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Jets involved in concussion controversy again

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-28 11:45

Laveranues Coles may have caught the winning touchdown Sunday, but the Jets still find themselves dealing with the headache of concussions, wrote the New York Daily News.

While Coles helped the Jets win despite being diagnosed with a low-grade concussion last week, safety Eric Smith — who also suffered a concussion last week — was held out of the second half of the Jets' 28-24 win over the Chiefs for precautionary reasons. And this came after the Jets quietly revealed on their Web site Friday that Dr. Ken Montgomery will be making all final medical decisions instead of Dr. Elliot Pellman.

Pellman is the controversial longtime team director of medical services who used to be the chairman of the NFL's Committee on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. But he had been criticized by some experts for downplaying the effects of concussions and clearing players to play sooner than expected. Pellman and the Jets have a troubled history in dealing with concussions after Wayne Chrebet and Al Toon both saw their careers shortened by head injuries.

This past week, the sensitive subject of concussions resurfaced after the Jets revealed Coles and Smith had suffered head injuries against the Raiders. For Smith, this was his second concussion in three weeks. And for Coles, it was his third documented head injury in 22 months. Smith was cleared to practice all last week. Coles was not cleared to practice on Wednesday, but was allowed to work on Friday after passing his league-mandated examination. Eric Mangini revealed that the team also brought in an independent specialist to check out Coles and Smith.

"We have been as thorough as we could possibly be with those injuries," the head coach said. "Even after (Coles) was cleared, we brought in another specialist to reconfirm it so we added another layer into this - an independent specialist. We've gone through a process of best practices and added this independent layer to be as safe as we possibly can be."