ALLEN PARK — T.J. Lang spent part of his bye week examining his health, in particular the latest concussion that he suffered on Sept. 30.
The Detroit Lions starting right guard has practiced this week and could be back in the lineup for Sunday’s game at the Miami Dolphins. He missed the Oct. 7 win over the Green Bay Packers and Wednesday was the first day he practiced since the injury.
“I feel pretty good, back to the normal routine,’’ Lang said on Thursday after practice. He stopped short of guaranteeing he will be on the field at Miami but seemed confident that would happen.
It was not his first concussion and the 31-year-old Lang did not take it lightly.
“Dating back to last week and even two weeks ago I tried not to make too big of a deal about it. Obviously I’ve been down this road before,’’ Lang said. “The older you get the more you start to think. The guys here — the trainers, doctors, everybody that is involved in my personal life — did a good job setting me up with high-end experts, doctors, neurologists that I could talk to. I reached out to a lot of them and tried to gather as much information as I could. I would say most of those meetings are pretty positive.’’
He wouldn’t go into detail on the information he culled because as he said, “I’m just not that smart.”
His wife went on a few of the appointments with him.
“She seems to be pretty worked up about some of the head stuff with obviously everything that is going on in the public. At the end of the day you have to make a conscious educated decision to move forward. I think I gathered enough information to feel comfortable to continue to play when I’m feeling good,’’ Lang said.
He said he saw three or four specialists to gather information on former players and CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). He wanted to know if concussion are overblown in the media. Also is the information out there accurate.
“The biggest question I had was, ‘Do you think I”ll be safe to return once I’m fully back healthy?’ And I think most of them said, ‘Yes.’ That gave me a lot of comfort knowing that when this is all settled and done, basically set the reset button and continue to play,”’ Lang said.
A few of the specialists had different opinions.
“For the most part it was you’d be fine to play, I don’t think there’ll be ramifications down the line if you continue to play,’’ Lang said. “There were some tough conversations, you have to have those conversations no matter what injury you have. …
“For me the biggest thing was I feel like I have teammates in this locker room that are counting on me to be out there and to play at a high level , that’s something that’s always driven me and will continue to drive me,’’ Lang said. “So I don’t know if its the brightest way to look at it when you’re comparing your health. At the same time it’s all I really know and I want to be known as a dependable guy.’’
His wife, his mother and his children all factor into his decisions.
“My kids are old enough to watch the games now and notice when something is wrong,’’ Lang said. “All that goes through your mind, it’s human nature. At the end of the day I try to explain that I’ll be all right.’’
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