Cowboys' Jeremy Mincey regrets playing through concussion symptoms
IRVING, Texas — Dallas Cowboys defensive end Jeremy Mincey said he regrets his “selfish” decision to play in Week 2 against the Philadelphia Eagles despite his helmet-to-helmet collision in pre-game warm-ups that he later learned caused a concussion.
Mincey, 31, sat out Week 3's game against the Atlanta Falcons but is cleared to play Sunday night against the New Orleans Saints after passing the mandated concussion protocol.
Mincey suffered the concussion, his second in the last nine months, after banging helmets with teammate Tyron Smith two weeks ago. Mincey said he knew he didn’t feel right but hoped the symptoms would subside during the course of the game. He admitted Friday that he should have approached Cowboys trainers and informed them of the symptoms.
“I know that was selfish (to play) as far as me being a husband and a father to children,” Mincey said. “I just wanted to win. I made a bad decision by doing that. You learn from your mistakes. That’s something I definitely won’t do again.”
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Mincey said he is well aware of potential long-term ramifications of repeated concussions because many well-publicized cautionary tales have heightened the national focus on the issue.
“I shouldn’t have held back on that,” Mincey said of his decision to play. “That’s important. I got to deal with my family. That’s the team I got to play for when it’s all said and done. And I definitely want to be an A-game player for them.”
Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said that the staff emphasizes communication between players and training staff as well as the coaching staff regarding concussion-like symptoms, adding that “getting feedback from the player is critical.”
“We are never going to put a player in a situation where we are going to compromise him in any way,” Garrett said. “We just simply wouldn’t do that. ... We care about our players. We have relationships with our players. Their health and well-being is the No. 1 thing on our mind.
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“Having said that, it’s a physical sport. We all understand that. Players have to play through things. If you want to be a good football player, you need to be mentally and physically tough to be able to play this game. So you are not always right. The more complicated issues are regarding concussions. Those are real issues. And we try to handle those the absolute right way and make the players’ health our No. 1 priority.”
Mincey said he also suffered a concussion in last season’s playoff victory against the Detroit Lions.
“You only get one brain,” he said. “Not like I can take your brain and get it implanted. That’s not going to happen.
“If you want to be technical with it, every game you are running into somebody. So I mean, technically, you are getting one every play, in a sense. But some blows are just different from other blows.”
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