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ESPN Daily

Inside the NFL’s Concussion Protocol with Alex Smith

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.63.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Week 4 in the NFL saw the Bills storm back (in a literal storm) from down 20-3 to the Baltimore Ravens. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers held off rookie Bailey Zappe and the Patriots in overtime, and Patrick Mahomes casually threw 3 TDs against Tom Brady and the Bucs. But undeniably, the biggest story of NFL Week 4 actually took place on Thursday night, when the Dolphins' Tua Tagovailoa suffered a frightening head injury against the Bengals. The injury came just four days after Tua suffered what appeared to be another serious head injury in Week 3, but nonetheless was cleared by an independent neurologist to return to the game. We called up Alex Smith, who’s been through concussion protocol multiple times himself, to have an in-depth and honest conversation about how players view the NFL’s concussion protocol…and what needs to change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

The snap is down, Tyler Bass, the kick is up, the kick is good, the clock is zero, the

0:10.3

bills have won it in Baltimore, the bills came from 17 points down to beat the Baltimore

0:16.3

Ravens, unbelievable.

0:19.0

Yes, we did see the bills come back from down 20 to 3 to beat Lamar Jackson.

0:24.9

We also saw the Eagles and Jalen Hertz remind us why they are the only undefeated

0:29.9

team left standing.

0:32.0

We didn't flinch, we press a viewer, we were on waivering and how we played, nothing

0:36.6

was able to deny us.

0:38.2

And yeah, Bailey Zappy and the Patriots were unable to deny Aaron Rodgers.

0:44.3

And Patrick Mahomes did do pretty much all the Patrick Mahomes things against the

0:58.0

Bulls.

0:59.0

At the two, they faked the trap, now Mahomes scrambling to his right, holding it, holding

1:04.5

it gets off the hit, now lunging forward, now fires in late corner, at the back of the

1:09.2

zone, Client Edwards, you layer, Mahomes with the touchdown pass.

1:15.2

We were going to talk about all of that, we were really, really were.

1:20.9

But after what happened to Tua Tunga by Loa on Thursday, and after watching more than

1:26.0

half a dozen players enter the concussion protocol on Sunday alone, the topic most on

1:32.5

our minds we realized by far turned out to be the mind itself.

1:39.3

So today we go inside the concussion protocol with a quarterback who has been through it,

1:44.7

who has manipulated it several times in his own career, our own Alex Smith, who tells

1:51.1

us what we cannot see from the outside, and what should finally change.

2:01.9

I'm Pablo Torre, it's Monday, October 3rd.

...

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