Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Chance to move over .500 slips away as Nats lose to reigning champs

T.J. Oshie, the heart of the Caps, wants to keep playing. He’s not sure if he can.

Nationals sweep away the Marlins to get back to .500

Biden is aiming increasingly personal and sarcastic jabs at Trump

Views of the campus protests are too broad — and too narrow

Attorney general moves to reclassify marijuana as lower-risk drug

Cat climbed into Amazon return box, found alive 630 miles away

I learned to heal my sadness by cradling dying chickens 

Brave Little Hunter is free: Baby orca escapes lagoon for open seas

Use these 6 points to say no to a college you and your kid can’t afford

How this new rule protects retirement savers from costly advice

Borrowers, don’t miss this important student loan forgiveness deadline

Biden’s internet-for-all program needs Musk’s help

Microsoft’s “responsible AI” chief worries about the open web

How the push to ban TikTok spurred a new Washington influence machine

Man arrested at Yellowstone for allegedly kicking bison while drunk

Southwest passengers now get a $75 voucher for big flight disruptions

The Rick Steves guide to life

UnitedHealth grew very big. Now, some lawmakers want to chop it down.

The new face of flooding

How celebrity tequilas are changing the very nature of tequila

I coach my son’s sports team. Why is he so disrespectful during practice?

Miss Manners: How to decline donation requests at checkout

Ask Amy: My friends took my advice, but they’re doing it wrong

The delusions behind Biden’s plan for Middle East peace 

Middle East conflict live updates: Blinken meets Netanyahu in Jerusalem; U.S. presses Israel on Gaza aid

Is Bougainville the next battleground between China and the U.S.?

A murder plot that cannot be ignored: India must come clean at last

How to confront antisemitism, deal with protests — and respect free speech

Is student loan debt an emergency? Take our quiz.

Baby orca escapes lagoon for open seas

Meet Emo, the AI robot that can predict your smile

Speaker Johnson: deploy National Guard to Columbia

 Donald Trump Speaks During A Campaign Rally In Green Bay Wisconsin

As trailers for “Concussion” are starting to appear more regularly on NFL broadcasts and on ESPN, the handling of the concussion that Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger suffered Sunday shows just how far the league’s handling of the issue during games still has to go. But it also shows that this one very high-profile player understands just what is at risk, and he delivered a powerful message about that.

A week after Case Keenum’s concussion was handled so poorly it triggered a reminder to all teams to follow the official protocol or face punishment, Roethlisberger came out of Sunday’s game against Seattle with a concussion. Roethlisberger, whose history shows a gutsy willingness to play through pain, stayed in the game after a helmet-to-helmet hit by Seahawks lineman Michael Bennett knocked him to the ground. He was helped up by teammates and played the final nine snaps of the drive before being replaced by Landry Jones. He then took himself out of the game, heading to the locker room for evaluation and entering the NFL’s protocol.

[Keenum case could prompt changes]

But the simple fact is that Roethlisberger, like Keenum, continued to play before taking himself out. And the NFL and NFL Players Association are asking why the spotter in the booth didn’t stop play or call for a medical timeout, <a href="http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/14264963/nfl-nflpa-investigating-circumstances-surrounding-ben-roethlisberger-concussion" target="_blank">ESPN reported</a>.

Roethlisberger said the initial diagnosis was a traumatic ocular migraine that later was confirmed as a concussion after he took the ImPACT test. Roethlisberger explained what happened in his <a href="http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2015/12/01/ben-roethlisberger-for-the-first-time-i-was-thinking-about-my-family/" target="_blank">weekly 93.7 radio spot</a> shortly after taking that test. “I did go into the protocol and took the test yesterday. Unlike when I was in school, I think I aced this one. So I should be okay to play Sunday.”

That, however, will not be up to him and by Wednesday morning he had not yet been cleared by an outside neurologist to practice later in the day.

[NFL reminds teams of protocol]

“I don’t see any issue,” he said. “I don’t know the actual results. I think they had to send them, I think, to a third party or another doctor to look at or whatever, and they kind of make the final determining factor. But I felt good taking the tests. I felt like I was doing [accurate] responses, things like that, so I anticipate being fine and good to go.”

[Is Roethlisberger too tough for his own good?]

But Roethlisberger, one of the toughest players in the game, went on to say that as a 33-year-old father of two, he understands the stakes in a way he never did before. He knows the link between the game he loves and the dangers chronic traumatic encephalopathy pose to the the rest of his life. Maybe those “Concussion” trailers are having an effect. Certainly the announcement that the late Frank Gifford was suffering from CTE changed his thinking and he called on other players to self-report concussion symptoms during games.

[Watch Will Smith take on the NFL in ‘Concussion’]

“I was on the sideline thinking, ‘Do I want to go back into this game?’ I was thinking of my family, my lifestyle when I get done with football, with all these injuries … the brain is nothing to mess with,” he told 93.7. “I was literally on the sideline probably for the first time maybe in my life, thinking about my family and not going back into the game because I did not feel quite right. It was definitely a moment, that’s why I was honest with the trainers and doctors and wanted to tell them exactly what I was going through.

“I feel like I made the right [decision].

“People know me, I’ll play through any injury. I’ve played through a lot of injuries. But the brain is not an injury that you want to play with and play through. I think more people need to understand that. We play football for such a short period of time in our lives. When you’re done, you want to be a father and a husband and be the best I can be. If I have these brain injuries, it’s not worth it.”

Maybe this, no matter how imperfectly it may have come about Sunday, is where things begin to change in the NFL.

Southeast Missouri, BA in English and journalism

Cindy Boren arrived at The Post in 2000 as an assignment editor in charge of baseball and NFL/Washington Football Team coverage. She switched to full-time writing, focusing on national sports stories and issues, when she founded The Early Lead blog in 2010. 

Cindy  Boren

The Washington Post

Commanders

Nationals

Capitals

Wizards

Mystics

United & Spirit

College Sports

High Schools

Auto Racing

Sports

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/sports&limit=20

The Washington Post Sports section provides sports news, video, scores, analysis and updates about high school, college, and pro sports teams, including the Capitals, Nationals, Washington Football Team, United and Wizards. Post Sports also offers blogs and discussions about the latest sports news.