You get a sprained ankle, pull a hamstring. You get treatment and you come back to fight another day.
Except sometimes you don't get to come back. A salient tale about Russell Allen which is of particular interest to me because (1) I love the NFL and (2) the NFL has been spending a huge amount of time & money trying to reduce head injuries within the sport.
http://mmqb.si.com/2014/04/22/russell-allen-jacksonville-jaguars-stroke/
...and when you've read this think about the rugby video linked recently on this forum where a player was knocked unconscious. It's not just happening in the NFL, we just haven't started worrying about it in other sports yet.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/tottenham-hotspur/10433204/Concussion-debate-sparked-by-injury-to-Tottenham-goalkeeper-Hugo-Lloris-is-raised-in-Parliament.html
Earlier this year in the Premier League. I remember how shocked I was that the keeper talked himself into staying on the field. The physio clearly meant he should be subbed but didn't have any way to force him of the field and neither did the ref. It is not only the American football though that is focused on head injuries. Other american sports like NHL has had a lot of focus on it and NBA has automatic flagrant foul even for incidental elbows to the head. It is just us here in europe that are behind.
Even though concussions are serious, they are still noticeable injuries though ramifications can be hard to predict. I am more worried with the ammount of deaths related to heart problems in sports. Many of these people who pressure their heart to the maximum in competition have never taken an EKG. It isn't an insane ammount but looking at this list (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sportspeople_who_died_during_their_careers) there are way to many heart attacks of people in the age of 18-30. In most cases these are caused by heart defects and if said defect was known they would be able to compete at the same level with a slightly adjusted training regime. It was a huge shock here in Norway a couple of years ago when swimmer Alexander Dale Oen died of heart failure after training at the age of 26.
PS: freak occurance, was called by Foundation for Heartsick children while writing this.
They started using a mandatory concussion check in Rugby Union this season. If the ref suspects that a player has suffered a blow to the head, they can force them to go off for a concussion check by a neutral pitchside doctor.
If the doctor diagnoses a concussion, they can't come back and I think they also have to rest for a certain number of matches afterwards.
It's a good start, and it's helped to raise awareness among the players. It's still a problem at amateur level though, you just have to educate players and trust that they will look after themselves - stories like the one above should be mandatory reading for anyone who plays a contact sport.
Oh dear. Here's a good example of the concussion protocols
not working.
You have to admire the courage and determination from Florian Fritz to carry on (and here's where I insert a witty remark about footballers being massive wussies), but it's clearly not in the player's best interests to come back onto the pitch.