Four months after the Rams and the NFL botched the handling of Case Keenum's blatantly obvious concussion, the league is owning up to the mistake. The NFL, on Thursday, admitted that the Case Keenum situation was a "failure," according to Joe Person of The Charlotte Observer.
That quote came via Troy Vincent, the NFL's executive vice president of football operations.
NFL official Troy Vincent says Case Keenum situation (staying in game despite obvious concussion) "was a system failure across the board."
— Joe Person (@josephperson) March 17, 2016
To be clear, the NFL admitted to something the entire football world already knew. Because when Keenum violently banged his head on the turf back in November -- when he reacted by holding his head and squirming around on the ground -- the damage was obvious to anyone watching on TV.
Here's the hit:
And here's Keenum's reaction:
Yet Keenum remained in the game. After, the Rams revealed Keenum suffered a concussion. They did not, however, suffer any punishment from the NFL for their mishandling of the situation.
But as Vincent's quote indicates, more than just the Rams failed in the moment. So did the NFL's concussion policy. Before last season, the NFL announced that independent concussion spotters would hold more power to stop a game when they spotted a concussed player. That obviously did not happen.
