The hit that woke the league up

By: George Sdregas

Well, maybe the NFL, individual coaches, and all medical staff across the league learned a little lesson last night. Late in the second quarter of this week’s Thursday night matchup between the Cincinnati Albino Bengals and the once undefeated Miami Dolphins, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa got suplexed into ground and left the game on a stretcher. TNF decided to replay Tua's injury more times than we all would've liked to see.

In all seriousness, Tua’s timeline raises major questions about the NFL concussion protocol. Dr. Chris Nowinski, founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, tweeted just hours before Kickoff that if the Dolphins let Tua play, the league as a whole would take a massive step back in regards to their work on concussion prevention. While he also was also calling for the jobs of the entire Dolphins coaching staff, which may be a stretch, he certainly has a legitimate argument. Just four days ago, Tua was seen stumbling around on the field like a newborn giraffe, having suffered a head injury. On a short week, it would probably be hard to find any real concussion protocol that would agree that he should’ve been on the field tonight. Nevertheless, he suited up. So where did the Dolphins finesse the system? Well, the current protocol calls for a 5 step plan for return to action. A five step plan that is logistically impossible to complete in four days. But there’s a simple solution - just claim the player doesn’t have any concussion symptoms. The first step of the protocol is actually having a concussion. If I had to guess, Tua claimed he felt fine. As for the team doctors, they simply agreed, fearing they would lose their jobs if they decided to sideline the star quarterback who was out to a blistering start to the season. At the snap of a finger, the entire protocol was bypassed.

The solution to this problem seems quite simple. If a player is stumbling around the field like he just left the tailgate lot with an empty handle of Tito’s, have a third party doctor check them for a concussion. Letting teams have their own doctors run concussion tests on their players is equivalent to having teams drug test themselves. No wonder Tua is deciding between saltines and a popsicle right now.

All joking aside, prayers up for Tua and a speedy recovery. I hope this serves as a wake-up call across the league.