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It's an offseason dream for the sports blogger -- a radio interview with the star player on the team, giving us plenty of stuff to talk about for a while.
The guys at 610 Sports, Danny Parkins and Carrington Harrison, locked down an interview with Kansas City Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles on the drive home on Tuesday. You'll need to go ahead and listen to the whole thing but I am pulling out a couple of parts out today that stood out to me.
First up is something painful for Chiefs fans: Jamaal Charles still does not think he suffered a concussion in the playoff loss and he thought he could have returned.
Boy, oh boy. Here's my attempt at transcribing some of this from The Drive:
Charles: "I was trying to get back on the field. The doctor said I had a concussion, I felt like I didn't have a concussion. I felt like woozy, like a boxer, just give me the 10-count. Let me count to 10 and let me get back in the ring and fight again."
Parkins: So you didn't think you had a concussion in the playoff game?
Charles: "No."
Parkins: What happened when you tried to get back on the field?
Charles: "You know the rules now. I thought to get up and jog on the sideline, go up and down. Next thing you know, they're like let's go to the locker room and next thing you know,I never came back out. I was mad about that but I can't do anything about it with what's going on around the NFL with the concussion stuff. You just have to respect the NFL rules."
My initial reaction is, "Man, the Chiefs could've won if Jamaal had played the whole game!" But I'm not completely sure that's the case. Do the Chiefs put up 44 points if Jamaal is in the game and they stick to the run more? I don't know. Or do they win because they can slow down the clock in the second half? Again, I just don't know.
What Jamaal is saying is exactly why they take this medical decision out of the player's hands. The players can not decide on their own health in the heat of the moment because too many players would say exactly what Jamaal is saying -- 'I'm fine, let me back in'.
As much as I like Jamaal, I have to side with a doctor's medical opinion over his.
