49ers should let Smith fully heal

Recommended Video:

Forget all this nonsense about the "hot hand" or anything else regarding performance. The 49ers should start Colin Kaepernick against New Orleans on Sunday because somebody, somewhere, has to make the smart call about players' health.

That means sitting Alex Smith for another week and giving old-school bravado its proper burial.

Post-concussion syndrome is the most relevant issue in the NFL today. Lawsuits are pending, players continue to take massive risks, and the damaging evidence is only beginning to mount. Sometime next year, former Chronicle writer Mark Fainaru-Wada and his Pulitzer Prize-winning brother, Steve Fainaru, will publish a book on the relationship between pro football and brain injuries - and by all accounts, its impact will be ground-breaking and explosive.

The 49ers followed concussion protocol in benching Smith for Monday night's game against Chicago, and that was a step toward enlightenment. Where does it say he's completely healed just six days later? What physician in the working-man's sector would recommend a risky, post-concussion gamble? Why not lean toward a full recovery instead of saying, "Go ahead, get back out there and subject yourself to a rampaging linebacker who'd like to put you in the hospital."

There's plenty of risk on the football side. If Kaepernick stages a personal Mardi Gras in New Orleans and builds his case, the dreaded "quarterback controversy" will shift into the highest gear. Nobody wants that, and nobody in the 49ers' organization wants to see Smith lose his job in this manner. Quarterbacks are supposed to play their way out of favor, and Smith has done nothing of the sort.

Worse yet, Smith's image would be damaged. Not among people with a trace of good sense, but in NFL circles where the standards of toughness were chiseled in stone by Chuck Bednarik, Dick Butkus and countless other tough guys who played with distinction through broken limbs and rattled brains. As much as pro football's lofty standard was built on elegance (Gale Sayers, Lance Alworth, Jerry Rice), the foundation of its popularity is toughness - something to which every cop, fireman and construction worker can relate.

Make the safety call on Smith, and you can almost hear the snickering: "Aw, poor Alex. He has to sit out another week because his little head hurts." And that's what has to change in the NFL: not the tough-guy approach that forged so many success stories - Jim Harbaugh's, for certain - but the notion of being crazed, reckless and completely out of your mind if there's a victory at stake. Many decades will pass until the league thinks this way as a whole. But the initial steps must be taken right now.

Let's face it, if we were talking about the Chicago Bears, playing Jay Cutler ahead of Jason Campbell with the team in alarming descent, common sense would go right out the window. "You ready, Jay? Because you'd better be. We're not real thrilled about watching the playoffs from home."

The 49ers not only can afford to make an intelligent, long-term call, they need to learn more about Kaepernick. It doesn't get more revealing than a road game, a crowd raising indoor hell, and an opposing coach staff with a week to prepare for his wide-ranging skills.

Ask yourself these questions, Kaepernick vs. Smith: Who has the stronger arm? More field presence? The better chance to get six points in the red zone? The ability to turn a broken play into gold? More mobility? More potential to get every receiver, particularly Vernon Davis and Randy Moss, fully involved?

I doubt if you wavered once. But there are deeper issues, such as experience and track record and franchise stability. That's how this thing gets so complicated, and if Kaepernick starts proving his worth beyond all doubt - wow, what a mess.

It's a short-term mess. The 49ers need to think hard about Alex Smith playing this game for years, and being a healthy, clear-thinking individual in retirement. Just once, it would be nice to see the NFL look a bit past Sunday.