Excellent article on Ridley's concussion.

[xnick5757]

read it here

A Snippet:

Ridley immediately lost consciousness due to the hit, made obvious by his body going limp, the fumble that resulted and his posture on the ground immediately following the tackle. The large amount of rotational force applied to Ridley was likely to blame.

The brain stem is particularly sensitive to rotational forces, and within the brainstem is the reticular activating system (RAS)—the part of the brain responsible for maintaining consciousness. By causing the cellular changes mentioned above, those rotational forces briefly stunned Ridley's RAS and caused him to lose consciousness.

Similar changes in the brain stem also caused Ridley's "fencing response."

When Ridley hit the ground, he held his left arm—the side of the head that was hit—straight out in front of him and right arm—the side of the head not hit—bent in toward his side for a few seconds.

However, he didn't know he was doing so. Believe it or not, his motions were actually reflexive.

and I know it is from BR, but it is very well written.


Hope he has a full recovery!

[Kucka]

Just read that quoted part of the article but man I hope no one blames Ridley for that fumble. When he went down and you watched it live it seemed like it could have been a life changing injury. Glad he'll be able to make a full recovery.

[JPBoston]

I still don't fully understand that play from a rules standpoint --- Defensive players can hit helmet-to-helmet on RB's, just not WR's immediately after the catch?

[a4anthony]

I honestly didnt care about the fumble at the time because i saw how Ridley went down. I thought that was a very very dangerous situation, I was surprised to see him walk into the locker room.

[Kucka]

I still don't fully understand that play from a rules standpoint --- Defensive players can hit helmet-to-helmet on RB's, just not WR's immediately after the catch?

I think the league cares more about the whole idea of a defenseless receiver than a RB who is looking for contact.

I only think clearly malicious hits to the head should be considered penalties (ex: Joe Mays on Schaub)

In football you're taught to get lower than your opponent while making contact. Obviously when two people attempt to get lower than one another head to head contact is inevitable.

[bigbangclock]

it was ugly,hope that it is a short term injury,it looked bad when it happened.

[elements1985]

Is it possible Stevan Ridley's fumbling problems are overstated (regular season at least)? I'm also a culprit, but I took a quick minute to look at the numbers -- 4 fumbles/season is common for top-10 runners.

Turnovers lead to losses, I get it. But fumbles, like INT's to passing, are a natural consequence of running the ball.

[Kucka]

it was ugly,hope that it is a short term injury,it looked bad when it happened.

I also hope it doesn't impact his game at all going forward. I feel like Maroney was a great runner until he hurt his shoulder and then he just lost his ability to turn the ball upfield. Hope this head injury doesn't make Ridley think twice about hitting the hole hard.

[elements1985]

I still don't fully understand that play from a rules standpoint --- Defensive players can hit helmet-to-helmet on RB's, just not WR's immediately after the catch?

The difference is receivers are 'defenseless', whereas runners are not. At least that's the rule.

[JPBoston]

The difference is receivers are 'defenseless', whereas runners are not. At least that's the rule.

Oh, I'm not arguing the merits --- I'm just legitimately confused. I didn't realize hitting RB's in the head was legal, and none of the commentators mentioned it should have been flagged, so it led me to assume it was allowed.

Now to add a layer of confusion, I see that Pollard was fined $15k for the hit... so that means it SHOULD have been flagged? (not sarcasm, I still literally don't get it). And IF it should have been flagged, how the hell did the refs miss THAT?