Concussed Gott forced to sit out
This was not the way training camp 2012 was supposed to go for Jon Gott.
No, in a perfect world, he would have begun camp as the Calgary Stampeders’ starting centre, played a few series in tonight’s pre-season game against the Edmonton Eskimos to strengthen his case to be the opening-night starter, then spend the rest of camp — including Game 2 of the pre-season a week from today in Regina — fine-tuning for the season opener July 1 against the Montreal Alouettes.
Instead, Gott will be on the sidelines tonight (which, in itself, is an accomplishment), in that grey area that always accompanies a concussion — wondering when he will be given the ultimate stamp of approval to put on the helmet and return to the trenches with his ’mates on the offensive line.
“I’m feeling good now, but this is terrible,” said the 26-year-old Lethbridge product, who’s entering his fourth season with the Stamps. “Two years in a row. It is what it is; I just have to deal with it.”
The good news is this year’s training-camp concussion seems — and you always have to fudge this sort of description when it comes to concussions — less severe than they one that knocked him for a loop 12 months ago.
“Last year, I was in a dark room for almost a week,” said Gott. “This year, I’ve been able to stick around here and go to meetings and come out to watch practice.”
The bad news, though, is that a second concussion in as many years is more concerning than a two consecutive training-camp sprained ankles, especially in this day and age when the treatment of the injury has undergone radical changes and the after-effects aren’t fully known sometimes for years afterward.
“It does (raise some alarms), there’s no question about it,” agreed Stamps coach and general manager John Hufnagel. “The first one was because he didn’t have air in the helmet, but the second one, the helmet was fine. But we’ll put him in a new helmet before he gets back on the field. He’s doing the step-by-step process, and we’ll make sure he passes all of the required tests. But it will be a concern until he plays a lot of football and it doesn’t reoccur.”
Gott has made good progress since the concussion symptoms flared up June 3; he went through a vigorous on-field work out with stamps director of medical services Pat Clayton on Wednesday, and has been passing the required tests that determine whether he’s healthy enough to practise. While it’s hoped he’ll be back on the field early next week, there’s no firm date.
“No one really knows what’s going on with it; that’s the thing. You just have to rest and do nothing, which is terrible because you want to be out there,” he said. “It sucks, there’s no other way to say it. I’ll just have to come out and work my butt off and make up for lost time.”