Former Iowa QB Drew Tate, currently toiling for the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders, suffered a helmet-on-helmet collision with Saskatchewan’s Tearrius George during the second quarter of his club’s West Division semifinal triumph yesterday. In addition to the halftime interview shown above, Tate told reporters after the game, “I got my bell rung. I don’t remember the first half,”, commments he and his coach took great pains to contradict a day later. From the Edmonton Journal’s Donna Spencer :
Stampeders head coach and general manager John Hufnagel told reporters Monday that Tate passed all concussion tests “with flying colours.”
The players had the day off from the practice field, but Tate revealed in the statement that his amnesia was self-induced and not from a blow to the head.
“I got dinged in the second quarter and there was some fuzziness on that drive, but I obviously knew what I was doing and had no problems,” Tate said. “By the time I got to the sideline and talked to everyone, I felt fine.
“The reason I said I didn’t remember anything from the first half was because we didn’t play great and I just wanted to move on. Looking back, I answered that question way too casually, but it was because I just wanted to go start warming up for the second half. For me, I meant it like forgetting about a play and moving on to the next play during a game.”
“Again, I answered questions about the hit too casually because it wasn’t a big deal to me. I just said whatever because the moment was very overwhelming.”