Philadelphia Eagles’ Jason Kelce offers details on Sunday’s concussion protocol
Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce entered concussion protocol this past weekend, and he explained what happened exactly.
Sunday Night Football turned into an injury-plagued nightmare for the Philadelphia Eagles this past weekend. As they arrived in Atlanta with only a few names on the injury report, the list would quickly pile up beginning moments before the kickoff against the Atlanta Falcons.
Throughout the game, the Eagles were rotating players in and out not because they needed to make substitutions. Rather, they were forced to because of the NFL’s concussion protocol. A handful of Eagles were called to the medical tent for it, and all of them ended up returning.
After the game, Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz voiced his frustrations with it. Now, Eagles fans from all over are questioning the motives of the NFL. Why did so many players have to get checked out? And more importantly, how did Eagles’ center Jason Kelce pass?
What happened to Kelce?
As spectators, we don’t get too much information on the protocol during the game. Basically, we get told that a specific player is getting checked out because somebody upstairs saw a hit to the head that requires the player to be examined.
For Jason Kelce, his situation was a bit different. It wasn’t what the upstairs saw during a play. Instead, it was what they saw after the play. As the Eagles’ offense was supposed to come off the field in order for the special teams to come on, Kelce made his way to the sidelines.
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Except he didn’t actually go to the right sidelines. Instead, he ended up standing with a bunch of Falcons players, which was clearly a red flag. That’s when the NFL took notice and figured Kelce might have a concussion. However, that wasn’t the case. He was cleared and allowed to go back into the game, which made many question the protocol this week. For that, Kelce has answers.
Jason Kelce’s response to the concerns
Jason Kelce released a written statement on his Instagram account to explain what happened. “On the drive I ran off the field in the wrong direction, the defense did something unusual,” Kelce wrote. As he was trying to mentally process what the defensive line did on the previous play to try and figure out what he could’ve done differently, he got caught up in the moment.
“In the midst of all this running through my head, it’s fourth down. And since I am not on field goal, I exit the field in the same direction I had come on and off the field for the entire first quarter. The only problem is that the first quarter ended at the beginning of the drive, which means we were now going toward the other end zone.”
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In other words, Kelce was just simply not paying attention to where he was going while still trying to think about the previous play. He described himself as being on “auto-pilot.” Once he realized his mistake, he ran back to the Eagles’ sideline to go through his NFL-issued tests, which he passed and returned to the field. So for those wondering — Jason Kelce is absolutely fine.