Trent Green Incident

Trent Green

It was a scary site when he lay motionless on the field. It ended up looking worse than it was. The official diagnosis is a concussion and he was released from the hospital and traveled home with the team. While watching the event unfold live, I immediately thought his career was over. Coming into this season you would have to believe any blow to the head might do him in. We'll see what the rest of the season has in store for him and whether or not he is healthy enough and permitted to play. For all Dolphins fans who were saying he sucks and should be benched, that is definitely not the way for it to happen.

Travis Johnson

Travis is the Texans player whose knee delivered the hit to Greens helmet while Trent was trying to chip him. When the play was over and Green lay face down motionless on the field, Johnson stood over and taunted him, drawing a 15 yard penalty. This was a classless play that got me about as upset as the injury itself. While the game went on, I was thinking to myself that I should give him a pass because it was in the heat of the moment and he didn't really know how hurt Trent might be. I knew Johnson ought to feel terrible after seeing him stretchered off the field.

Well it turns out I was wrong. Even after the game knowing what had happened, he had some interesting comments about the incident (At this time, if you haven't heard or read about his comments you should read this article, from the Miami Herald). First of all, it was a broken play and quarterbacks don't know how to block. Also, that type of block isn't against the rules and wasn't a penalty. How else do you expect a 37 year old non athletic quarterback to block a 300+ pound lineman in stride? To say that Trent Green, a player who has shown nothing but class, had intent to injure is incorrect. Secondly, to imply that he got what he deserved is an absolute disgrace.

The Houston Texans and the NFL probably won't fine or suspend him, which is okay by me. I just hope some players or coaches pull him aside and let him know how wrong he was about this whole situation.

Update

Peter King of Sports Illustrated discusses this further in his column this morning and was able to exchange text messages with Trent. The full article is here.