In NBC Booth, a Candid Collinsworth

By ALAN SCHWARZ
NYT

As Jameel McClain was going through Heath Miller’s head, other things went through Cris Collinsworth’s.

Collinsworth gasped along with many of his 22 million “Sunday Night Football” viewers last weekend when McClain, a linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens, crashed into the defenseless head of Miller, a tight end for the Pittsburgh Steelers, leaving Miller motionless with a concussion. Collinsworth searched in vain for a penalty flag, finally snapping, “It’s unbelievable to me that that was not called — that’s the very definition” of a forbidden hit.

Collinsworth has become football’s most prominent critic of illegal tackling by drawing on more than just his intelligence, which is roundly praised, or his experience as an often-defenseless receiver, which is roundly surmised. Rather, with one son breaking wedges for Notre Dame and another in high school ball, and as a longtime Kentucky youth coach, Collinsworth communicates parental impatience regarding the N.F.L.’s self-proclaimed culture change.

“This is a league that we’ve always celebrated the biggest hits and the bone-jarring blows, but you can’t hide from the evidence anymore,” Collinsworth, in a telephone interview, said regarding the short- and long-term effects of football head trauma. “We’re talking about the very essence of the game. I’d be less than honest if I said I didn’t have my doubts as to whether my children should be playing football.”

(More here.)