When players are injured, NFL coaches can seem, if not callous, preoccupied with getting someone else into the game and continuing to concentrate on their strategic duties. That’s why Carson says he was so impressed by Los Angeles Rams coach John Robinson, who, during a 1984 playoff game, actually came onto the field with the team trainer and doctor to check on an injured Ram player.
Carson had never seen that before in the NFL and found it a welcome show of humanity and compassion. “Even if he was faking it,” Carson writes, “ I still appreciated the fake; no other coach ever bothered to go even that far.” Several years later Carson had an opportunity at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii to thank Robinson for his caring gesture.
