October 1, 2015
EARTH CITY, Mo. — Technically, the injury timeout has existed since 2012 when the NFL decided to send two independent certified athletic trainers to every game to sit in the press box and look for potential injuries.
But while those trainers have been in NFL press boxes across the league for the past three seasons, the injury timeout had never been used. Until Sunday.
With about three minutes left in the St. Louis Rams‘ game against Pittsburgh, Steelers defensive back Antwon Blake made a tackle but looked a bit woozy after the play. Woozy, at least, in the eyes of the certified trainers watching from the press box. Per the rules, the trainers called to the field to have play stopped and give Blake a chance to be evaluated for a concussion.
The doctors cleared Blake and allowed him to return to the field but the timeout appeared to serve its purpose, at least in the eyes of Rams coach Jeff Fisher.
“That’s the first time the player went out; he came back in and finished the game,” Fisher said. “They checked him. But the observer had every reason to believe that there may have been some sort of head injury and particularly because of the way the player was on the ground. But no, I think the system works and I think it’s important. It’s good that it went in effect. The officials did a really good job with it, explaining to everybody, resetting the play clock, taking the player off and rewinding the clock.”
Fisher, who has been on the NFL’s competition committee for many years, said the idea of the game observers was discussed multiple times over the course of a couple of owners meetings. Ultimately, it was decided that it would be best to have independent physicians in place to make it work.
“The concern was that, is there anyway there may be some competitive advantage to this type of concept?” Fisher said. “The committee came up with no answers to that. We didn’t feel there’s any way it was going to be competitive because it’s an independent observer.”
From my observations, the system appeared to work well as it didn’t slow the game too much and Blake’s health was put first. That’s the right balance the league seems to be seeking in situations such as these.
By Nick Wagoner of the ESPN Sports Column
