A defensive starter in the NFL blitzed into what looked like an uncovered gap when the opposing right tackle peeled off his assignment and the left tackle pushed another player across the formation, sandwiching the defender between their 300-plus-pound bodies.
The two tackles’ helmets knocked the side of the defender’s helmet and compressed it. He felt like he’d been punched in the jaw. He knelt down on the field, slow to get up.
An official saw all of this and pulled the defender off the field for a concussion evaluation. Just three days earlier, Tua Tagovailoa had left the Dolphins’ game in Cincinnati in an ambulance after his head hit the turf hard and his arms and fingers froze in the bent pose that indicates a brain injury.
This defensive player, who requested anonymity because his team did not authorize him to speak for this story, watched that Thursday night Dolphins-Bengals game with his entire position group. They’d all seen the replays from the previous Sunday, when Tagovailoa shook his head and stumbled to the ground after a big hit against the Bills. They talked about how messed up it was that Tagovailoa played in the Thursday night game. How was he even out there in the first place?
After being sandwiched by the two tackles, the defender found himself in a similar situation, pulled from a game to go through the concussion test after a questionable-looking hit.
“It’s a hot topic in the NFL,” he said.
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