For tight end Chris Brunemann, the pressure came because only three games were left.
A Northern Iowa player clocked Brunemann, a spring graduate who also played special teams, as Western returned a kickoff during a game in the 2006 season.
The Panther player’s helmet connected with Brunemann’s at the earhole.
“I just dropped,” he said. “All I remember after that is I was laying on my stomach, face in the turf.”
Everything slowed after that, “like a video game,” he said.
Trainers ran out, took him to the sidelines and diagnosed him with a concussion.
Brunemann had to be awakened every hour that first night, a precaution Head Athletic Trainer Bill Edwards said usually takes when a player loses consciousness.
Exercise caused Brunemann to get headaches.
Edwards wouldn’t let Brunemann practice or start the next game, and Brunemann said he was lucky to be cleared for his last game.
Still, Brunemann tried to practice immediately.
“I wasn’t going to let an injury get in the way of 15 years of football,” he said.
For many players, the desire and pressure to play can cloud judgment. It can cause them to play through injuries without reporting them. It makes diagnoses and treatment difficult.
The problem is severe with concussions because many times symptoms aren’t visible to anyone but the player, said Chris Nowinski, an advocate of concussion research and treatment reform.
Only about one in 10 concussions are diagnosed, often because they go unreported, according to studies Nowinski cites in his book, “Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis,” which was released this year.
Teammates reported a concussed player’s injury in several of the diagnosed cases this season, Edwards said.
Head coach David Elson agreed.
“When a player notices someone is off, it’s that player’s obligation to that player and the team to let someone know,” he said.
Teammates often are most capable of knowing if a fellow player is injured because they are familiar with each other’s behavior on and off the field.
Brunemann agreed.
“If you’ve got someone in the huddle, and they’re looking bug-eyed as sh– or are calling plays wrong or not blocking, you know something is up,” he said.
But Brunemann also agreed about the invisible nature of the injury.
“You could be out there and take a hit and get the mildest concussion possible and nobody would know it,” he said. “The coaches wouldn’t know it. Doc wouldn’t know it, because you might not show it.”
Getting players to report concussions is one of the greatest challenges teams face, Nowinski wrote.
Awareness is the key, experts and Western officials said.
“I think the more we talk about it, the more we think about it, the more it’s in the newspaper, the more players are likely to report them,” team physician Craig Beard said. “If not, their teammates are more likely to report it for them.”
Elson said Edwards shows players a video on concussion awareness at the beginning of the season. At the beginning of summer camp, Edwards stressed proper tackling form and the importance of reporting concussions, recalled Louisville senior Lauren Edsten, one of 12 student trainers.
Edwards said he constantly reiterates the importance of coming forward at the first sign of any injury.
Elson said he does this, too.
“We preach all the time to these guys: If there’s the slightest thing wrong, the best thing to do for the team is tell the trainers and let them diagnose it and set you on a treatment path and get you back out there.”
A strong trainer-player relationship also is important, experts say. A good relationship encourages player honesty, and familiarity with players’ behavior helps trainers spot when a player is dishonest or hiding symptoms.
That sort of relationship is present at Western, said players and officials.
Elson described the “genuine care” Edwards has for athletes.
However, Edwards said many players still hide injuries.
“You talk about the rest of your life, and that doesn’t mean a lot to 18-to-21-year-olds sometimes,” Edwards said.
Brunemann talked about some of the pressures that lead players to keep injuries secret: letting down teammates, losing a starting spot and wanting to win.
A college football season consists of about 12 games – fewer than most other sports – an amount that can make missing one game a deterrent for players to report, said Gary Solomon, the team neuropsychologist for the Nashville Predators and consulting neuropsychologist for the Tennessee Titans.
Ironically, it’s the toughest games in which starting players are most likely get hurt, and when they feel the most pressure to play because they are the most needed, Brunemann and some experts said.
Still, Solomon said, “it’s better to miss one game than the rest of the season.”
Before his concussion, Brunemann never sat out a game. He never had a diagnosed concussion.
But he did have his “bell rung” almost every game, he said.
“I’ve hit people where it’s gone completely black, where it’s gone completely white,” he said. “I’ve had my eyes go cross-eyed. It’s kind of scary.”
But like many others, he never reported the injury.
“I’d hit them, then I’d walk away from it and see black, but then I’d be fine,” Brunemann said.
Sophomore offensive lineman Cody Hughes said he’s had his bell rung, but never had a concussion, an injury he said he fears but thinks is over-dramatized.
“It’s always in the back of your head, that this might be the day it happens,” he said.
Fellow sophomore offensive lineman Lloyd Pressley said he suffered a concussion while blocking a linebacker in a summer practice. He started feeling dizzy and nauseated after practice and decided to tell a trainer against pressure to do so.
Concussions affect players differently, but even minor headaches can be an indicator and need to be reported, experts say.
The point at which players will report their head injuries varies, Pressley said. Often, it depends on whether they can play.
“If you don’t get your bell rung once a day, you’re not going hard enough,” he said. “Usually, you’ll get sick enough to know the difference.”
Use of the terms “bell rung” and “ding” are discouraged by Nowinski and other experts, who said the terms diminish an injury that could be a mild concussion, one that if played upon can lead to more severe injury.
Though common, correlating injuries to playing ability is a damaging mentality, said Nowinski, who played through concussions as a Harvard lineman.
“It can’t be that if you can play through it, you should,” he said. “It shouldn’t be the ones where you can’t see or remember that you have to sit down.
“It can’t be about how well concussions relate to you playing football.”
Looking back on the times he had his “bell rung,” Brunemann said he really could have had several minor concussions.
“You’re dealing with your head – that’s the rest of your life,” he said. “Football won’t be there for the rest of your life.”
Reach Corey Paul at news@chherald.com.
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