A barren UCLA linebacker corps just got a little more bare, albeit with some Twitter fireworks.
Redshirt freshman Breland Brandt announced his medical retirement from football after suffering four concussions in three years, but his decision wasn’t taken well by everyone on the Bruins’ football staff.
“Lol it’s funny when you quit the team, then text me at 3 a.m. with a basic question, and expect an answer,” a text from an unidentified staff member to Brandt read.
The redshirt freshman posted a screenshot of the conversation in a thread of Twitter posts, and coach Jim Mora addressed the issue Monday.
“I had heard that there was an exchange, an unfortunate exchange, with one of our staff members that was not a coach and Breland that took place … in a 3 a.m. text,” Mora said. “A poor choice of words, and it’s been addressed. That’s not really a part of what we do or how we talk. It never has been, and it really shouldn’t be.”
Brandt was a four-star recruit according to ESPN coming out of high school, and played mostly on special teams. He recorded three tackles against Hawai’i but also sustained what he said was his fourth concussion in three years – the injury that led to his decision to medically retire and prompted the staff member to call him a quitter.
Earlier in the season, Mora said Brandt tried returning to practice too quickly, leading to a recurrence of post-concussion symptoms that prompted the coaching staff to shut down the Carson, California, native for an extended period.
“Again I will forever be thankful for my time as a Bruin,” Brandt’s tweets continued. “But as an athlete who woke up for you at 5 a.m. after I’d been studying until 3 a.m., the very least I could get is a simple yes or no response.”
Brandt is the fourth UCLA player to go through concussion protocol this season. Both senior linebacker Kenny Young and senior safety Jaleel Wadood missed the Memphis game while recovering from head injuries, and junior quarterback Josh Rosen did not make the trip with the team for Friday’s game at Utah.
“You make the decision to play football, and whenever you make the decision to do anything, you have to accept the good and bad with that,” Young said on Media Day in July.
A Boston University study published in July discovered the presence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease, in 87 percent of brains donated by deceased football players.
So nearly two months after suffering his final concussion, Brandt decided to give up the opportunity to play football and stay a student at UCLA.
“To the players that come after me,” he wrote in the final tweet of his thread, “Understand your value. Understand you’re more than just an athlete.”
I’d rather see players quit for the sake of their health, than go to a candlelit memorial service for them because they continued to endanger themselves. If the staff doesn’t share the same sentiment, then their priorities are absolutely wrong.
That’s UCLA football under Jim Mora for you.
Jim Mora didn’t have the spine to fire the staffer just like he doesn’t have the spine to fire incompetent assistants. He should be fired for that right now, today.