.
Current procedures allow either the NFL or the NFLPA to initiate the process, which would result in each side investigating whether any violations of the protocol occurred. If the two sides disagree as to whether compliance occurred, an arbitrator would resolve the issue.
Things on this front could heat up in the coming days due to the seriousness of the situation. Fleener was in a vulnerable, and very dangerous, position on the field, not only because he wasn't in the right frame of mind to make clear and conscious decisions, but also because the long-term impact of blows to the head shortly after suffering a concussion is more severe.
The growing rate of former players being diagnosed with CTE has created a greater sense of concern from the NFLPA and the NFL. It has now become a daily discussion that may lead to there being an investigation conducted to gather a strong understanding of how to properly handle these type of situations when they arise moving forward.
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