Toews Says He's Recovered From Concussion; Urlacher Restates He Would Lie About Concussions

By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 15, 2012 11:00PM

With the concussion suffered by Bears quarterback Jay Cutler against Houston Sunday night still fresh in the minds of Bears fans and media (which are really one in the same in Chicago), two of the city’s highest profile athletes spoke out on the subject today.

Cutler’s teammate Brian Urlacher spoke to the Bears’ press pool today and once again said he would lie about having a concussion if it meant missing extended playing time. Urlacher said he was more concerned about his ailing knees than head trauma. Never mind that injuries sustained to either while playing football could cripple him, or that brain trauma could lead to an early death. Urlacher’s comments, which he first stated on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel in January, still reek of the dissonance between what we know now about chronic head trauma and professional athletes willingness to ignore it in the short term. This is a culture change that won’t happen overnight. And it certainly won't happen when Urlacher takes a "do as I say, not as I do" approach to head trauma.

Then there’s Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews, who said the NHL lockout has helped him recover more fully from the February concussion that put his season in jeopardy.

Well, that and some possible quack therapy. Toews admitted he wasn’t fully recovered from the concussion when rejoined the team for the Stanley Cup playoffs and spent time recently undergoing chiropractic neurology work at the Carrick Institute of Life University in Marietta, Ga., where Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby has gone to recover from his concussions. “I'm not saying there were any symptoms — I felt 100 percent,” Toews said.

Dr. Frederick "Ted" Carrick, the therapy's major proponent, believes everyone has a "blind spot" in the eye that can be treated with chiropractic treatments—a theory that's critics believe is nothing more than a placebo, at best.

What no one asked Toews is if he believed the concussion may have had something to do with his February car crash, which happened shortly after the concussion.