Memo to Matt Painter: Concussions Are Bad for You

Somewhere, maybe over the rainbow, Eric Lindros and Dan Morgan are shaking their non-concussed heads.

March Madness odds aren't upon us yet, but that's the next main event now that the Super Bowl is out of the way.

On Saturday, Purdue guard Chris Kramer was knocked out when his face got in the way of Manny Harris' NBA Jam-like clearing attempt.

Kramer took an elbow to his face and blacked out immediately. Then, like Tim Roth in Reservoir Dogs, he woke up in a pool of his own blood.

If you're head coach Matt Painter and your player blacked out, don't you think you sit him out for a bit?

But not only did Painter put him back into the game, he pressured him to get back on the floor.

I'm not sure what the sportsbook odds are of playing after a concussion, but I can assure you that "doing more damage to yourself that you'll regret when you're 50+" is the odds on favorite by a long shot.

Playing after a serious concussion can speed up your mental decline, which is bad news for Kramer. I highly doubt that taking a knee for a bit, or even sitting out the game would affect his pending NBA career, if he has one.

Maybe Painter will visit him in the nursing home for Kramer's 40th birthday.

I'm pretty critical of Painter, but really, I should be more critical of us. The reality is that fans are demanding, general managers are demanding, athletic directors are demanding, and that pressure is just passed down to the coach.

Painter knows that he needs to win to keep his job - regardless of what kind of security he has now—and to win, he needs his best players out there, no matter how healthy. He made the wrong decision to throw him out there, but we should shoulder some of the blame for being so demanding.

It's only February, but I'm already examining the March Madness betting, which is just around the corner.