The KC Star's Adam Teicher has this story which is a very interesting look inside the mind of a pro football player. Teicher tells the story of Brady Quinn receiving his concussion against the Raiders...and going back in and playing.
Quinn was hit by Phillip Wheeler when scrambling up the middle. At that point, Quinn "kind of noticed a loss of vision."
He remained in the game.
The Chiefs then punted and when Quinn came back on the field for their next possession, Quinn grabbed the wrong helmet. He returned to the sideline to grab the proper helmet.
He was sacked on the first play by Oakland's Rolando McClain, who came from Quinn's front side and should have been in Quinn's vision. But he wasn't.
"On the sack, I couldn't even see (McClain) coming off the edge," Quinn said. "I tried to play through it thinking it was going to go away. That was my fault for not being smarter. It actually got worse after that hit."
Wow. Read the whole story from Teicher. It's pretty scary.
Quinn said he tried to stay in "because it was the first opportunity for me in a while."
This demonstrates the problem with most NFL players and concussions. The NFL can set up as many protocols as they want but it will not change the fact that you have guys like Quinn, who is similar to the vast majority of NFL players in that he is not guaranteed to play another game, and who will want to play no matter what's wrong with them.
Most NFL players are playing on a game-to-game or season-to-season basis. They're not stars with multi-year contacts. They want to, despite a "loss of vision", continue playing in the hopes of reviving a career and getting to a point where they have that multi-year contract.
Quinn also said he received a concussion in the Chiefs final preseason game against the Packers. (He was not listed on the Week 1 injury report.) That's two concussions in a span of less than three months.
There are, have been and will continue to be more players who do the same thing, and they could see their post-playing lives changed forever. Let's hope Quinn escaped without any longterm damage.