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‘You can’t replace a brain’: Ben Roethlisberger urges players to self-report concussions

May 22, 2017 at 11:11 a.m. EDT
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger throws a pass during a game last season. (Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

Late in the fourth quarter of a close game at Seattle in November 2015, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger told his team’s medical staff that he was having issues with his peripheral vision after taking a hit to the head. Roethlisberger went to the locker room for an exam, was diagnosed with a concussion and did not return in the Steelers’ eventual 39-30 loss. With recent attention on players’ willingness to hide concussions from their teams, Roethlisberger remains happy with his decision to self-report his injury.

“I’m proud of it,” Roethlisberger recently told The MMQB’s Peter King. “I have been just like Drew [Brees] where I haven’t reported things before either. Probably everybody who has ever played the game of football hasn’t reported an injury. For me it wasn’t about an injury — I’ve played through many injuries — but when you talk about your head, that is a different ball game.”

Tom Brady’s agent contradicts his wife, says Patriots QB was never diagnosed with concussion in 2016

Brees, the New Orleans Saints’ quarterback, told King last year that he probably wouldn’t self-report a concussion. During an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show” last week, Brees told a story about the time he was diagnosed with a concussion while with the Chargers in 2004.

“I knew that something was not right,” he said. “I knew that I was concussed. But I didn’t take myself out of the game. I mean, I stayed in the game and played as long as I could until finally a coach pulled me aside and was like, ‘I’m looking out for you here, and you’re not gonna play anymore.’ ”

Big Ben sees a problem with that thinking.

“You can replace a lot of body parts, but you can’t replace a brain,” Roethlisberger told King. “You see the effects of it from past players, players who have taken their lives, the CTE, all that stuff and, you know, I’m thinking about my family and long term. I love this game and I love my brothers that I play football with, and I would encourage any player who has an issue with their brain to just report it properly. … We are blessed to play this game but we also have a life to live.”

Roethlisberger’s comments to King and Brees’s comments to Patrick come in the wake of Gisele Bündchen telling “CBS This Morning” last Wednesday that her husband, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, “has concussions pretty much,” including one last season. Brady was never listed as having a concussion on the Patriots’ injury report and the NFL issued a statement that “there are no records that indicate that Mr. Brady suffered a head injury or concussion.” On Friday, Brady’s agent, Don Yee, contradicted Bündchen.

“Tom was not diagnosed with a concussion last year,” Yee said via ESPN’s Adam Schefter. “Many of the protocols and safeguards still are evolving, and it’s obviously a good thing the organization and everyone close to him is vigilant and always looking out for his health.”