Concussions in the NFL have taken on another dimension for FOX sideline reporter Pam Oliver.
Oliver was drilled in the face by an errant warmup pass from backup Colts quarterback Chandler Harnish while covering the team’s preseason game against the Giants. Video of the bean went viral, with some people making light of the situation and some people feeling Oliver’s pain, but no one knew she had actually suffered a concussion, according to a report from the New York Daily News.
Oliver powered through the rest of the game broadcast because she didn’t want to shirk her duties, according to the report.
“You don’t want to be wimpy,” she said. “You just have to push through it.”
Oliver said that in the days after the hit, she suffered from searing headaches, nausea and sensitivity to light and spent close to a week confined to the darkness of her house.
The coincidence that she got a concussion while covering one of the most physically dangerous sports did not escape her.
“Players don’t want to be reminded about their concussions. They don’t want to be known as the guy who went down with one. They downplay it,” she said. “Then it happens to me, and I start wondering how these guys go back to being hit, taking all that punishment, a week or two later.”
