Brian Urlacher Would Lie About A Concussion To Stay On The Field, Admits To Toradol Use

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jan 24, 2012 9:40PM

Bears fans know Brian Urlacher lives to play football. An upcoming story on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel indicates the lengths Urlacher, and other NFL players, will go to stay on the field.

The story by Andrea Kremer, set to air tonight, is about the use of the pain killer Toradol in the NFL. Urlacher's money quote used to promote the story is gaining traction among the media for Urlacher's admission that he uses the drug and for his nonchalance about it. watch.

Toradol is legal in the NFL. Players like it because it's non-addictive, acts fast and lasts an entire game. But studies have shown its use can lead to kidney failure and gastrointestinal bleeding. When Kremer tells Urlacher this, he replies with the second money quote.

“First of all we love football,” Urlacher said. “We want to be on the field as much as we can be. If we can be out there, it may be stupid, it may be dumb, call me dumb and stupid then because I want to be on the football field.”

We won't call Urlacher dumb and stupid for that. We will call him dumb and stupid for telling Kremer he would lie about a concussion in order to stay in a football game.

"If I have a concussion these days, I'm going to say something happened to my toe or knee just to get my bearings for a few plays," he told HBO, according to the Tribune. "I'm not going to sit in there and say I got a concussion. (Then) I can't go in there the rest of the game."

With what we know about head trauma these days, Urlacher should be thinking with what's left of his brain and not his balls. His thoughts on lying about a concussion are emblematic of the need for the NFL and other sports leagues to crack down on serious injuries — and a concussion is about as serious an injury as one can get.