Transcript

I didn't feel like the hit was big.

When I watched it on tape it wasn't a huge hit.

I didn't black out.

Felt a little woozy when I stood up,

but I literally could not remember

Cole Beasley scored a touchdown on me earlier in the game

and I had no clue.

I saw the replay and I'm like, when did that happen?

That's what I grew up on is

oh, you got dazed or you just got your bell rung

when in all actuality it's like, no,

your brain just pretty much shut your body off,

and now it has to restart.

Gotta find that line, like, hey,

if it's a concussion get off.

If it's a potential concussion, get off?

I mean, if a professional won't take himself out of the game

how do you expect a kid to take himself out of the game?

(audience cheers on television)

The stuff that I know now, I wish I knew back then

because I would have played different back then.

Cause when guys get a concussion in the NFL,

you see it, like, and you hear it.

It's visual, so it's up and close.

That needed to be a wake-up call to you

because you need to see that, oh, man,

this guy just got hurt and he's done forever.

I remember a tackling drill where

as a kid I'm learning how to play

and I'm going against someone who's way bigger than me,

he runs me over and then the coach is yelling at me

like, do you want to go again?

In that instance, I remember like, okay,

I either have to cower down and kinda look like I'm afraid

or I gotta kinda psych myself up into doing this over again.

I would never tell a kid to go out there on the field

if you're hurt cause I have a son

and I don't want him to go out there if he hurt.

I get that you could have a star receiver

that's a game changer get rocked

and you're like, hey man, you okay, get back in the game.

But at the same time, if that's your boy,

if that's your brother, man, go get looked at real quick.

A lot of times I've had to tell on my own teammates

that I think they have a concussion

and almost every time I've done it, they have.

And I don't think any of my teammates has ever been

upset with me for doing it.

It definitely come from the coaches and parents.

You have coaches that still are telling kids

to just go out there and hit.

Just knock him out.

I've seen adults come down and say, hey, man up

or my son needs to man up or he's whatever he is.

Who instilled in us this idea of being man enough?

What rationalizes us when we're younger to, like,

hey you need to man up?

I'm man enough to know that I can't go out there

and hurt my team by knowing that I'm concussed or I'm hurt.

I'm man enough to know that I won't put myself

in a situation to further hurt myself if I'm already hurt.

I'm man enough to know that, if you're my family

then you're going to support me regardless.

Especially, if I'm hurt, you should support me even more.

(soft music)