A peek inside the blue medical tent that has become a fixture on NFL sidelines

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Jaxson Dart was getting checked for a concussion during the New York Giants’ prime-time game against Philadelphia, and Brian Daboll was running out of patience.

The coach pulled back the flap of the blue medical tent on the sideline and yelled inside to ask when his rookie quarterback’s evaluation would be done. Running back Cam Skattebo also barged in while Dart was getting examined, and the next morning, the NFL launched an investigation into how the protocol was followed.

Hours before that incident, the league pulled back the curtain — literally — for a small group of reporters to learn how game-day medical processes like concussion evaluations and emergency procedures work.

“It’s a little roomier in here than you might think,” NFL Chief Medical Officer Allen Sills said from inside the tent on Oct. 9. “Who’s usually in here? It has to be the player, the team doctor and the concussion specialist. Sometimes an athletic trainer will be here, too, but never more than those people. Never any coaches in here, never any other players in here, never anybody else in here.”

Daboll eventually apologized to the doctor at that Thursday night game for barking at him and reiterated his respect for the process, while owner John Mara — who’s on the Competition Committee — put out a statement that teams “need to allow our medical staff to execute those protocols without interference.” The fiasco underscored how much of a fixture the mysterious blue tent has become in football since it was implemented in 2017 to provide a place for players to get looked at without the prying eyes of fans watching from the stands and on television.

“The stadium is a very visually distracting stadium — all of them are,” Sills said. “I really need (the player’s) concentration and our communication, right? I don’t need him looking at the replay or wondering what the score is. We want to get through this, and I find that everybody relaxes. Now we’ve gone from being in a stadium where every move is on TV, including Trevor Lawrence picking his nose the other night, to now we can just be a doctor and a patient.”

What sends a player to the blue medical tent?

Some serious injuries — like Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers tearing the ACL in his right knee — don’t require a trip to the tent because a player needs to be carted off the field or sent directly inside because of what the league calls “no-go signs” like obvious symptoms of a concussion. When Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest during a game in Cincinnati in January 2023, independent medical personnel and doctors and trainers from the Bills and Bengals sprung into action.

“At that point, there’s no Giants, there’s no Eagles,” Sills said. “We’re all out there with a life-threatening emergency, and the teams are working together.”

For injuries that are tent-worthy, there is a step-by-step procedure. It starts by making sure the player involved can’t go rogue and avoid evaluation.

“We take the helmet before we even enter this room, so that way, if they try to run out, they can’t go on the field,” Giants assistant athletic trainer Justin Maher said.

Concussion evaluations can be done in a couple of minutes, Sills said, though the NFL doesn’t want to rush the process — much to the chagrin of players and coaches.

“It felt so long,” Dart said that night, in large part because it wasn’t his first time he was forced into the tent after scrambling and taking a big hit. “I’m tired of it, man. I’m tired of it.”

The investigation is ongoing and the league is making progress on it, executive VP of player health and safety initiatives Jeff Miller said at the fall owners meeting Tuesday in New York.

The tent is not just for concussion evaluation

The telltale sign of whether a player is getting checked for a concussion is the presence of an unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant in a red hat.

“Here’s a pro tip for you — impress your friends and family: If you see the player coming in and somebody wearing a red hat, that is a concussion evaluation,” Sills said. “Player plus a red hat, that’s always a concussion eval. Sometimes they’ll come in here and do things that aren’t concussion eval: no red hat.”

Maher, who has been working for the Giants full time for a decade, said orthopedic exams are common. The key is getting to do it quickly without having to go behind closed doors inside.

“It kind of takes away the 80,000 fans that are watching it or even the coach or a player that’s over your shoulder,” Maher said. “Things that we do in athletic training like taping an ankle or wrapping an injury that needs to be in a more private setting — gamesmanship where you tape both ankles of a player so that the other team doesn’t know which ankle’s injured. Things like that happen in here. But it’s all medical-related, so when you see this tent up, it’s medical-related.”

Except when it isn’t. Asked if the tent sometimes gets pulled up so players, coaches or staff can relieve themselves at a spot closer than the nearest restroom, Sills joked, “We will neither confirm nor deny.”

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL