I strongly dislike Twellman since he pushed Stokes into Rimando, which led to a concussed Stokes wandering on the field for a few minutes while NE scored. It's why it's so hard for me to think about Twellman as not being a hypocrite for his ThinkTaylor campaign.
Which is strange, because I assume he wasn't trying to get anyone concussed, even if it was before he knew much about concussions. That doesn't seem hypocritical to me at all, just extremely illogical for you. I don't remember the exact push though, so maybe it was a really bad one with clear intent to injure.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/26/AR2005042601262.html It was pretty bad. It was also a few weeks removed from Reis kneeing Alecko in the head, so my opinion on NE players in general was already pretty low. I don't know that Twellman has ever publicly acknowledged or apologized for the incident, which didn't help matters. As far as me being illogical, it's just hard for me to balance Twellman's recklessness as a player with his campaign for concussion protocol; he was often his own worst enemy because of how often he threw his body (and others') around. I admire the intent behind his mission, but it just rings slightly hollow in light of some of his actions.
"You can see on the tape that [Twellman] gave Stokes a little push in the back, which led to the contact and got me flipping over my heels" That's exactly what I figured. Sounds like a foul from a soccer game. How in the world that makes Twellman hypocritical now for pushing for concussion awareness now is beyond my logic. It *could* be ironic I suppose in an Alanis Morrissette type of way.
Twellman is very quick to point out when a player is concussed and should be removed from a game. It strikes me as hypocritical because, as a player, he not only directly impacted a player's concussion but had no qualms about said player staying on the field. He has become a very vocal advocate of concussion protocol without acknowledging the role he had in those situations.
When I saw the highlights, with all those bright yellow soccer lines over the white american football lines, I felt an incredible sadness... It reminded me of how young and thoughtless I was in 1996...
I have to still disagree that this is hypocritical. 1 - we don't know that he had no qualms about stokes being on on the field. 2 - this was before head injuries were something he knew much about, or was an advocate for. If he did either of these things now that he and everyone else knows so much more about concussions, that'd be different. 11 years ago, plays like this were common. The reaction of everyone seems exactly like you'd expect back then. I don't consider him obliged to say anything about this situation. It doesn't sounds like he had intent to injure. Was a foul even called?
I see the "Reis kneeing Alecko in the head" issue has resurfaced. I was seated just a few yards from the collision, and it sure looked inadvertent to me. Alecko dove into Reis's path and suffered the consequences.
My opinion of NE players is low. Reis is definitely below Twellman for me though. The injury being pretty bad and Twellman playing a large role in it are two different things. From the match report, I just don't see what you're seeing, but I also don't remember the game/play. I can't say I have particular love for Twellman, although I think he's an interesting commentator to listen to. I don't remember Twellman as more reckless than any other forward, but I may be forgetting some things. His issue with concussions seems to be now that we know what they are, that we need to treat them much much more carefully. I don't think he's asking for a huge change in how players play (other than dirty play that seems to be pretty well punished most of the time and where head injuries are concerned). Soccer definitely needs to address it more at a league/confederation/FIFA level. The movement has been glacially slow given what we now know.
Furthermore, people change. Twellman may have learned through personal experience how debilitating head trauma can be. Now he's an activist for the cause. There's nothing hypocritical about that.
Despite Twellman being an activist for a good cause, his head is still big enough to have its own gravitational field.
I always hoped we'd have traded for Twellman while he was playing. That giant head has got to be sweet for a #10 to bounce passes off of into goal. @Hedbal , that's the way I've always seen the Reis vs. Alecko thing too - but as time marches on, the lore of it gets worse and worse and more and more intentional I still found other reasons to hate Matt Reis.
Spacetime is actually warped around Twellman's head. That's what made it so inviting to incoming passes.