Anthony Rizzo ‘Likely Concussion’ Handling Bad Look For Yankees

The NFL gave everyone the blueprint of exactly how not to handle concussions.

It has been more than 10 years since the league agreed to a $765 million settlement with former players over concussion-related brain injuries. A decade is a long time, so perhaps people forgot.

Wait, what’s that? The NFL lost another $1 billion as recently as two years ago for the way it tested for concussions?

Oh.

That’s just the money aspect. There was a blockbuster film made about concussions in sports in 2015 and the Concussion Legacy Foundation has been around since 2007. The foundation’s main objective is “holding sports organizations accountable for concussion care.”

Despite all of that, the New York Yankees were left looking foolish Thursday afternoon for their handling of Anthony Rizzo’s “likely” concussion.

Rizzo was placed on the 15-day injured list, with Yankees manager Aaron Boone saying the injury was traced back to a collision with San Diego Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. on May 28. In case you forgot, Thursday’s date was Aug. 3.

Here’s a look at the play in question.

If the warning signs weren’t clear based off Rizzo’s behavior, with the first baseman “complaining the last few days of some fogginess,” it was clear in his play, as the three-time All-Star looked worse than a replacement-level player at the plate.

“I couldn’t feel what you’re trying to feel as a hitter and I don’t know if that’s related. I guess now we can, we can link two and two together.”

Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo

Rizzo played in 53 games before the collision with Tatis, hitting 11 home runs and slashing .304/.376/.505. In the the 46 games he played after, he hit one home run and slashed .172/.271/.225. You know what doesn’t matter? Any of that, because he shouldn’t have been playing in the first place.

“I’ve struggled plenty in this game, but I’ve also done it for a long time to know that you usually come out and there’s signs of coming out,” Rizzo said Thursday. “I remember talking to someone like, ‘Oh, do you feel you’re coming out of this soon?’ I answered honestly. ‘No, I don’t,’ because it just — I couldn’t feel what you’re trying to feel as a hitter and I don’t know if that’s related. I guess now we can, we can link two and two together.”

Though baseball doesn’t have nearly the same history with concussions as the NFL, the publicity that head injuries have gotten over the last decade have made the warning signs apparent to anyone.

Rizzo was hit in the head, meaning he should have immediately been placed in a protocol and tested before returning to the field. Instead, the Yankees allowed him to play the sport most reliant on neurocognitive function ever invented, which wound up hurting them in the long run.

The optics of the entire situation make New York look incompetent, and at this point, that’s probably the nicest thing you could say.