On Tuesday, before the first practice of New England’s mandatory minicamp, ESPN’s Mike Reiss finally brought up the Brady concussion story with Belichick.
Below is a transcript of the Brady/concussion-related questions and the coach’s answers, via the Patriots:
Pretty typical exchange for a Belichick media session.
Belichick is correct when he says NFL teams’ medical staffs, not coaches, are primarily responsible for injury management. Former Rams coach Jeff Fisher expressed that in 2015. Panthers coach Ron Rivera last year took it personally when a reporter questioned his team’s treatment of star QB Cam Newton.
“When it comes to the (concussion) protocol stuff, I don’t know what that is,” Rivera said. “I follow what I’m told by the doctors and the trainers. It was explained to me afterwards, and after it was explained to me, I told you what was explained to me.”
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Belichick has been accused of concussion ignorance in the past. Former Patriot Ted Johnson in 2007 claimed the coach “subjected him to hard hits” while the linebacker recovered from a concussion.
Soon after Bündchen’s claims, Brady’s agent, Don Yee, released a statement saying his client was not diagnosed with a concussion last year. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell echoed that when he was asked about Brady at the NFL spring meetings in Chicago.
“He has not been diagnosed with a concussion, or was not last season,” Goodell told reporters. “This is something that’s an ongoing issue for us. We want to make sure that the proper medical care is given to every player. The responsibility is a shared responsibility for our teams, our medical professionals, the players themselves. We put in a lot of safeguards that I think are incredibly important in changing the culture, and I think that’s what we’ve done. But I think there’s still more work to be done, we’ll continue to do that.
“We do not have any records that indicate that Tom suffered any kind of concussion or head injury. But we’ll continue to work with the NFLPA to see what we can do to improve the protocols.”