Brian Westbrook will spend today at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center visiting concussion specialists.

After suffering his second concussion in 20 days in the third quarter of the Eagles' loss at San Diego on Sunday, the team said yesterday that Westbrook would consult with neuropsychologist Mark R. Lovell and neurosurgeon Joseph Maroon.

Eagles trainer Rick Burkholder said Lovell had been communicating with the team's medical staff on the running back's condition since he suffered the first concussion in an Oct. 26 game at Washington.

Westbrook was knocked unconscious after taking a knee to the helmet from middle linebacker London Fletcher in that game and sat out the Eagles' following two games before returning Sunday.

Lovell, a consultant on brain injuries for the NFL, did not return telephone calls yesterday. Lovell developed and implemented league-wide neurocognitive testing for the NFL and NHL during the 1990s.

Maroon has been the Pittsburgh Steelers' neurosurgeon for the last two decades.

Douglas H. Smith, a professor of neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and the head of the Penn Center for Brian Injury and Repair, said Monday that Westbrook would be taking a great risk if he returned.

"It's not that you've just lost cognitive skills, but you've also increased the chances of having a worse problem later on in life," Smith said. "It's a very serious risk."

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and safety Troy Polamalu, the Steelers' two most prominent players, have had multiple concussions and continue to play. Both have also returned shortly after suffering concussions.

According to a New York Times story published on Jan. 1, Roethlisberger's concussion in the Steelers' regular-season finale against Cleveland last season was the third of his life, with two of them coming on the football field and the third in a well-publicized motorcycle accident in 2006.

Roethlisberger started a playoff game against San Diego two weeks after his most recent concussion and eventually led Pittsburgh to its second Super Bowl title in four years.

The Times said Polamalu has had six documented concussions since high school. His most recent one occurred in October 2008, in a game against Cincinnati, and he played the following week against the New York Giants.

"Concussions are weird in the sense that you don't know the severity of it," Polamalu told the Times. "You can't really measure it too much. Not only that, it's the worst injury you can sustain in sports.

"You can live life without your legs, your arms, but it's hard to go on in life without your mind."

And still Polamalu decided to play one week later. In the NFL, that is seen as a quintessential example of machismo.

Rich Gannon, a former NFL quarterback and current CBS analyst from St. Joseph's Prep and the University of Delaware, understands that mentality.

"I had one in college and one in the NFL," Gannon said of concussions. "In both situations, I was only out of the game for one play. You're brought up in this game as young players and you learn to play through injury. It becomes who we are."

A fractured neck vertebra eventually ended Gannon's career in 2004 but didn't even keep him on the ground when he suffered the injury.

"I broke my neck and walked off the field," Gannon said. "I went home that night, sat on my couch, and when I went out to a store later, I had the worst pain I ever had to deal with.

"At that point, I had no idea I had a broken neck. You just fight through so much, and there is that sense of denial. There's also that fear that if you don't get back on the field, that somebody else is going to play."

While Gannon said he did not believe his concussions would have a lasting impact on his quality of life, he has seen firsthand how debilitating head injuries can be.

"It's sad," Gannon said. "Physically, they can still do it all, but they can't take another shot to the head. [Linebacker] Bill Romanowski used to get them in back-to-back weeks in Oakland. He'd try playing the next week and he couldn't finish the game.

"When I was playing in Kansas City, our tight end Ted Popson had a head-on collision and he was out six weeks. When he came back to play, he went through the pregame warm-ups and the jolt from just trying to block somebody took him to his knees. His career was over."

The biggest concern for Gannon today is his father-in-law, Bill Brown, a running back with the Minnesota Vikings from 1962 to 1974.

"I think he had eight or nine," Gannon said of Brown's concussions. "I've seen footage of him running into the goalpost and getting knocked out. Back then, they'd give you smelling salts and throw you back into the game."

Gannon said Brown, 71, suffers from dementia, a loss of brain function that can affect memory, language, thinking, judgment, and behavior.

He said Brown recently qualified for the NFL's "88" plan, which provides up to $88,000 a year in medical care from the league and the players' union for players with dementia and other brain-related problems.

The plan is named after Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey, who wore No. 88 with the Baltimore Colts and struggled to pay his dementia-related medical bills.

Over the weekend, Gannon said he had a long conversation with Buffalo quarterback Trent Edwards, who recently missed two games after suffering a concussion. Gannon walked away convinced that the NFL handled head injuries much better now than it did when he was playing.

Eagles fans will be watching closely to see how the team and the league handle the concussions that now threaten Brian Westbrook's career.

Contact staff writer Bob Brookover at 215-854-2577 or bbrookover@phillynews.com.