Frank Reich on Nyheim Hines concussion: 'You have to protect players from themselves'

INDIANAPOLIS — When Nyheim Hines tried to get back up after taking a hard hit on the third play of Thursday night’s game, the Colts coaching staff immediately saw what everybody else saw.

Hines was staggering, unable to keep his balance. Teammates had to hold him upright.

Under the NFL’s concussion protocol, what Hines was exhibiting were signs of “gross motor instability.” The NFL and NFLPA are currently in the middle of making changes to the protocol that would make gross motor instability an automatic removal from the game, rather than just a symptom that sparks a concussion evaluation, but those changes have not been implemented or finalized yet.

The Colts coaching staff never considered allowing Hines back in the game.

“We saw him wobble right away,” Colts head coach Frank Reich said. “All the coaches simultaneously were on the sideline (saying), ’He’s out, he’s out.’”

Hines was officially declared out for the game before the end of the first quarter.

But the fifth-year running back, who has never missed a game in his NFL career, wanted to return to the game when Indianapolis headed into the locker room at halftime.

“Nyheim is apologizing to me,” Reich said. “He already felt great, he wanted to come back in and play. He said, ‘I feel fine, I’ve been hit way harder than that.’ … That’s the kind of competitor and warrior he is.”

Reich was a player in the NFL for a long time. He knows how hard it is to sit out a game due to injury.

The Colts head coach also knows the risks Hines would be taking if he’d gone back into the game, risks that were made crystal clear when Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered a concussion on Thursday Night Football a week ago, four days after displaying gross motor instability after his helmet hit the ground Sunday.

Tagovailoa’s body went into a fencing posture, his fingers twisted in unnatural ways. Repeated concussions pose extreme danger to a player, and the Tagovailoa situation prompted the NFL and NFLPA to begin making changes to the protocol.

Reich believes the responsibility falls on more than just the shoulders of team doctors and the NFL’s independent concussion spotters.

“That’s why there’s been a lot of talk about, as coaches, we have to do the right thing because you have to protect players from themselves at times,” Reich said. “That’s a perfect example of an instance where you see him take a hit like he does, you know what kind of competitor he is, and he wants to get back in the game, and he certainly seemed fine talking to him. Seemed totally normal, but you have to do the right thing.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Nyheim Hines injury: Reich says coaches must protect players with concussions