Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa returned last week after being evaluated for a concussion. He started in Thursday Night Football despite back and ankle injuries.
But his night ended early with a scary injury.
Tagovailoa was sacked for a 10-yard loss by Josh Tupou with 5:57 remaining in the first half. The back of his helmet bounced off the turf in Cincinnati.
He was placed on a stabilizing board before being loaded onto a stretcher.
Amazon showed repeated images of a “fencing response” in Tagovailoa’s hands, which is a neurological response to head trauma.
The entire Dolphins team walked to midfield out of concern for Tagovailoa.
Tagovailoa was 8-of-14 for 110 yards and an interception.
Teddy Bridgewater has replaced Tagovailoa.
Prayers for Tua. That looked potentially career ending.
Someone is definitely getting fined. No way he experienced that much head trauma on that weak sack without some kinda prior injury.
The repeated zooming in was kinda gross.
Well that wasn’t a back injury. Hopefully he is okay. That looked scary.
Shame on the Dolphins. Period.
Miami’s team doctors are criminals
He should NEVER have been on the field after last Sunday’s concussion.
Hate to see this. Poor kid should have never been allowed to play. Miami should be sued big time! An ugly look if they lied about the injury being back related
The entire Dolphins fan base claimed it was just a back injury last week and the other 31 teams saw a concussion. Dolphins gambled with Tua’s life sending him back out there tonight. His hands indicate a traumatic brain injury. The entire organization and the NFL are accountable.
NFL’s investigation was a sham.
Brutal tackle. Hope he’s ok.
He should’ve never been in the field in the first place after what happened against Buffalo. Shame on the Dolphins for putting him out there.
Blame this on Dolphins trainers. Tua was concussed last week and they cleared him to play.
Clearly him stumbling around last week was not due to a back injury. Getting brain trauma on Sunday and then going out and playing QB again on Thursday is not a plan for success. I just hope for his sake that he’s not done for good, because these concussions aren’t going to stop happening if he keeps taking such hits.
He never should have been out there tonight. There needs to be a full investigation
That’s twice his head has bounced off the turf violent trauma. Hope he is OK BUT I feel he needs to be put on IR and take 10 months to get better. The Dolphins have failed him
Hoping for the best possible outcome…
But it calls into question last week and how he was allowed to return after leaving the game so woozy in the first half.
And to Tyreek, how can Tua be “the most accurate quarterback in the NFL” when he cannot throw a deep ball? Don’t those factor into it accuracy, or only screen passes?
This is Bridgewater’s first legit shot at picking up where his career got derailed by the devastating knee injury he suffered in Minnesota. He’s got the receivers, the defense and the head coach.
IT’S TEDDY TIME! . In all seriousness, that was terrifying to watch Tua sprawled out like that. God speed, Tua.
I’m sure the staff will try to bring him back for the 3rd quarter!!
hope that young man fully recovers; that was a brutal hit
To watch, it didn’t look like his head hit all that hard. I wonder if he should have even played tonight given the shot he took last week.
He can’t stay healthy, it was known coming out of college. The Dolphins are toast.
He had a concussion last week and this week may have ended his career. He should not have played this week. He’s a tough kid but you need to take care of yourself. No one else is going to be responsible for you if you aren’t for yourself. I hope he’s okay. I want to watch him and battle Buffalo for years to come.
Proves that everyone involved lied through their teeth about his “back” being injured. They even got the medical personal to lie because they’re terrified of the liability. No words for how embarrassingly shameful this is.
Thoughts are with Tua. The Dolphins failed him- two weeks in a row. I hope he has a full and speedy recovery.
Stop laying on the situation fans. Jesus. Dude got absolutely whipped into the turf and hit his head. Let’s not sit here and root for a major head injury. That says more about you and that’s not a compliment. Hopefully this isn’t career ending.
Of course it was a head injury just now. But for all of you saying Miami is at fault for allowing him to play must not know the rules and policy. Once again, an independent neurologist cleared Tua last game. Not a Miami employee!!!
Ok – he was woozy last time and they said it was his back. He didnt know how to fall after being pushed. Now this hit wasnt that hard – have seen much harder when guys fall on QBs with their full body force – and now his fingers go crazy. I hope that he is OK but it seems to me – that his head cant take any type of trauma and he probably shouldnt have been playing and now he has had back to back concussions in less that one week.
Bill’s Fan here. Gritty win last week by the ‘Fins, but should MIA should NEVER have started him this week. I hope the NFL and Dolphins organization are held accountable. Head, back, spine, whatever… the kid should never have seen the field today, especially on a short week. Hope he heals up, I like a little rivalry in the AFC East!
Should had never let this young man play in the first place! That was hard to watch.
If the independent doctor cleared him it has nothing to do with the team. Most nfl players that wanna get back in the game know what to say to the doctor. The questions are all standard. It’s an easy test to pass and easy to fool a doctor.
