NFC East rivals square off on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, when the 5-2 Philadelphia Eagles face the 2-5 New York Giants. This is a rematch of a Week 6 game that saw the Giants stun the Eagles 34-17 on Thursday Night Football.
But now the Giants, along with their head coach and a player, are a little lighter in their respective wallets due to an incident in that game.
At issue was rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, who entered the blue medical tent late in the third quarter to be evaluated for a concussion. Shortly after Dart entered the tent, head coach Brian Daboll popped his head into the tent. You can see that moment here:
Daboll was also spotted having what Pro Football Talk described as an “agitated” discussion near the tent while Dart was being evaluated.
The head coach was not the only member of the team to check on Dart, as rookie running back Cam Skattebo also entered the tent while the quarterback was being evaluated.
Russell Wilson came on for two plays during the evaluation, and Dart was cleared to return to the game. But following the Giants’ win, both Daboll and Skattebo addressed the incident.
“I apologized directly to our team physician [Dr. Scott Rodeo],” Daboll said after the game. “We were getting ready to go for it on a potential fourth down. I would have burned a timeout if he could have come out there. I was asking how long was it going to take. You want your guy out there, not at risk of anything else.
“I just stuck my head in to see how our quarterback was doing,” Daboll said the day after the game. “In no way would I want a player to come back out there that wasn’t ready to play. I have great respect for that process.”
Skattebo said he went in to “calm” Dart down.
“I knew going over there I needed to calm down a little bit because I knew he was going to be on fire,” Skattebo said. “When I was in there, he was a little fired up, but we know we have to go through protocol and do all that stuff to make sure we can get back on the field. I went in there and kind of, ‘We’re good, man, we’ve got you,’ and that’s it.”
The day after the game, Giants owner John Mara, responding to reports that the NFL and the NFLPA were going to investigate the incident, noted the team would “fully” cooperate with the investigation.
“I spoke to Coach Daboll this morning about approaching the medical tent last night. While I firmly believe, as he has stated, that he was not trying to influence the process in any way, he understands that the appearance of going to the tent is inappropriate,” said Mara in a statement.
”We have protocols in place as a league to ensure player safety, and we need to allow our medical staff to execute those protocols without interference.
“We understand the situation is under review by the NFL and the NFLPA, and obviously we will cooperate fully.”
Today, the NFL and the NFLPA released the findings of that investigation. While noting that “team medica staff and unaffiliated medical providers properly followed all of the steps required by the collectively bargained and administered concussion protocol,” the NFL and the NFLAP found that the “Giants violated the protocol when Head Coach Brian Daboll and running back Cam Skattebo entered the medical tent and spoke with Mr. Dart before his evaluation was complete, creating the perception that they were interfering with Dart’s exam.”
The NFL and the NFLPA further found that while the actions of Skattebo and Daboll had “no actual impact on the exam or the care that Mr. Dart received, their conduct was inconsistent with and demonstrated a disregard for the concussion protocol’s requirements and therefore constituted a violation.
As a result of the findings, the team was fined $200,000 for violating the concussion protocol. In addition, Daboll was fined $100,000, and Skattebo was fined, both fines being handed down for conduct detrimental to the league.
