Jaelan Phillips – October 3, 2022
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Monday, October 3, 2022
LB Jaelan Phillips
(So as a person who has had concussions, I know it’s hard to deal with. I guess one change that looks like is going to happen from what happened the last couple of weeks is that the union and the league, reportedly, according to the league’s website, are going to agree that if a player exhibits motor instability, as QB Tua Tagovailoa did, that player won’t be allowed back in the game. Just in general – not talking about Tua’s case – in general, do you think that that’s a good thing, that even if a doctor doesn’t know that it’s a head injury, if a player looks unstable, don’t let him back in the game? That seems to be the big change that’s going to happen from all this?) – “Yeah. I mean, I think that that’s fair. I think it’s always better to be overcautious when it comes to especially head injuries. But I also think that you got to take the players and training staff and doctors’ words for it. So it’s obviously a complicated situation. But I think that the league and the PA doing everything they can to keep us safe is is probably in the best interest, for sure.”
(These past seven or 10 days, have they kind of brought back unpleasant memories?) – “No, not really. To be honest, I mean that seems like a lifetime ago for me when I had those issues. But I definitely sympathize with Tua and just hope the best for him. You never want to see your teammate, your brother. hurting like that.”
(What’s the road back from a concussion? I’ve never had one. What is it like to come back?) – “It varies for everybody. Some people I’ve seen – there’s different types of symptoms that people get. Some people are sensitive to light and sound. Some people get really nauseous and dizzy. So for me personally, I always recovered like really fast – maybe like a week tops, or two weeks tops. But yeah, everybody – that really goes with every injury, not just concussions. It really just depends on each person and how they recover from certain things.”
(How do you balance – this is a broader question, but obviously you had to deal with this in the past. Knowing that this is a violent game and this unfortunately could be part of the game. Then also what you just said that there are things in place trying to make the game safer. As a player, how do you kind of balance that, knowing the risk involved?) – “I mean it’s an assumed risk. It’s obviously something that is prevalent in the game, not just with head injuries, but just injuries all around. I think that’s kind of what we sign up for. Obviously you never wish that upon anybody and you surely don’t wish it upon yourself, so we try to do everything we can from a preparation standpoint, from how we take care of our bodies, how we play the game, rules that are in place in the game to try to protect everybody. But ultimately, it happens. And so at that point, you just pray for a speedy recovery. But I feel like that’s what we signed up for playing this game. It’s a violent game. We all know that. We wouldn’t play it if we didn’t know that. We’re compensated well for it. Ultimately, health is the most important thing, and longevity. So I think that especially with head injuries, you’ve got to be cautious with that. But at the same time, people do recover from those types of things.”
(Do you think players are more willing? Or do they more frequently push through a head injury, as opposed to like maybe a knee injury? Like getting your bell rung, are you more likely to go back into the game or try to go back into the game as opposed to a knee?) – “It really all depends. We’re competitors and we love this game and we want to be out there for our teammates, for our families, for the fans, for everybody. So it’s a sliding scale. It’s not black and white when it comes to injuries at all. Sometimes you might try to play through something, you might get your bell rung, you might get a stinger or you might get a knee injury or something like that. And if you’re able to perform, you always want to perform. I mean that’s just the nature of the game that we play. And so I don’t know if – it just depends. Like if you get hit in the head and you’re extremely dizzy and out of it, obviously you’re not going to get back in the game, whether you want to or not. I think sometimes with like a lower extremity injury or something like that, where it’s painful but you can play through it and not have any severe consequences if you have to have a reoccurring injury, then you might be more likely to try to play through it. But ultimately, it just depends on the severity of the injury and depends on the person, the situation and all of that.”
(What happened on Thursday I think was really scary for anyone who watched the game. Obviously you guys were right there on the sideline. That’s your teammate, your brother. Do you guys as a group kind of band together in times like these when it’s scary for anyone?) – “Yeah, 100 percent. I think you saw us being on the field and all surrounding Tua after he was down. I mean that just kind of goes to show the type of guys that we have on this team. But I think it’s important to band together and be able to recover after that because there was still a game to play after that situation. We had a whole other half to play. So that’s always tough. But at the end of the day, you have to have a short-term memory and just focus on the task at hand. And then, after the game, obviously we were checking to see if Tua (Tagovailoa) was alright. I think that we did a good job as a team banding together and sticking together, obviously, when one of our brothers is down.”
(How has Head Coach Mike McDaniel helped you guys do that the last few days or going into the start of this week?) – “Yeah, I mean, he just reminds us of the mission. Ultimately, we take this thing day-by-day and we try to be as present as possible. We’re not worried about the future and not worried about the past. Obviously it was a frustrating loss, but we’ve already moved on from that. So we take the coaching points, take the adjustments and we gear forward to next week.”
(The weekend off for you, you were able to kind of disconnect from everything like the QB Tua Tagovailoa injury and the loss. How do you feel now going into this week?) – “I feel fresh and prepared. Yeah, it was nice to have a little mini-bye definitely for our bodies, especially after a short turnaround like that. It was definitely good to kind of just get away from it but we’re definitely back in it now.”
