Tuesday's Column: Despite concussion, classy Southern California native Conrad bows out of MLS with sense of humor intact
Dressed in a black suit for his self-described wake, Chivas USA defender Jimmy Conrad bade farewell to MLS last Thursday (Photo courtesy Chivas USA).
Read about the reasons for Jimmy Conrad's retirement in today's column.
Incidentally, MLS sent me a few more details of the enhanced protocols they implemented to deal with concussions, which include:
*Outside consultation - Every team has an independent neuropsychologist who works with the team doctor and head trainer to administer tests and interpret the results.
*New testing methods - League-wide, the same battery of "paper and pencil" tests, which take about an hour to complete, now supplement the computerized baseline tests we've been using since 2003.
*Education - Dr. Echemendia, an expert in the field of sports concussions and chair of the new MLS Concussion Program Committee, presented to each of the 18 clubs and a gathering of all referees, coaches and general managers during preseason. Posters are being hung in training facilities and stadium locker rooms with concussion symptoms to watch for. The committee is working on multi-lingual and culturally-sensitive materials to help with ongoing awareness.
*Gradual Return-to-Play - Once an injured player is symptom-free at rest and deemed to be neurocognitively at or above his baseline, he can begin the gradual process of returning to activity - monitored at each step by the team physician for a re-emergence of symptoms. A player should only progress to the next step when symptom free.
*The nine-member MLS Concussion Program Committee - Includes representation from MLS administration, MLS Players Union administration, MLS players, MLS team trainers and MLS team physicians.
Incidentally, just as one local defender exits MLS another - a Torrance native - has returned to the league.
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About 100 Percent Soccer
Sportswriter Nick Green has written the 100 Percent Soccer column since 2005 for the Daily News, Daily Breeze and other Los Angeles area newspapers. The blog of the same name began in 2007. A native of England, he began writing about soccer in the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat in the stands for one in the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer and is married to a long-suffering soccer widow. Join Nick on FaceBook and follow him on Twitter.
Tough, tough way to bow out. A lot of credit should go to Taylor Twellman for being so emphatically vocal on the subject of concussion. Like he said recently on the Chicharito case, you are either concussed or you're not. No such thing as a mild concussion.
Even though the clash of heads can't be totally avoided, the equally destructive effects of thrown elbows has to be erased from the game. That responsibility falls squarely on the "elbows" of the players.
I toned down my name after the horrific challenges at the beginning of the season and now I've modified it even further hoping for a more civil game to evolve.