Miami "Dolphins" starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, of course, did not play today after suffering a horrific concussion ten days ago. His backup, Teddy Bridgewater, finished that Cincinnati game and started today in New York against the "Fast Planes." Bridgewater didn't last long. On Miami's first play from scrimmage Bridgewater took a hard hit and landed harder in the "Dolphins" end zone for a safety. Safety is not in the National Concussion League's operational manual, however. Bridgewater immediately left the game and was ruled out for the remainder (Rookie 7th round pick Skylar Thompson finished.) with an elbow and...head injury. The "Dolphins" say Bridgewater passed the initial concussion screening, and perhaps he did, but that is exactly what they said about Tagovailoa when he hit his head very hard on the turf against Buffalo on Sept. 25, four days before the "fencing reaction" injury against Cincy.

There was nothing dirty about the hit on Bridgewater today; there was an unnecessary push on Tagovailoa in the Buffalo game that drew a penalty, the whipsawing to the ground in the Cincinnati game too but neither hit on Tagovailoa was a deliberate violent "move" by the tacklers, the Cincy whipsaw was a freak variation on a perfectly legal tackle. NFL players are so big, so fast, and so powerful--the human body, even super-protected, is not meant to endure hits like happen in every game, every week.

Even hits the body is designed to endure can result in scary results. Today in Foxboro, Massachusetts in a game between New England and Detroit, "Lions" cornerback Saivion Smith had to be taken from the field by ambulance after sustaining a neck injury on this play.

I don't see how Smith got so badly injured but he sure enough was.

It's the game that is so dangerous, not the violence of individual players.