Four days ago in a home game against the Buffalo "Bills" Miami "Dolphins" quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was pushed and fell backwards hitting the back of his head, the thinnest part of the skull, on the turf.
Tagovailoa was taken back to the locker room and the half ended. Everyone, including the "Dolphins" coach, thought Tagovailoa had suffered a head injury on the play. He came back out to play in the second half however. The National Football League Player's Association immediately, I mean, I think as soon as they saw Tagovailoa come back out on the field, filed a complaint with the league and asked what if any concussion protocols were followed, as mandated, and the results. Post-game "Dolphins" coach Mike McDaniel cheerfully told news reporters that the injury was actually to Tagovailoa's back, not his head. I stopped following the story after Sunday and Monday.
Tonight, as stated, just four days after the injury in the "Bills" game, Tagovailoa was back as the "Dolphins" starting quarterback. He played all of the game until this in the second quarter:
Tagovailoa was in the grasp of a Cincinnati defensive lineman who whipsawed him backwards from the waist...
...striking the turf with great force again with the back of his head.
Immediately after his head hit the turf national television cameras caught this:
Tagovailoa's hands came up to his face and his fingers splayed in a grotesque clawed position that I had never seen before. The network took a break and when they came back they had consulted with a medical individual who had worked in the NFL. The hands-claws were "a neurological reaction to head trauma." Tagovailoa was taken off the field fully dressed, his helmet still on, on a stretcher...
...and taken to a local hospital. The "Dolphins" released a statement that Tagovailoa had suffered head and neck injuries and had feeling in all of his extremities.
The Miami "Dolphins" under owner Stephen Ross, is a corrupt organization. Ross is corrupt; the medical staff is corrupted by pervasive organizational corruption. The National Football League, accurately termed here the National Concussion League for years, is corrupt. The commissioner, Roger Goodell, is corrupt. Under Goodell NFL lawyers have vigorously defended the league against concussion-related lawsuits, denying and deriding that there is any connection between their game and the epidemic of concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) that has plagued NFL players during and for long after their playing careers are over. The NFL denies to this day any connection. Tonight Tagovailoa is flying back to Miami with the team. That's the thing about concussions and about this league and about this team: You don't recover, and they don't care. One concussion makes the concussed person more susceptible to future concussions and the full effect does not manifest until later in life. CTE produces depression, incoherence, and has led to suicide among former NFL players.
Joe Flint@JBFlint
Ryan FitzPatrick should not be saying Tua is OK. We don't know that. And even if he may be "OK" now, check back in 30 years.
12:03 AM · Sep 30, 2022·Twitter Web App
Tua Tagovailoa should never have played in this game. I do not believe the company line that Tagovailoa injured his back, not his head, in the Buffalo game. It's all part of this league's and this org's game plan to cover up and to deny the reality that they have organized a competition as a corporate entity that specializes in subjecting its employees to repeated concussions that are "just part of the game."
