A No-Brainer: Football Leads to Concussions : Chris Miller Keeps Getting Knocked Out and Keeps Going Back

"I think concussions are a little overrated," Ram Coach Rich Brooks said. "People in the game also have knee injuries. They have shoulder problems. I think concussions have been made bigger than life."

Another Ram-tough man says there is too much hype about those brain injuries that caused Miller to get lost once for more than an hour on a 20-minute drive home.

"My belief on concussions is, you get whacked over the head enough, your leaking cerebral fluid thickens into a shell that protects your brain," running back Ron Wolfley said. "Miller's problem is that he has not been hit in the head enough ."

ST. LOUIS — One Ram-tough man in this town likes to joke about quarterback Chris Miller and those brain injuries that caused him to forget addresses, telephone numbers and the day of the week.

One woman in this town does not agree with either man.

Each time an opposing player nears Chris Miller during games, her stomach grabs her. So she grabs somebody--a friend on the couch, a stranger in the stands, anybody.

She holds tight until the play is over or the quarterback stands up.

"Earlier this season, two men sitting in the row in front of me felt my sharp nails and thought I was crazy," she said.

The last time Miller didn't stand up, she was so panicked she ran to the field and demanded to talk to the doctor. She doesn't want to think about the next time.

She is Jennifer Miller, the quarterback's wife and mother of their two young children. She has watched her husband endure four concussions in the last 13 months.

She doesn't talk Ram tough.

"Before every game, I am a wreck," she said. "I worry about him all the time. My No. 1 interest now is to make sure he comes out of the game in one piece. It's hard. It's very hard."

Stepping into this great divide on Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, as he does every week, is Miller.

He has been at his unshaven, barking, swaggering best. He has led a team to first place while ranking sixth in the NFL in passer ratings. He has thrown more touchdown passes than Troy Aikman, 11 to seven, and fewer interceptions than Steve Young, three to four.

But he has been quietly, vulnerably, caught between the worries of his family and pressure from his associates.

Between outside medical theories that the next concussion could kill him, and arguments from NFL doctors that such proof does not exist.

It is a battle that can have many winners.

But only one loser.

Chris Miller stiffens as if challenged to a fight.

"I don't want to back down," he says. "That's just the way it is."

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Nobody will tell Chris Miller to quit.

Not after his head was bounced off the artificial turf in New Orleans last season, causing a concussion that caused him to sit out two starts.

Not after he was jolted by the Saints again less than two months later in Anaheim and missed another start because of a concussion.