EARTH CITY, Mo. -- For the first time since he suffered the concussion that brought NFL brain injuries back to the forefront of the national conversation, St. Louis Rams quarterback Case Keenum spoke publicly Wednesday afternoon.
The affable Keenum was his usual engaging, expansive self. This was Keenum feeling like himself again after a more-than-two-week ordeal that left him fielding questions about how he felt on an almost nonstop basis.
But most important, it was Keenum offering his side of what happened Nov. 22 in Baltimore. For those who don't recall, Keenum took a big hit from Ravens defensive lineman Timmy Jernigan as he let go of a pass; Keenum's head snapped back into the ground. He wobbled to his feet, only to be greeted by head athletic trainer Reggie Scott, who briefly asked Keenum how he felt before officials asked him to leave the field so they could enforce an offside penalty on Baltimore.
Keenum played the final two snaps while concussed and fumbled on a third-down play that ultimately led to Baltimore winning the game. Before Wednesday, only coach Jeff Fisher had been able to offer a detailed account of how things happened and why Keenum wasn't taken out of the game.
“I remember everything," Keenum said. "I remember the play itself. Kind of a funky play, [they] jumped offsides. I remember looking downfield and not throwing it. Obviously, not a great decision there. Trying to find my checkdown and he was eaten up, so I was just trying to get rid of the ball. Kind of got slammed and got shaken up a little bit. After I got up, Reggie came over and I was good. He told me to go down on a knee and I told him, ‘I’m good, I’m good.’ I went to the play. Got the play from the coach, went and called the next play and felt good to go.”
Obviously, the fact that Keenum continued to play, even if he felt OK, means there was a breakdown somewhere in the system. It's a breakdown that led to an NFL and NFLPA investigation into what happened. The result of that investigation was no penalty for the Rams, though NFLPA president Eric Winston recently suggested that there should have been some sort of discipline.
The NFL did hold a conference call with the 32 teams the Tuesday after that game, the results of which didn't reveal much in the way of change to the procedure and offered vague promises about how NFL medical experts and team physicians "will continue to review the protocols and make improvements as necessary to protect the health and safety of NFL players, including consideration of discipline for future violations of the protocols."
For his part, Keenum didn't want to offer an alternative or tweak to the current procedure, instead focusing on where he believes he went wrong that led to the concussion.
"For me, if you ask me if anything [that] could be done differently, I could’ve thrown the ball on a free play to Kenny Britt, who could’ve made a play, and we kick a field goal and win the game,” Keenum said.
Replays showed a pretty brutal hit as well as Keenum struggling to get to his feet. Keenum didn't think much of it at the time until friends and family began blowing up his phone. Over the ensuing two weeks, it became a much bigger deal than Keenum ever imagined.
“Obviously, it got blown up pretty big," Keenum said. "I know it’s a big deal and it’s a touchy subject when it comes to a lot of things, but I have 100 percent trust in my training staff and my coaches that they wouldn’t put me out there if they didn’t feel I was 100 percent ready. And I’ve been completely honest with them on how I feel and that’s why I’ve been held out.”
The Rams initially hoped to get Keenum back on the field the following week, but after he attempted to practice on a limited basis, Scott decided it was best to slow things down. Keenum said he had headaches and really noticed a problem when he tried to spend long periods of time watching film.
“It was one of the tougher couple weeks for me," Keenum said. "If it’s a sprained ankle or if it’s a sore whatever, you can kind of see the symptoms and know what’s going on and know how you feel. With your head, if I were to ask you 1,000 times in a row if your head hurts, it’s probably going to hurt after about 500 times of someone asking if it hurts. It’s hard to tell, especially with something like that.”
Keenum finally felt good enough to clear the concussion protocol last Saturday before the Rams' loss to Arizona, but he didn't start because he hadn't been able to practice with the first-team offense earlier in the week. Now that he's cleared, Keenum is back in the saddle as the starter, as Fisher promised all along.
For Keenum, it's clear that with the headaches gone, the chance to get back to business as usual is what he values most.
“It means a tremendous amount," Keenum said. "I love Coach Fisher, want to fight for him. To have the opportunity like this, obviously it’s a tough part of the season, but honestly, I’m not looking at what’s happened. I’m not looking ahead, I’m looking at today and how did practice today go.
"It’s a dream come true for me to be a starting quarterback in the NFL since I was five or six or seven years old in second grade and I told my teacher I wanted to be an NFL quarterback. She kind of said, ‘Well, OK, Case.’ Well, I get to do that this week and there’s not many people that have ever gotten to do that, so I’m not taking it lightly.”