Arizona Cardinals LB John Abraham: Playing For Right Reasons?
By Scott Allen
Sep 8, 2014; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Cardinals linebacker John Abraham (55) against the San Diego Chargers at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Arizona Cardinals linebacker John Abraham still has not passed his protocol test in order to be cleared to play in a game yet. He failed the concussion test on Tuesday and has to wait until Thursday to try again. He returned to the team on Monday. Did he return for the right reasons though?
Abraham left the Cardinals last week on Tuesday, the day after the victory over the San Diego Chargers on Monday Night Football. He left that game early with a concussion. When he left it was reported that he was contemplating retirement and that he had experience memory loss over the past year. He also told head coach Bruce Arians that he thought he was losing his desire to play the game.
He led the Cards with 11.5 sacks in 2013. He was a force again after starting a downward trend with the Atlanta Falcons. If you noticed in his absence on Sunday in the 25-14 victory over the New York Giants, the Cards were unable to garner any kind of pass rush. In his post-game comments, Arians said he hoped to have a certain someone return this week. He didn’t mention Abraham by name but we knew who he was talking about.
So did Abraham, who supposedly was losing the passion to play and also experienced memory loss, come back for a paycheck or did he really change his mind and decided he did want to play football. Was six days enough to change his mind or was his hand forced to make a decision to come back? I don’t believe it would be the latter but we don’t have the whole story.
Concussions and memory loss is a huge deal. We are talking about a man’s life here. Also, if he has a fledgling passion for the game, do you really want him on that field? Even if Arians said the tape of the Chargers game didn’t show him a man who was lacking passion for the game, you never know what is going on inside the player for sure. I wish him nothing but the best and hope he is returning to game action, whenever that may be, for the right reasons.