Tedy Bruschi Believes Teams Shouldn’t Employ Their Own Doctors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItMH7TSyfkw
By: Isaac Moore
NEW YORK CITY – Some players just have it. They’re born with a special ability that can carry them throughout their career. Others, however, must work extra hard just to make the team. Former Patriots player Tedy Bruschi and Broncos wide receiver Wes Welker share this trait.
Bruschi and Welker play with a different mentality than most NFL players. They were never given anything over the course of their careers – they had to earn their place in the NFL. As a result, both players developed a competitive drive that is unmatched.
“Men love to play this game,” said Bruschi. “You’ve got to be tough as a player and you want that from all of your players. You want your players to come back and play after suffering an injury or a concussion.”
On Tuesday, Welker said he would want to play in the Super Bowl even if he had suffered a concussion. However, due to rule changes the NFL has made, he wouldn’t be allowed to play. The league has put an emphasis on protecting it’s players, specifically with regard to head injuries. If a player is displaying concussion symptoms, he is not allowed to return to the game and must pass a series of tests before he can be cleared to play again. Every week, team physicians fight with players like Welker and Bruschi because they never want to be taken off the field.
“If it’s a playoff game and a player suffers a head injury early in the game, that player is always going to want to come back and play,” said Bruschi.
On February 16, 2005 the former Patriots linebacker suffered a stroke and was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital. His body was in partial paralysis forcing him to spend several months rehabilitating his body. Bruschi initially announced that he was planning to sit the 2005 season, but just nine months later he was back on the field.
“It puts more of an emphasis on the doctors and the training staff,” said Bruschi on the players’ safety. “I want to play, if I’m not right, you have to stop me.”
Doctors in the NFL are employed by each team and according to Bruschi, that’s a problem. He says that doctors should be hired independently so that they can make the decisions that are best for the players.
“Team doctors shouldn’t be employed by the teams. They should be employed individually so that they don’t have that threat of getting fired,” says Bruschi.
Doctors are the only ones keeping players from living a life of pain after retirement. Bruschi says that if the NFL is serious about player safety, they will eliminate team doctors and begin to hire independent medical staffs. But according to the President of the NFL Physicians Society, the NFL is not worried about doctors making biased diagnoses.
“There’s been no bias to my knowledge, at least not in the fourteen years I’ve taken care of the St. Louis Rams, where there’s been any sort of pressure from the team – either the ownership, the general manager, the team president, or the coach – to get the player back on the field,” said Dr. Matthew Matava during a press conference on Thursday.
Matava acknowledged that he has heard other people voice Bruschi’s concern, but he believes that the doctor-patient relationship wouldn’t change if the doctors were independently employed. Matava says that controversies such as medical diagnoses, return to play decisions, and surgery decisions will come up, no matter who is paying the physician’s salary.