It's a good thing Colt McCoy's mother didn't speak out about the way his injury was handled against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Can you imagine what life would have been like in the locker room for Colt if mom had said he shouldn't have returned to the game after suffering a concussion? He might have been ridiculed more than he reportedly was by former offensive coordinator Brian Daboll.
Fortunately, for Colt, it was his father Brad who did all the complaining. He was upset that his son returned without, in his opinion, receiving proper medical attention.
Browns coach Pat Shurmur defended the decision, saying that he was never told by the medical staff that Colt had suffered a concussion. According to Shurmur, he wasn't informed of the severity of Colt's condition until it worsened after the game.
At least Brad was coming at it from the angle of a football coach of Colt's high school team. He can understand the protocol used when a player suffers a head injury, and he obviously disagreed with the way it was handled on the Browns' sideline last Thursday.
Brad acted like most fathers would, but in retrospect he might conclude that he made a mistake by speaking out. Colt, after all, is a big boy and capable of handling problems without his dad turning it into a full-blown controversy.
A NFL locker room is one of the few work environments where men can act like men without having to make a trip to "HR" for some sensitivity training. Other than time allotted for the media, the locker room is like Las Vegas - what is said there and happens there stays there.
Colt will probably get a pass from the majority of his teammates if for no reason other than what he did against the Steelers. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is praised, rightfully so, for being a tough guy, but Colt is right with him in that regard.
The hit Colt took from James Harrison, who should be suspended given his history, was violent and unnecessary. It's possible Colt wasn't acting coherently when he returned to the huddle, but it shouldn't change the image he's created of being tough enough to play in the NFL.
The Steelers went to extremes to try to intimidate Colt, and they failed. In some ways they looked foolish. James Farrior was penalized for an obvious late hit on McCoy when he ran out of bounds on a scramble. Harrison now faces a stiff fine and perhaps more punishment from the league office.
Harrison began to complain immediately after the game, basically contending that the hit was an unavoidable consequence of a fast, violent game. He just doesn't get it. Maybe he would have had time to see McCoy release the ball if he hadn't lowered his head to use his helmet as a torpedo.
There are 256 games in a regular season. Assuming there are approximately 85 tackles in each game, that figures out to 21,760 tackles in an entire season, most of which are clean, legal hits by players that have never paid a penny in fine money.
Yet, somehow Harrison manages to pay the league enough money to fund its annual Christmas party several times over. How can most defensive players adhere to the rules, and only Harrison and a few others can't?
It isn't about the league wanting to put skirts on quarterbacks and turn defenders into pacifists. It's about using a little common sense. Nowhere should that be more evident than in Pittsburgh, where Penguins hockey star Sidney Crosby went 11 months without playing because of a career-threatening concussion.
When the Browns return next week after a brief respite from football, Colt will undoubtedly downplay the injury and not be critical of Harrison. All that Shurmur will say is that Harrison was penalized, which we can assume means he thinks it was a cheap shot.
No one knows if Colt's father will check in with his thoughts.