Kevin Boss' father's level of concern over concussions: "Very high"

It’s also worth noting that Bob Boss will be at the New Meadowlands Stadium for Sunday’s game against the Lions. He called it “a for sure” game when the schedule came out. When I suggested that he’d be excited about seeing Kevin play a lot more than he did when the Giants faced the Lions during his rookie season in 2007 – Kevin had one catch for 15 yards in that game – Bob sort of hesitated.

“That’s the hope,” he said.

See, the last time Bob came to watch Kevin play was in the opener against the Panthers. On the fourth offensive play of that game, Kevin had to be carted off the field with a concussion.

“I thought he was going to be in for a long game there too,” Bob said. “I hope he gets a few more snaps on the field than he had in that game.”

I asked Bob where his level of concern is with Kevin’s history of concussions. He’s had a couple, and at least several other hits to the head that were not officially considered concussions. Even last week he took a pop across the middle during the Texans game and seemed a little slow getting up.

Bob paused for a good 15 seconds when I brought this up.

“Very high,” he said of his concern. “You want to think that it’s over and he’s being well taken care of and everything has cleared up and he’s back healthy and ready to play. The league has become a little more vigilant. But I hear and read about the long-term effects and you can’t help but wonder what that’s going to be. Who knows? There are guys who have done well after a lot of years in the league or playing any sport where they’ve been dealing with concussions. I just keep my fingers crossed.

“I don’t know if another one would happen, I don’t know what that would look like or what that would mean,” Bob continued. “After that game, the first game against Carolina, your whole focus and interest in that game, it was gone. I could have cared less about the game and what happened and stuff. When you watch that and it’s your own kid out there, that was not a fun day at all.”

It didn’t help that Kevin had to be carted off and didn’t come to the sideline under his own power, Bob said. But he and Kevin’s mom Teresa were able to get to the Giants’ locker room area.

“We were lucky we got to go down pretty quickly afterwards and did see him and he was up and around,” Bob said. “Security at the stadium was incredibly accommodating to us to be able to do that. That was worth a lot.”