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Tebow situation a flashback for Scot Brantley

The Associated Press

Tim Tebow suffered a concussion two weeks ago at Kentucky, and may not play tonight at LSU.

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 10, 2009

Updated: 10/10/2009 12:11 am

TAMPA - It rang a bell.

Scot Brantley, the still beloved Florida and Bucs linebacker, one of the truly nice guys, was shaken up two weeks ago. He watched the TV and stared at a motionless Tim Tebow surrounded by medics.

"I haven't been able to get Timmy out of my mind," Brantley said. "To see another guy lying there 30 years later, another Gator, is one of those out-of-body things."

It was a trip down loss-of-memory lane for Brantley, back to the injury that robbed him of his senior season at Florida, that nearly robbed him of an NFL career and that even now might be robbing him.

And if Tebow can't quarterback tonight when top-ranked Florida plays fourth-ranked LSU, sophomore John Brantley will start in his place. John Brantley - Scot Brantley's nephew.

"That's even more bizarre," Scot said.

Scot Brantley, on a smaller scale, was a Tim Tebow, an Ocala high school legend turned Gators star, a hard-hitting folk hero and honorable mention All-America.

But in Florida's 1979 home opener, Brantley's helmet struck a running back's knee. He had a seizure on the field. Everything went dark.

Brantley says there's still not much light around concussions.

"All these years later, what do we really know? Doctors are scared, too, because they don't completely know what to do. They can take apart your heart, pace it up or throw a plastic one in there and you'll be walking down a hall at 6 that night. The brain is a whole different animal. There's a whole lot of mystery."

A few days after he suffered his concussion, Brantley was called to then-Florida coach Charley Pell's office.

"Charley said I was done," Brantley said.

Like that, his senior season was over and maybe football forever.

But with the help of Gil Brandt, then-general manager of the Dallas Cowboys, Brantley got second opinions and was cleared for NFL play.

Brantley said, "One doctor looked at all the data and my write-ups and told me, 'You missed your senior season for this?' He said I should be (angry). I was just elated that I could play again."

Play he did, eight jarring seasons with the Bucs.

Yes, Brantley worries about Tim Tebow.

"He's a quarterback, but a different kind of quarterback. Tim goes at it like a linebacker, full throttle."

But this is football ...

"There's not a game I didn't play where I didn't get woozy from hitting someone in a game. I always figured you're not really playing if you don't come away with double vision at one point."

Brantley says he suffered concussions in the NFL, too.

"I just didn't tell anyone."

Times have changed.

Now it's up to Tebow's army of doctors.

"Timmy needs to do what they tell him," Brantley said. "I think he'll be fine. He has no history of concussions."

Scot Brantley is 51, but some days he feels older. He underwent 11 surgeries during his career. He had a hip replacement this year. He wants to get his knees replaced, but that will have to wait. He's in a different kind of fight.

The longtime Tampa resident and forever friendly radio fixture still does game-day radio work for Gators football, but he has taken a leave of absence from any daily grind.

Because one day last fall Brantley was on the air in Tampa when he started slurring words and sentences.

He'd suffered a mini-stroke.

He had heart surgery to repair a hole left by the stroke. Another mini-stroke cost him nearly all the vision in his left eye.

Brantley laughed.

"My body's going to hell in a hand basket, I tell you."

He has that kind of spirit.

Brantley is sure the game he loves played a part in the strokes, that "it's all part of one equation." He has some memory loss. A recent NFL-commissioned study showed that retired players are at high risk for memory-related diseases.

"I'm glad that's getting out there," Scot Brantley said. "I would love to become a bigger part in the drive to make people more aware of concussions."

What if Tim Tebow can't go tonight?

Uncle Scot Brantley has news for you.

"Johnny has the goods. And he'll have that support. Can you imagine Tim Tebow standing up in front of the team and saying I'm not going to play this game, so let's get behind Johnny B. and win this thing? God."

They'll be ready to run through a wall.

That's football for you.

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