We don’t really need anyone to tell us that the Redskins’ relationship with Robert Griffin III is a total mess right now, but a former MLS player took to Twitter on Saturday to provide reinforcement on that matter. Alecko Eskandarian, who played for a handful of MLS teams over an eight year career, went on a Twitter tangent aimed at one of the doctors involved in the recent RGIII concussion controversy.
Griffin suffered his third career concussion during a preseason game against the Detroit Lions, but was cleared to play the following week by an independent neurologist by the name of Robert N. Kurtzke. One day after clearing the quarterback, Kurtzke reversed his decision, stating RGIII was unfit to play.
As you can imagine, this raised some red flags, especially considering head injuries are a very hot-button issue around the NFL at the moment. The mishandling of a player who has a history of concussions is a very serious misstep, one big enough to cost Kurtzke his job.
From the Washington Post:
An NFL official said Friday that Kurtzke, who told the Redskins on Aug. 27 he would clear Griffin to play only to rule him out 24 hours later, had resigned from the neurological consultant program operated by the league and the NFL players’ union. Kurtzke will remain responsible to determine when to clear Griffin to return to play from this concussion, the official added.
But this is not the first time that Kurtzke has made such an error. According to Eskandarian, the doctor completely botched the diagnosis of one of his own concussions during his pro soccer career. Over the weekend, he decided to share that story.
https://twitter.com/alecko11/status/640178943354642432
https://twitter.com/alecko11/status/640179262872535040
https://twitter.com/alecko11/status/640179701953261572
https://twitter.com/alecko11/status/640180529862701056
https://twitter.com/alecko11/status/640188588672581634
https://twitter.com/alecko11/status/640189137186869248
https://twitter.com/alecko11/status/640190326561505286
https://twitter.com/alecko11/status/640190882747166720
If what Eskandarian says is true – and it’s hard to think of a reason he would make it up – it would be wise for athletes to stay away from Kurtzke and seek opinions elsewhere in the future. Talk about an absolute disaster waiting to happen.