Detroit Lions Dorin Dickerson decided to play through a concussion
Detroit Lions wide receiver Dorin Dickerson (82) runs with the ball during the second quarter of a NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
Detroit Lions backup tight end Dorin Dickerson dropped a pass and committed a holding penalty early in the overtime period of the team’s disappointing 23-20 loss to the New York Giants, and he never played after those two mishaps. He wasn’t benched for those two mistakes, but he stopped playing because he finally reported a concussion to the Lions.
According to ESPN NFL Nation’s Michael Rothstein, Dickerson suffered a concussion in the fourth quarter of yesterday’s game, and he says that he thinks it was on a special teams play. But Dickerson kept on playing, and he downplayed the injury as a “little” concussion (c’mon man, no concussion is “little”) when talking to reporters.
He also added this interesting nugget, “I mean, honestly, probably, after we leave here, I probably won’t remember talking to you guys. I’m not trying to make excuses. I’m just telling the truth. I thought I had a pretty good game up until that play.”
Dickerson’s decision to play on instead of reporting the concussion and going through the proper protocol shows that one issue with concussions is that certain players will knowingly risk their own health in order to keep on playing. This is nearly impossible to mandate, and Dickerson isn’t the only player who has done this. At least he reported the concussion later on, and it’s possible he didn’t know how severe the head injury was until he committed those two gaffes in overtime.
Hopefully Dickerson can recover from this latest concussion without any issues, especially since he stated that he’s suffered three in his career thus far.