Why isn't anyone talking about Brian Lewerke's (probable) concussion?

Submitted by CGordini on November 11th, 2019 at 8:42 PM

tl;dr: Why has no one brought up https://twitter.com/TheyCallMeSnail/status/1193319972388376578 with the fervor of Shane Morris's incident?

In 2014, Michigan's Brady Hoke came under immense flak from both the fanbase of Michigan, and all of college football, for his handling of Shane Morris in the Minnesota game. After the incident, during the weekly press conference, Brady Hoke deferred to an upcoming medical statement with regards to Shane's health. People waited all day for such a report. Eventually, there was a early morning (1AM) press release (1) (2).

The responses to this were by and large negative; alumni and fans alike felt that then-athletic director Dave Brandon was attempting to sweep the entire incident under the rug. This lead to an on-campus rally to fire Dave Brandon (full disclosure: yup, that's me, being interviewed), and an active petition for the same. This did eventually lead to Dave Brandon's resignation, and eventually, Brady Hoke's firing.

It seemed something that the college football world could unite over: improper medical overlook putting a young player at risk is unacceptable. In fact, it caused an immediate change in policy at U of M in particular; the mentality shift towards better player medical care and awareness was further seen with Michigan QB Wilton Speight's injury versus Purdue in 2017.

So, let's get down to brass tacks here: there is not a single post on /r/CFB since the post-game thread on Saturday discussing Michigan State's handling of Brian Lewerke. The closest is discussing within the "Respekt Thread", in which it's revealed that Lewerke played the next down after the above Twitter-linked play, and threw an INT.

Is this because football fans overall care less about player safety than they did during Morris' time?

Is it because Michigan was an easy target due to general dislike from other fanbases, whereas Michigan State is not?

Is it because Michigan State fans do not want to host a discussion on how they handle player safety?

At the very least, we should be asking how this was allowed to happen, what will be done about it, and why Michigan State isn't talking about it.

POST-NOTE: I originally posted this as a write-up on /r/CFB. It was immediately removed. I'm looking into why.

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Drew Henson's Backup

November 11th, 2019 at 8:48 PM ^

IBD?

I don’t know why it’s going to be deleted but evidently that’s what keeps happening to these Lewerkuncussion* threads.

*probable mild

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Sambojangles

November 11th, 2019 at 8:56 PM ^

I can see an argument for not allowing speculative discussions of player health, particularly with concussions. I don't think it's a good argument and people will have the discussion anyway, but at least I would understand where the moderators are coming from, should they choose to make that standard. 

Still, I am a little surprised no one is talking about it, especially since (a) it was at the most visible part of the game and (b) led directly to a pick-six. 

IIRC, Lewerke did come back in and go down the field on a field goal drive right after the pick, so maybe everyone is giving the coaches and doctors the benefit of the doubt that he was not concussed. However, there is no medical nor coaching staff in the country who deserves that benefit, least of all MSU. 

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reshp1

November 11th, 2019 at 10:13 PM ^

Did you actually watch the play in question? He went limp for a second, dropping the ball after scrambling. Then he was on his hands and knees for a while. One of his lineman had time to check on him and wave over for med staff. Lewerke then slowly gets up and jogs back to the huddle. This was 100% malpractice. 

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