Chicago Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan has been suspended for two weeks after his illegal hit landed Green Bay Packers receiver Davante Adams in the hospital on Thursday.
Jon Runyan, the National Football League’s vice president of football operations, issued the decision on Saturday. Adams caught a pass midfield during the third quarter when he was hit by the Bears linebacker. Trevathan’s move had fans and commentators in an uproar, calling the dangerous helmet-to-helmet hit a “dirty” play.
A statement from the NFL’s communications office clarified that the unpaid suspension was due to Trevathan’s violation of Rule 12, Section 2, Article 6 (i) of the league’s player safety rules.
“There shall be no unnecessary roughness,” the statement reads. “This shall include, but not be limited to: (i) using any part of a player’s helmet or facemask to butt, spear, or ram an opponent violently or unnecessarily.”
Medical personnel took Adams off the field on a stretcher and he received preliminary exams for head and neck injuries at the stadium. He was later taken to the hospital for further testing. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Adams suffered a concussion from the hit.
The Packers receiver tweeted on Friday that he was at home “feeling great.”
As more studies reveal the prevalence of CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, in former football players, hits such as the one Adam are fueling calls for more rule changes in the National Football League. The degenerative brain disease has increasingly been found in postmortem tests on former players who had suffered repeated blows to the head.
CTE can cause impulse control problems, memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment and eventually progressive dementia.
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