MSU investigates response to Alante Brown injury, updates protocols
The Michigan State football coaching staff made a mistake Friday night when they sent senior wide receiver Alante Brown back into the game following his first quarter injury. That much is clear. It also appears that the Spartan medical team has now made adjustments to their protocols to use all available tools at their disposal to avoid a similar situation in the future.
Let’s dive into what happened, why it happened, how Michigan State handled it, and why MSU leadership says it won’t happen again.
Following Friday night’s football game against Central Michigan, MSU’s Director of Athletics Alan Haller requested Dr. Jeff Kovan – MSU’s Director of Athletic Medicine (who is not part of the on-site medical staff during football games) – conduct a full evaluation of the events surrounding Brown’s injury.
For Michigan State to share this amount of detail on the medical conditions of a student-athlete and the treatment he received, the student-athlete himself would have to sign off on it. Brown has agreed to allow this information to be publicly shared.
When Brown went down on the opening kickoff of Michigan State’s season-opening game against Central Michigan and was eventually immobilized and carted off the field, the Spartan Stadium crowd – and the national television audience watching on TV – was glad to see him moving his extremities and giving the thumbs up as he left the field.
Everyone watching the game on TV and following along on social media saw the scary nature of the collision that sent Brown to the grass.
The medical team – nor, apparently, the coaching staff – did not see the replay until after they had already cleared Brown to return to the game. And he did so, returning a kickoff following Central Michigan’s sole touchdown of the game, late in the second quarter. People in the stands and people watching on TV were obviously stunned to see it.
After Kovan’s investigation into the issue was finalized Thursday, less than a week after the incident occurred, Michigan State issued clarification on how the events transpired that resulted in Brown getting back out on the field.
As has been the case for a while now, medical student-athlete availability decisions are made independently of Michigan State Athletics. Kovan is part of the medical team that makes these types of decisions for the university and he was the one Haller asked to perform the investigation into the events around Brown’s injury, subsequent return, and eventual medical removal.
“I analyzed the actions and verbal statements from all involved members of the sports medicine staff to ensure accuracy and consistency,” Kovan said in a statement released by MSU. “Initial on-field evaluation of Brown’s injury included a head and neck screen, which prompted spine boarding and precautionary removal to the tunnel. Per all reports, none of the Athletic training staff or physician medical staff had direct vision of the injury when it occurred. Evaluation in the tunnel, while still on the spine board, was negative relative to a neck injury, neurological injury, or concussion. Subsequent X-rays were performed in the stadium and were also negative. Repeat examination (for neck injury, neurological injury and concussion) after X-ray continued to be negative. Based on interviews, an isolated replay of the injury was not part of initial sideline video review.”
To be clear, by all accounts, the medical team did not see the injury in real time, nor did they watch the replay until halftime of the game. They obviously ran Brown through all of the appropriate tests and cleared him to return to the sideline for the remainder of the protocols that he needed to pass before he returned to the game.
“Based on the negative clinical examination and X-ray, activity progression occurred on an exercise bike on the sideline and Brown remained asymptomatic and therefore was allowed to return to play,” Kovan said in his report. “At halftime, an additional detailed neurological and concussion examination remained negative. At that time, sports medicine staff were able to view the isolated television copy replay of the initial injury. Based on what was viewed, a decision was made to withhold Brown from further play despite continuing to have normal examination for precautionary reasons. The following morning, Brown displayed mild concussive symptoms on his repeat examinations. He’s currently doing well and progressing through concussion protocol.”
According to the CDC, it is not abnormal for symptoms to show up in an injured player after initially passing concussion protocol: “Some mild traumatic brain injury and concussion symptoms may appear right away, while others may not appear for hours or days after the injury.”
As for MSU, Kovan indicated that the medical teams at sporting events will update their processes to incorporate video replays into their treatment protocols.
“Moving forward, we will expand our use of video access as a tool to assist our healthcare providers in evaluating injuries and potential return to play,” Kovan said.
All of that being said, it is still inexcusable that the Spartan coaching staff put Brown back into the game following his injury. If the coaches didn’t see the replay, it's fair to ask why they didn't. If they did see the replay, they shouldn’t have even considered putting him back in. If a player has ever been carted off the field and returned to a game (let alone the same half), I’m not aware of it. We’ve all lived through the long delays while players and coaches gather around and watch their teammate get strapped to a board and taken off the field. It’s emotional for everyone involved. I can't imagine a coach would see that and still agree to put the player back out there.
Now, no serious person believes that head coach Mel Tucker was heavy-handed, pushing his player to return too quickly. There is no evidence that Tucker was looking to rush Brown back to gain an advantage in the game. Same goes with the medical staff. Without having seen the injury live, they simply went through the protocols they have been trained to follow. No one on the medical team was looking to rush Brown through the examinations to gain an advantage on kickoff returns against Central Michigan. No member of the coaching staff was exerting influence on the medical team to get Brown back.
In fact, Tucker was again asked about the Brown situation on Monday, and he made it clear that the decision for Brown to return to the game was not his to make.
“For me, all of those decisions are all medical," Tucker said. "If a guy plays, if he doesn’t play. If he practices, he doesn’t practice, it’s all medical. I don’t have anything to do with those. If they tell me a guy’s up and he can go, then he’ll play. If they tell me he’s down, then he’s out.”
But just because no one intentionally did the wrong thing, doesn’t mean that the wrong thing wasn’t done.
If Tucker (or a member of his coaching staff) was told that Brown was cleared to play, it should have been met with an incredulous response. Sure, you should trust your medical team, but why in the world would you not simply turn to a different player to return the kickoff and evaluate the circumstances around the injured player later? Even if the coaching staff didn’t see the replay, it seems impossible that someone would have watched their player get taken out on a stretcher and then about an hour later send him on to the field.
It seems reasonable to assume that some member of the staff, at some point in that hour, could have sought out a replay and relayed the concerning aspect of the injury. Someone, at some point could have (should have) done so. MSU has the capability to watch video replays on the sideline. It seems obvious that nobody on the sideline did so. Why didn’t they?
AD Haller apparently had the same questions we all had, and he turned to a member of the university medical team who was not involved in the process to look into it for him and recommend changes that could be implemented for the health of the student-athlete. This is to be commended. Apparently Brown is going to be fine, and there will not be any long-term health impacts. It also appears that Haller acted quickly (as is his modus operandi), initiated an investigation, and implemented changes to the medical review process within a week of the incident. This is positive as well.
To sum it all up, the medical team should have taken the time to watch a replay of the incident before clearing Brown to return to the game. It should have been part of the protocol. I'm glad that it will be now. Also, the coaching staff erred when they put Brown back in the game, even if they didn’t have any ill intent. It's vital that the university personnel in charge of the health of these student-athletes err on the side of health and safety and not make this type of mistake again.