We’ve been inundated with articles about concussions of late, but here’s another story that cannot be ignored. Tyler Varga is a fullback for the Indianapolis Colts, and he surprised many by making the final roster out of Yale last summer. His season was cut short, however, by a concussion that lasted four months and put him through hell.
As reported by Zak Keefer of IndyStar.com, Varga was injured in Week 3 when he was popped on the side of the head. The following was the first diagnosed concussion of his football career, and his life was sudden, inexorably thrust into upheaval.
At first, he didn’t want to admit he was suffering the symptoms of a concussion for fear of losing his coveted job with the Colts.
“That’s the pressure. I can’t miss anything,” he said, per Keefer. “There’s no wiggle room. I hardly get any reps in practice as it is, and I’m missing days, I’m getting even fewer. I don’t get to show the coaches I know my stuff. And if I don’t get to play in the game, I get replaced.”
He wanted to believe the symptoms he felt were because he was “just sick,” rather than a direct result of the punishing blow he absorbed.
By the time Tuesday of that week rolled around, though, Varga’s condition worsened. He couldn’t even remember being in in apartments after he’d been shopping for a place to live on his day off.
“It was pretty scary at that point,” Varga says. “I mean, I was in one of the apartments like five minutes earlier.”
After a failed concussion test the next day, Varga underwent a four-month recovery. During that time, he was confronted with the prospect of taking a drug called Amantadine, which is used to treat Parkinson’s disease and is regularly prescribed to NFL players who suffer concussions.
But Varga has a “evolutionary biology degree from Yale and hopes to one day become an orthopedic surgeon,” per Keefer. He didn’t feel comfortable taking a drug he didn’t know anything about. After consulting with some doctors he knew, he was advised not to take the dangerous drug.
“The worst case, they told me, were some psychotic reactions like schizophrenia,” he says. “And you just can’t stop taking it. You up the dosage until you’re symptom-free. That’s my understanding of it. It sounded pretty scary to me.”
After refusing to take the drug, the Colts called him within 45 minutes and told him they were placing him on injured reserve.
“This is not something to play around with,” Varga said Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson told him that day. “You should take some time off and get your head better. We’re putting you on injured reserve, and we want you back next year.”
Grigson and the Colts deserve credit for first making it clear he was welcome back and secondly for valuing his wishes and his brain.
Varga took an internship at the Yale Investments Office for three months while his brain healed itself.
He’s now back with the Colts after debating long and hard about whether or not to continue his NFL career. He said, in the end, “I’m back here because I wanted to compete again.”
This is a story worth watching over the next few months as the Colts get into training camp and hitting resumes once again. Varga plays a position where contact is inevitable, and after his first scary head injury there’s no telling what could happen if he get his bell rung again in similar fashion.