Hoge Shares Chilling Story on Post-Concussion Recovery

Concussions have been a topic of conversation in recent months because of the attention former players, and even Congress, have given it.  ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown conducted a panel examining what the NFL has been doing to protect against the effects of concussions.

Analyst and former player Merril Hoge shared a chilling concussion story of his own.  Hoge played his final game in 1994 after he received his second concussion in five weeks.

In the locker room following the concussion, Hoge actually stopped breathing at one point.  Here is his story:

"Here's what people don't know and never see.  They take me to the training room where I died. I flat-lined. My heart stopped.  As a process of trying to resuscitate me, I started to breathe again. 

"They rushed me to the emergency room. I was in ICU for two days.  It was after that I was basically trapped in my home for six weeks.

"You could not take me around the block because I could not find my way home because I did not have the cognitive skills.  I had to learn how to read again. In fact, months later, if you woulld have sat me down to take an inventory of the day, i would not be able to recite that to you.

"There was  a lot of cognitive issues that I dealt with that took over two years to overcome those issues."

The Chiefs haven't had a lot of concussion related incidents this season.  They certainly don't talk about or get specific with concussions but a couple of players have been limited or out in practice with "head trauma".