The Giants also are the Super Bowl champions of player safety.
“I’d like to think that we’ve always had here at the Giants a high level of suspicion for concussion,” trainer and VP for medical services Ronnie Barnes tolds The Post, “and that we were conservative. Lawrence Taylor, we actually used to hide his helmet when he got concussed. And he’d be looking for his helmet. Anybody who had a concussion, we would take their helmet so they couldn’t return to the game.”
What a difference 32 years makes, when Barnes began his illustrious Giants career.
“At the Giants we do baseline MRI and DTI — Diffusion Tensor Imaging — which looks at the brain on a molecular level,” Barnes said. “We’re doing that not only to follow what’s really happening to our players over a long period of time, but also to compare it if they get a concussion. So all the rookies go to Weill-Cornell Medical Center and they get this baseline, and then, when they are concussed, this is repeated.
“Our players also see an independent neurologist, and we depend on Teena Shetty at Cornell, on her opinion, with respect to concussion. So, not only does a player have to return to baseline, but Dr. Schetty, who evaluates them the next day after the concussion, has to really approve their return. And if she says no, it means no.
“The neuropsychological baseline is interpreted by a neuropsychologist. And that neuropsychologist looks at the results of this computer-driven test, and he calls me and says, ‘This player has not returned to baseline.’ He also calls the independent neurologist and says, ‘This player has not returned to baseline.’ Which means he can’t return.”
Barnes supervises a host of technological advancements and oversees a veritable army of specialists on game day.
“I thought it was important, so we wouldn’t miss anything, the athletic trainers are spread out over the field, the doctors are spread out on the field, and so we’re now communicating through earpieces and radios,” Barnes said. “We’re being — I’d like to say more vigilant — in looking at the field, and making sure we’re not missing anything. We alert each other that we’ve seen something, and I think that’s been very helpful.”
How many teams do that?
“There are probably four or five teams,” Barnes said. “But it’s been really helpful to me because I’m not running back and forth, because I can be down working with a player, and another player could go down.”
Barnes calls a medical timeout when a possible concussion has occurred.
“Generally speaking, if we decide that a player has been concussed or has concussion symptoms, we take them inside,” he said. “And inside, we have an iPad, with a sideline assessment tool, which then documents all of the symptoms within minutes after they were removed from the field, and it also includes a balance test, which then we can look at during the week, to say, ‘This is where he was during the game, and this is where he is on Thursday, on Friday, on Saturday.’”
Jim Gossett, head athletic trainer at Columbia, is an eye in the sky in the booth monitoring television replays. The Giants were the first NFL team to use it in last year’s playoffs.
“He will call down to the bench and summon us if someone has taken a serious head-to-head blow, or if they’ve hit the back of their head,” Barnes said. “We look at the video on everyone that he calls down on. Also, anytime I run onto the field to see a player, I have Dr. Brian Kelly or Dr. Scott Rodeo go to the video replay, which is behind our bench, in the middle of the bench, puts on the headset, talks to a replay person, and tells them, ‘Our player was just injured, could we see that play?’ It helps us to see the mechanism of injury. That can often tell us the severity of what it might be.”
The issue of independent neurologists on the sidelines is under discussion by the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee. Barnes, who has reservations about it, sits on the committee.
“Clearly, you could understand that if you had a neurologist or neurosurgeon on the sidelines independent of the physicians, who had no experience in looking at football players, they may struggle in trying to make determinations,” Barnes said.
Coaches are less inclined today to push the envelope. But players still need to be protected from themselves.
“What we’re building is a culture where other players let the medical staff know that players may be acting differently, or may have sustained a concussion, and we’re tipped off by other players,” Barnes said.
Super Bowl champions of player safety, a giant among Giants.
“I’m a caretaker of the game with respect to sports medicine, because of Wellington Mara, and because we’re a flagship team in this league,” Barnes said, “and I think it’s our responsibility to continue to be flagship, not only on the field, but in medicine.”
steve.serby@ypost.com