When the New York Giants played the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on Dec. 26, quarterback Aaron Rodgers was playing in his first game since recovering from his second concussion of the season.
Game analyst Troy Aikman of Fox, who was calling the game for his network, had little to say about Rodgers’ concussions during the broadcast. He had nothing to say about the issue of concussions, one of the hot button topics in the National Football League this year.
One would assume that the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, who suffered concussions during his 12-year playing career, might use his Fox platform to tell viewers where he stood on the issue. One would assume Aikman might want to frame the national debate about the discussion. One might expect Aikman to offer robust commentary about it, as Cris Collinsworth of NBC Sports has chosen to do this season about illegal tackling.
But in fact Aikman, who will be calling the Packers at Philadelphia Eagles playoff game for Fox on Sunday, is not at all eager to be linked to the NFL concussion conversation.
In a phone interview last week, Aikman explained why he has remained unforthcoming about the issue.
The Journal Sentinel asked him if all the reporting that has been done in recent months about concussions has him worried about his own health.
“I really don’t,” Aikman said. “But I don’t answer that without a lot of thought. The reason is I have not experienced any of the post-concussion syndrome effects that have hampered guys like Merril Hoge and Al Toon and the (former) linebacker there in New England (Ted Johnson). Those guys have talked about things that I’m not familiar with.”
Aikman contends the public has an exaggerated sense of the number of head injuries he suffered because of the position he played.
“Whenever anybody has talked about concussions, they immediately talk about me and Steve Young,” Aikman said. “I would bet you that even though people think I absorbed an inordinate number of head injuries, I’d say relative to the number of guys who have played this game, I would say that my head injuries were relatively small. You could never tell me that some of these guys who played in the ’70s and ’80s and even during my time, didn’t have more head injury than what I had. My position lent itself to people being a little bit more cautious than some of the other positions. There has certainly been a lot more attention paid to it right now.”
Aikman said he is not interested in using his standing and position to comment on the concussion issue.
“I have had a few people question why I haven’t gotten in that discussion during broadcasts,” Aikman said. “The reason I have not is two-fold. I don’t want to be the poster boy for head injury. I shouldn’t be the poster boy for head injury. I have really tried to distance myself from that. I’m 44 years old. I’m completely healthy. I have an active lifestyle. I don’t want to be looked at as one who is experiencing some of these things that other players talk about. Because I’m not. I have been asked to go talk to Congress. I declined. I have not done interviews on it. That’s number one.
“Number two, my experience with them is they are all different,” Aikman said. “And so then to try to talk about my experience and how it relates to someone who is dealing with it in today’s game, Aaron Rodgers for instance, I don’t think I’m really on top of what that guy is feeling. I’ve always tried to stay away from speculating on any type of injury anyway. You say, wow, that looks like he might have injured his knee there. But I leave it at that. I don’t go into ‘I think that’s an ACL.’ I tend to stay away from it. It’s a serious deal and I don’t answer the questions about it lightly or minimize how significant it is. That’s how I have approached it.”
Aikman was asked how many concussions he had when he played with the Cowboys.
“I had two concussions that were of major concern, what I would term very significant,” Aikman said. “As far as head injury goes, I would say all of the others were pretty minor and inconsequential.
“I had one my rookie year (1989),” Aikman said. “I was knocked out cold for 10 minutes. I had blood coming from my ear. The second was I got knocked out in the ’93 season NFC championship game against San Francisco. I got knocked out in the third quarter. I spent the night in the hospital. They asked me questions. I didn’t know what planet I was on. I still to this day have no recollection of ever having played in that game. So whenever I see footage of that game, it’s like somebody else is out there doing it.
“Those two were substantial,” Aikman said. “I’m aware of what’s been reported. Is it a concern? Well, I’d rather not have found some of the things I found. But having said that, I’m at 44 and not experienced any short-term memory loss or anything like that.”
So if you find yourself wondering, as this viewer did in the Giants at Packers telecast, why Fox’s lead NFL game analyst is pretty much silent about concussions, there it is.
