Steve Young shares his big complaint about NFL’s concussion protocol

Steve Young on Monday shared a big complaint about the NFL’s concussion protocol.

Young was speaking on ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown” show prior to the kickoff of the Week 16 Monday night game between the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Chargers. The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback was talking in the context of Tua Tagovailoa, who entered concussion protocol a day after his team’s loss to the Packers.

Young suffered numerous concussions during his playing career and retired because of them. The ESPN analyst talked about the challenges of the pro football culture.

“We have to settle the self-advocacy,” Young began. “The whole culture of the sport is that we put ourselves at physical risk and we back each other. In that way, it creates an environment where you’re gonna play hurt. If your bell is rung a little bit, you’re going to play.”

Young pointed out how the culture of football, where players want to play, is at odds with the concussion policy, which he says is based on subjective policies.

“So the idea that we have a protocol that now with some advocacy not really available to the players that’s still subjective. So what you’re describing is someone’s supposed to be watching Tua and look into his eyes and subjectively say, ‘oh, you’re struggling.’ With these kinds of concussions — multiple now — it takes less. We know that. They’re more dangerous. And, he could still be cognitively playing and have a concussion and wake up the next day and have a terrible morning.

“It’s all part of head injury. It’s a black box for even neurologists. Because what’s going to happen in the subjective testing in the NFL and in the protocol — because it’s completely subjective amongst doctors and the players — they’re going to ask Tua ‘how do you feel?’ And Tua is going to tell them how he feels. And that’s how you decide whether he can play or not over time.”

Young’s big complaint is that the NFL uses subjective concussion testing and wants objective testing.

“Where’s the objective testing? There’s technology for objective testing. I have to scream it into the wind. Objective testing will tell you whether Tua is hurt or not. It’s available. Put it into the protocol. It’s in college. What are we doing?”

You can read the NFL’s full concussion diagnosis and management protocol here.

What Young is referring to are goggles that can track the accuracy of eye movement. The accuracy of an athlete’s eye movement post-possible concussion can be compared to their base level to determine whether the player is concussed. Young talked about this matter on the radio in October after the first Tua concussion situation.