Tony Dungy is about as mild-mannered as it gets, but the Hall of Fame head coach didn’t hold back when it came to player safety in Sunday night’s game.
Responding to a tweet from The Athletic’s Greg Auman regarding Cameron Brate’s concussion, Dungy condemned the NFL’s current protocol when it comes to head injuries.
“Broken system,” the retired coach said. “I was on the sideline very close to Brate-obvious he had his bell rung. There’s a league appointed spotter in the press box who should stop play & alert the referee. Brate shouldn’t have been allowed to return until after an evaluation. Why didn’t that happen???”
Brate collided with teammate Chris Godwin on a pass early in the game. The veteran tight end seemed noticeably dazed after the collision, but quickly got up and attempted to sub off the field.
As Auman notes, the Harvard grad was later diagnosed with a concussion and ruled out for the second half.
While it’s good that Brate was properly attended to at the break and taken out of the game, had he suffered another head injury before that it could’ve been a very different story.