There were a couple of firsts for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and for the league, on Sunday afternoon in St. Louis.
For starters, the game was delayed nearly a half hour due to the fact that the pre-game pyrotechnics sent off during player introductions caught fire on the turf and burned for several seconds, causing the stadium crew to spent quite a while repairing the damage.
More newsworthy, however, was the first occurrence of the league’s new concussion protocol taking effect in the middle of the game.
During the offseason, the league’s competition committee passed a rule that calls for an independent medical observer who views the game from the booth and has the authority to call a medical timeout to stop play if he deems it necessary to remove a player from the field that may have suffered a concussion.