NFL player who retired at age 24 over head-injury concerns says it's easy to cheat the concussion protocol

Al Bello/Getty Images

Chris Borland in his lone NFL season.

• An NFL player who is notable for retiring out of concern over the long-term effects of head injuries said players can easily cheat the league's concussion protocol.
• Chris Borland previously made headlines when he retired at age 24 after just one season in the NFL, citing his fear of head injuries.
• The concussion protocol is another method the NFL is using to make the game safer, but it may still be flawed and subject to human nature.

The NFL continues to look for ways to reduce the number of concussions in the football, as the effects of concussions and CTE become increasingly visible, and one such method involves the league's concussion protocol.

In an interview with Deadspin, former NFL player Chris Borland claimed that players could, and would, easily work around the protocol.

"Players could very easily throw the initial baseline test," Borland said. "We used to - not quite throw it, that's strong, but we wouldn't do our best, in hopes that if and when we were concussed and had to take the test, our numbers wouldn't be so different that we couldn't get back out on the field."

The baseline test is used during a concussion examination as a comparison to how a player performs when fully healthy.

Borland's comments echo a similar claim made by Seattle Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin on Bill Simmons' "Any Given Wednesday." S.B. Nation wrote a lengthy piece about the weaknesses of the system last year as well.

Borland made waves a few years ago when he retired from football at 24, and specifically cited the long-term effects of head injuries as his reason.

"I just want to live a long healthy life, and I don't want to have any neurological diseases or die younger than I would otherwise," he said at the time.

As for the concussion protocol, it's not hard to see why players would attempt to fake it and get back to playing, even with a concussion. NFL careers are painfully short, and especially in a league without guaranteed contracts, guys are easily replaceable. There's just not enough incentive for players to opt not to play through an injury, especially an injury that is so difficult to detect.

More NFL coverage:

• As Tom Brady has gotten older, his values no longer align with Bill Belichick, and it could be the source of the team's tension
• 2018 NFL MOCK DRAFT: What the experts are predicting for the first-round
• Where the top quarterbacks will go in the NFL Draft according to the experts
• Two of the NFL's most promising teams have one big factor in common - and it shows why so many teams are scrambling to find their franchise quarterback in the 2018 NFL Draft