After Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s head hit the ground hard after being tackled by the Green Bay Packers’ Kingsley Enagbare on Christmas Day, Robert Griffin III, former star quarterback for the Washington Redskins, urged Tagovailoa to sit out the rest of the season because of concussion risk.
This is the play circling on social media that some believe Tua Tagovailoa could have sustained a concussion on. Remember, Tua missed Weeks 5 & 6 in concussion protocol after sustaining that scary hit against the #Bengals #nfl #dolphins #finsup pic.twitter.com/P2Lvp7kEKx
— Josh Moser (@TheMozKnowz) December 26, 2022
Tagovailoa has hit his head hard three times this season. The first mishap occurred during the Dolphin’s late September game against the Buffalo Bills and the second four days later when he was thrown to the ground by Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Josh Tupou, knocked unconscious and subsequently taken off the field on a stretcher. The NFL’s concussion protocol was instituted, but after the most recent hit on Sunday, Tagovailoa did not leave the game and the protocol was not implemented. After the Bengals incident, Chris Nowinski, co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, condemned the fact that Tagovailoa was allowed to play four days after the Bills hit, saying, “What happened to Tua was shameful. People should lose their jobs.”
“Our game has kind of moved to the softer side. Roughing the passer, it’s more like touching the passer now,” Griffin III said on ESPN. “But when we talk about these head injuries, it’s nothing to play with. You’ve got to put the person before the player. I’m more concerned about Tua and his longevity of life than I am about whether he is going to play on Sunday.”
‘We’ve seen guys like Luke Kuechly, a teammate of mine, Jordan Reed, have to retire because of these head injuries,” he continued as he turned to fellow commentator Booger McFarland. “Booger, you know this: Guys have gone off the field and done things to hurt themselves and their families because of things that were suffered on the field, CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), all those things come into play.”
“So my mind is on what does this look like for Tua in the future? He should not play for the rest of the season, whether you call it two concussions or three, two incidents or three incidents, it’s a repeat,” he insisted. “And the hit that he really suffered the concussion on, or we think he suffered the concussion on, it wasn’t that violent of a hit. It was a routine play. But because his head smacked off the ground the repeat of all of those hits are starting to add up. So I’m more concerned about Tua and his family than I am about him playing the rest of the year.”
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel commented on Monday, “As far as the game was concerned, no one recognized anything with regard to any sort of hit. I care very deeply about each and every player. I just want him to get healthy and have peace of mind in that regard. Whatever those circumstances are, you deal with after. It’s about the human being and making sure he’s squared away.”