Webster's was probably the worst case. A former Pittsburgh Steeler, the owner of four Super Bowl rings, he developed major mental health issues. He was found urinating into his oven and a spot of self-dentistry saw him fixing rotten teeth with superglue. Concussion can cause sleep issues and Webster was so desperate to sleep, he sometimes Tasered himself unconscious. He had brain disease, according to an autopsy.
Oh, that's right - all are dead now; three by suicide suspected of being caused by complications from head knocks.
The Hohneck issue highlights three things:
Concussion is not an exact science; everyone is different and handles head blows differently.
Having said that, rugby's system is clearly not working; anyone who saw Hohneck stretched out last weekend after a head clash would have concluded he was seeing tweety birds. The immediate thought was if he could beat concussion safety standards, the standards must be faulty. Rugby needs to rule swiftly when a player has obviously taken a debilitating blow.
Rugby, generally, is trying to address the concussion issue. But this shows that players, coaches and, who knows, doctors seem still to be locked into the gladiator syndrome where it is okay and maybe still admired to carry on after a bad head knock. Give me the Kieran Read approach any day - he takes himself off when he doesn't feel right in the head. Smart man; it's doubtful he'll end up like Duerson - death by shotgun to the chest and a note to his family saying he wanted to donate his brain to research; it found he had brain disease from concussions. So please don't give us this bull about pigs ...
Ennis wasn't alone in his defence of the actions of the Rabbitohs' Glenn Stewart for diving and successfully conning the referee who ruled out a perfectly good Cowboys' try on Monday - and he was only one of a whole brigade who blamed not the player, nor the referee(s) but the video replay. Many leaguies hate the video system for slowing down their game.
Stewart's honesty in admitting he'd conned the ref was refreshing and apparently several sportswriters had to have a lie-down and a cup of tea and be gently fanned with a programme to recover after this unprecedented outbreak of truth. But what he did was cheating.
Ennis said: "But if that's removed [the video review], then it won't happen and, yeah, I'd like to see it removed ... whilst ever that is in our game, that review system, you'll continue to see it."
What needs to be removed is cheating. Conning the ref and getting a try disallowed is cheating. It isn't gamesmanship, it isn't rule-bending. It is cheating to get an unfair result.
The idea of the video review is to ensure the right result. All right, if the obstruction rule is too complex, fix it. If the refs can't see that Stewart would never have caught the tryscorer in a million years, get better refs less reliant on the video.
Finally, copy football - an automatic card for "simulation". Players ordered off will fix the problem - far more than giving the video review system a red card.
