The Redskins Released Jordan Reed Today And Man Do I Hope He Retires And Finds Happiness Outside Of Football
It sucks to see the Redskins release Jordan Reed but at with his contract and questionable health, they had no other choice. When healthy Jordan Reed was one of the best, if not THE best, tight end in football. And I'm not just saying that, that's what opposing coaches and players say. Unfortunately, he had an extremely hard time staying on the field between concussions, broken bones, pulled muscles, and just a buffet of health issues over the years. The concussions are most notable because he has 7 on record and just got out of league-mandated concussion protocol yesterday after a hit to the head in September. That's how bad his symptoms were. And that's not the first time he's dealt with terrible symptoms, look at these quotes from after concussion number 3:
After 3 he had severe headaches, nausea, and the inability to sleep for months. And now he's at 7 that have been documented, but you have to tack in a few because with the Redskins training staff you never know anymore.
But despite all of that, apparently he still wants to play football next season. That just...I don't know man. At some point does someone have to step in and be like "dude, you've had 7 concussions, coaching is pretty cool too". Is it someone else's responsibility to stop him from playing? I feel it's kind of weird there's no NFL mandate about the number of prior concussions you're allowed to still play with, but maybe that's to prevent players from hiding them. Such a shitty situation. We keep learning how terrible brain injuries are in football players and yet some team is still going to sign Jordan Reed. I just want to protect him! Retire and find happiness elsewhere, my dude. Coaching, teaching, arts and crafts, I mean Dave needs a new Frankie, maybe he can edit pizza reviews? I don't know. Anything would be better than seeing his brains get turned into soup.
My biggest worry is Jordan will become a case study, a prime example of the NFL failing it's players. That we'll look back and be like "how the fuck did the NFL allow him to sign with another team?". That's obviously worst case scenario, but it's extremely possible.
So I hope he reflects, takes some time, thinks about how terrible the last 6 months have been, and decides he had a pretty sweet career, is beloved in DC, and should hang them up. You hate to tell someone to walk away from their dream, but I think all of us are petrified of what the next concussion could do to him. And I hope he feels the same way.