Two Teams Show Divide in Debate on Safety

Aaron Rodgers sustained a concussion from a hit by the Lions’ Landon Johnson on Dec. 12. Receiver Donald Driver encouraged him to put his health first.

By ALAN SCHWARZ
NYT

DALLAS — Aaron Rodgers sat woozily on the Green Bay Packers’ bench after a hard hit from the Detroit Lions on Dec. 12. Midway through a ghastly loss, with the Packers’ playoff hopes in the balance, the veteran receiver Donald Driver decided that Rodgers, his star quarterback, needed some encouragement.

“I went behind him and told him that this game is just a game,” Driver recalled this week. “Your life is more important than the game.”

A professional player telling another to put his long-term health ahead of the team — a once and, to some, still-heretical idea — thrilled those who are trying to temper the sport’s win-now, regret-later ideology. Neurologists nodded. Parents cheered.

As for the rebuttal in football’s continuing debate, that was gladly delivered this week by none other than the Packers’ opponent in Sunday’s Super Bowl — the Pittsburgh Steelers, whose stars stumped as football’s defiant traditionalists.

(More here.)