Justin Fields didn't receive medical diagnosis after big hit in Sugar Bowl

The history of medical malpractice in both college and professional football is long, deep, and really, really ugly. The NFL put Dr. Elliott Pellman, a rheumatologist who got his medical training in Guadalajara and often fudged his credentials, in charge of its Mild Traumatic Brain Injury committee for over two decades before Roger Goodell “asked” him to retire in 2016. Pellman was famous for advising concussed players to go back into games and minimizing the long-term medical effects of the game. One could argue that Pellman was able to survive in the industry for so long despite his obvious flaws; I would counter that Pellman was precisely the kind of doctor the NFL wanted.

And as historian Taylor Branch pointed out in a groundbreaking article for The Atlantic called, “The Shame of College Sports,” the NCAA invented the term “student-athlete” to avoid paying workmen’s compensation claims to injured players. Denying “amateur” players their due rights as employees gives the NCAA an out from paying them, but it also gives that particular cabal a clear path to a lack of accountability regarding how injuries are handled.

We could point to thousands of examples in either the NFL or the NCAA, but let’s go with what happened to Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Friday night. Fields had the game of his life, but the results could have been tragic. This brutal hit from Clemson linebacker James Skalski got Skalski ejected for targeting, but it apparently also got Fields back in the game without any sort of diagnosis from Ohio State’s medical staff.

So, Fields was given shots of painkillers, but he was not made aware of the risks of returning to the field. That is indeed messed up, and Ohio State’s athletic department should be called to the carpet to explain how and why this happened.

Why did Fields go back into the game anyway? It’s who he is, and it’s what he does. The same can be said of any hyper-competitive athlete.

That’s why doctors are responsible to tell players where they stand medically, and the inherent risks thereof. To deny Fields what he needs to make an informed decision about his own health is an inexcusable breach, and this should never happen, as much as it often does.

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