These eyes in the sky could pull a star off the field during an NFL game. What do they do?
Two dedicated pairs of eyes scan the field from above during NFL games, not to review a close-scoring play or a controversial turnover, but for something even more significant that might get lost in the chaos.
These observers, independent athletic trainers, watch the game and the TV broadcast, eyes tuned toward players who might stay on the field after a big hit or a fall to the ground and show signs of injury. Commonly referred to as “concussion spotters” because of their emphasis on identifying potential head and neck injuries, these athletic trainers can even stop a game entirely so a player can be tended to by medical staff.
The spotters work alongside sideline medical professionals who are unaffiliated with either team and video technicians who help to track game action and record injuries, according to NFL.com.
“We want to make sure we capture anyone who might be injured,” Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, told NBC Sports Chicago last year. “So you’re going to see a lot of players brought off examined and then put back in the game.”
“Sometimes they’re even brought off in the middle of game action, the so-called ‘medical timeout,’ where there’s a call down from the booth, we stop the game and bring a player off the field, and they may not even be aware of why they’re being checked. What’s happening in that situation is one of our spotters upstairs in a booth has seen a blow to the head, some kind of injury behavior that they think merits an evaluation being done.”
While spotters can stop play, there has to be clear evidence of a player who has obvious signs of disorientation or is clearly unstable and it becomes apparent that the player is trying to stay on the field and not receive medical attention. If a player meets those criteria, a spotter will contact a game official and medical staff, and the game is stopped while the player receives attention.
Spotters must have a current athletic trainer certification, have at least 10 years of experience as an athletic trainer, have significant experience with the game and no paid employment with an NFL team within the last five years, according to the league.
The program was established at the end of the 2011-2012 NFL season after Cleveland Browns quarterback Colt McCoy was injured in a helmet-to-helmet hit but was sent back into a game. After the game, he was diagnosed with a concussion. The league then added the independent spotter positions at games to serve as extra, dedicated sets of eyes for injuries.
The program evolved to add the use of video replay, a second spotter and the ability for spotters to call a medical timeout.
Athletic trainers called a total of 20 medical timeouts from 2015-2017, according to a 2019 overview of the program published in the Journal of Athletic Training.
During those seasons, spotters and video technicians tagged between 1,700 and 2,300 incidents for possible injury. During that period, between 567 and 680 injuries were identified as being related to a player’s head or neck, an average of two per game, according to the paper.
This story was originally published January 15, 2025 at 11:19 AM.
