Topline
The National Football League Players Association terminated the independent doctor who cleared Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to return and play again on Thursday after sustaining an apparent head injury Sunday, according to several reports, the latest in the ongoing debate over whether the Dolphins and the league properly protected Tagovailoa’s safety and if the NFL’s concussion policy is strong enough.
Tua Tagovailoa walks off the field with trainers following a play during the Dolphins game Sunday.
Key Facts
The union exercised its right to fire the doctor as part of its ongoing investigation into the incident, ProFootballTalk first reported Saturday afternoon.
Tagovailoa, one of the sport’s brightest young stars, stumbled during Miami’s game against the Buffalo Bills after hitting his head against the ground, but returned to action and played in the team’s Thursday primetime contest against the Cincinnati Bengals, even after the players’ union launched. a probe into the incident and many expressed concern about Tagovailoa’s risk for re-injury.
Investigators for the players’ union found that the consulting doctor made several errors in evaluating Tagovailoa Sunday, sources told the Athletic.
The controversy boiled over Thursday when Tagovailoa was carted off the field during the second quarter of the Bills game after suffering a gruesome head and neck injury, leaving the field on a stretcher and going to the hospital.
Tagovailoa has not publicly criticized the handling of his health, saying in his first statement on the situation Friday he was “feeling much better” and “grateful for the support and care I’ve received from the Dolphins, friends and family.”
Allan Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, defended the league’s handling of Tagovailoa in a Friday interview with the league-run NFL Network, saying the Dolphins followed all the agreed-upon concussion protocols.
Key Background
The Dolphins have similarly stood by his actions, and his head coach Mike McDaniel reiterated after Thursday’s game the team found Tagovailoa suffered a back injury Sunday, not a concussion. The terminated doctor was one of the league’s unaffiliated neurotrauma consultants, doctors who are on the sideline of every NFL game providing a third-party evaluation of any potential head injuries and have the power to remove players from games for evaluations. The NFL’s treatment of traumatic brain injuries has long been criticized, and the league agreed to pay a $765 million settlement in 2013 to thousands of former players suffering from the lingering effects of head injuries. Repeated blows to the head commonplace in football can cause the degenerative neurological disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and Boston University researchers have discovered evidence of CTE in 99% of the brains of former NFL players. Symptoms of CTE, which cannot be diagnosed until after death, include aggression, depression, suicidal thoughts and issues with impulse control. Critics have questioned the ethics of playing football given the link with CTE.
Chief Critic
The players’ union president, JC Tretter, said Friday the union is “outraged” and “scared for the safety of one of our brothers,” saying Tagovailoa displayed clear “no-go” symptoms and should not have been allowed to play. DeMaurice Smith, the NFLPA’s executive director, vowed the union would “pursue every legal option.”
Surprising Fact
This is the third high-profile controversy involving the Dolphins this year: Its former head coach Brian Flores sued the NFL in February for racial discrimination, also alleging the team’s billionaire owner Stephen Ross offered him money to purposely lose games, and the league suspended and fined Ross in August and docked the team a future first-round pick for breaking tampering rules in his pursuit of legendary quarterback Tom Brady.
Further Reading
NFL’s Concussion Protocol Under Scrutiny After Tagovailoa Is Hit Hard Again (New York Times)
What to Know About CTE in Football (New York Times)
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