It was a terrifying however sadly acquainted scene: Tua Tagovailoa, the star quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, mendacity on the sector, apparently disoriented, after struggling one other concussion. The harm, sustained in a sport final week in opposition to the Buffalo Payments, was Tagovailoa’s fourth recognized concussion since 2019 and his third since changing into an NFL participant, in 2020. It appeared like the last word signal that Tagovailoa ought to finish his promising NFL profession, solely two video games into his fifth season.
That seems to be the prevailing sentiment even among the many NFL brotherhood. Dez Bryant, a former vast receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, posted on X: “That’s it … NFL go forward and do the precise factor. Tua has had totally manner too many concussions. He have to retire for his longevity well being considerations.” Antonio Pierce, the Las Vegas Raiders head coach and a former NFL linebacker, informed reporters that if he have been able to affect the quarterback’s pondering, “I might inform him to retire—it’s not value it.”
The truth that so many voices inside soccer are calling for Tagovailoa to stop is a small signal of progress. Gamers lastly appear prepared to buck the outdated hyper-macho tradition of enjoying by means of any harm.
However no mechanism exists for the league or anybody else to determine what number of concussions are too many, and there’s no assure that Tagovailoa will select to retire. Soccer gamers eagerly signal as much as play a violent sport regardless of having a a lot fuller understanding of its dangers than their predecessors did. And if you happen to assume the sight of Tagovailoa writhing on the bottom is sufficient to flip followers off in any type of significant manner, then you definitely underestimate the ability of a sport that continues to be firmly entrenched because the nationwide obsession.
Tagovailoa can have time to consider his future. On Tuesday, the Dolphins positioned him on injured reserve, which suggests he’ll miss no less than the following 4 video games earlier than he’s eligible to return to NFL motion. Due to Miami’s scheduled bye week, the earliest Tagovailoa might return is on October 27, in opposition to the Arizona Cardinals. The break ought to enable Tagovailoa not solely to get well from the harm and undergo the league’s concussion protocol, however to debate his choices with exterior neurologists and, presumably, his household.
No matter he decides, concussions and the chance of long-term mind harm clearly stay part of soccer. The NFL’s efforts to deal with the issue have ranged from incomplete to untrustworthy.
Practically a decade has handed for the reason that NFL agreed to settle a large lawsuit introduced by 4,500 gamers who accused the league of hiding the hazards of continual traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE —the degenerative illness that may have an effect on individuals who endure repeated concussions and traumatic mind accidents. The NFL has since applied a bunch of rule adjustments in an effort to make the sport safer, however head accidents stay an all too widespread a part of the sport. That hasn’t stopped NFL scores from persevering with to rise. The gamers, for his or her half, seem to have largely accepted the hazard. Tagovailoa’s concussion final week got here after he crashed headfirst into the chest of the Payments security Damar Hamlin, whose coronary heart stopped on the sector final season after he suffered a extreme blow to the chest. Hamlin needed to be administered CPR after that harm and got here very near dying on the sector. Now he’s again on the market, delivering hits of his personal.
The NFL has proven that it might’t be relied on to prioritize the well-being of its gamers. The league and the Dolphins drew widespread criticism for his or her dealing with of Tagovailoa’s a number of concussions all through the 2022 season. Throughout one other sport in opposition to the Payments, the again of Tagovailoa’s head slammed into the turf on the finish of a play. After getting up, the quarterback stumbled and fell on his manner again to the sideline, visibly shaken up. And but the group’s medical employees allowed him to return to the sport, and the Dolphins introduced, implausibly, that he had suffered a again harm. A mere 4 days later, in a sport in opposition to the Cincinnati Bengals, Tagovailoa took a brutal hit to the pinnacle. He was recognized with a concussion, prompting hypothesis that he had already suffered one in opposition to the Payments.
The NFL and the NFL Gamers Affiliation launched an investigation into why Tagovailoa continued to play in opposition to the Payments, which led to the NFL altering its concussion protocol to incorporate “abnormality of steadiness/stability, motor coordination or dysfunctional speech” as signs that might prohibit a participant from returning to the sport. This was a constructive step, however clearly not sufficient. A couple of months later, Tagovailoa suffered his second NFL concussion—or third, relying in your opinion about that Payments sport. Whereas enjoying the Inexperienced Bay Packers, Tagovailoa once more hit his head on the bottom. However he wasn’t evaluated instantly for a concussion, and subsequently was by no means faraway from that sport. The analysis got here the following day.
The NFL has paid out greater than $1 billion to just about 2,000 former gamers and their households as a part of its concussion settlement. However an investigation by the Washington Submit reporter Will Hobson discovered that the league was nonetheless failing to fulfill its promise to compensate former gamers who suffered from CTE and different mind ailments linked to concussions. After reviewing 15,000 pages of paperwork and interviewing greater than 100 folks concerned with the settlement, Hobson discovered that the “settlement routinely fails to ship cash and medical care to former gamers affected by dementia and CTE.” In 2020, the NFL had been accused of utilizing “race norming” to find out concussion settlements: assuming Black folks have decrease baseline cognitive means, subsequently making it more durable for Black gamers to show that they have been struggling psychological decline due to soccer. The league agreed to finish the apply in 2021.
Soccer isn’t going to save lots of Tagovailoa from himself. The quarterback labored onerous after the 2022 season to discover ways to higher keep away from harm. He did jiu-jitsu coaching to discover ways to fall safely. He gained weight to make himself sturdier. For one 12 months, his efforts appeared to repay: He didn’t miss a single sport in the course of the 2023 season and have become the primary Miami Dolphins quarterback to be chosen for the Professional Bowl since Dan Marino in 1995. This previous summer time, the Dolphins, evidently feeling extra assured of their quarterback’s means to remain wholesome, rewarded Tagovailoa with a four-year, $212 million contract extension.
Tagovailoa would forfeit most of that cash have been he to determine to stroll away from the sport. Nobody ought to faux that it’s a simple option to make. And nobody could make it however Tagovailoa himself.