Fins up for Tua! Hope he’s okay.
Hope Tua is ok. If Tua was hurt prior to this game, Miami brass all need to be penalized and suspended.
5 minutes later the Bengals get flagged for picking up the Dolphins RB and body slamming him to the ground… smh. Two weeks ago Travis Kelce got body slammed (although even Kelce said if was half his fault) to the ground and no call was made. The NFL is becoming the WWE
Thoughts and prayers for Tua from Patriot Nation!
So basically the Dolphins just caught in a lie. Tua obviously did suffer a concession last Sunday and should not have been playing. This is a real bad look for the league and the Dolphins.
Somebody needs to lose their job for letting him back on the field. Last week was obviously a concussion cover up.
i hope he recovers, he should not have been allowed to play tonight.i doubt he will play football ever again. Shame on the NFL for allowing him to play, and shame on the dolphins for allowing him to play.
Dolphins head coach should be suspended for a year for covering up first head injury.
Horrible injury. No way he should have been playing.
chino62885 says: September 29, 2022 at 9:36 pm Someone is definitely getting fined. No way he experienced that much head trauma on that weak sack without some kinda prior injury.
Agreed. There is already an investigation into how Tua was allowed to finish the game last week, they now have much more to investigate.
Top CTE dr says don’t put him out there, dolphins and the nfl, say otherwise.
People need to be fired,
The fingers were a scary sight. He obviously should not have even been on the field tonight, as that sack was routine and not even especially brutal. Young coach has got to learn when to hold em and when to fold em!
This is all on Miami and the NFL,they sacrificed this poor kid.
What the Dolphins organization did is negligent and potentially criminal. I hope he’s okay.
Just remember, money is far more important than good football or the health of the players. We must force these teams to play with only 3 days rest…. Even if they’ve clearly had concussions.
Some of you don’t know what you are talking about. Last week he was cleared by team doctors and a neurological Doctor Who is not affiliated with the team he gets the final say. That tackle was a bit excessive because he was slam to the ground.
As a fan I wanted to believe it was a back injury with that being said I totally agree that someone is accountable for this starting with the independent Medical doctor on the field and including the Dolphin’s doctors
Somebody from Miami’s in big trouble for this. No way this guy should have suited up tonight.
Oh yes, just a back injury. This is what happens when morons ignore the science. And the damage to Tua is just a small part of the damage to other kids, run by coaches, colleges and organizations that put the win first. Time for Tretter to do more as a player rep. When tua is 50 and can’t remember his kids’ names, McDaniel will be just fine – but he feels strongly about player safety, to a fault, gets emotional about it – right McDaniel? Shameful.
Hopefully all independent media stop repeating the “all protocol was followed” line. Hold the NFL accountable.?Strip the Dolphins of all seven draft picks.
NFL protocal has independant doctors NON TEAM AFFILIATED in every game and last week the NFL independant doctors cleared Tua to return to the game. It was not “Dolphins doctors” who cleared him with some conspiracy. Once again a bunch of idiots talking about things they know nothing about. Thats why our country is going down the drain.
Shame shame shame. On the Dolphins and the NFL – we know what you did. The owners – for greedily pushing for Thursday games all season and not giving players enough recovery time. Not a Dolphins fan, but this makes me sick to my stomach.
Hope he is okay. But the storm heading McDaniels and the dolphins medical staff’s way is going to huge after the “back incident” on Sunday
The rebound off of modern turf is ridiculous, it absorbs nothing.
Oh and on the independent medical evaluator. He was told it was a back injury and had to follow what the team said so had limited scope on the concussion front. In rugby if a player falls like tua did then the team has no say if the observing doctor say it’s a concussion
Goodell needs to fine the Dolphins a million and take away their 1st round draft pick. Seems far worse to lie about a concussion than Brady allegedly deflating footballs
Make Ross sell the team. This is worse than anything Snyder has done and they want him out.
I didn’t see anything wrong with the tackle. It didn’t look like he hit too hard.
After last weeks hit, how in the hell was he allowed to even finish that game, let alone start the next week. An extra few days to Sunday obviously wouldn’t have been enough, who really thought three days would be the magic number?
This is exactly what players were talking about years ago on how the Thursday night games throw a giant wrench into everything. For the most part it’s just been the overall play, and tonight the worst possible outcome.
Mike that was utterly disgusting my man I know it was definitely a 3 party collaboration and there’s no way he didn’t have a concussion last week if you watch him he goes through the same motions as last week minus the fingers curling but hes grabbing at his head again
This was ugly and a horrible coincidence but after watching Tua’s post game interview on Sunday…no way he was concussed during the Bills game.
All the career is over talk is nonsense..Nobody knows how serious it is. It’s definitely a neck injury not back..I had the same exact injury to my C3/C4. It could be a stinger, could be as serious as a hernia/Slipped disc..both repairable. I was in Law Enforcement and didn’t miss too much time and I worked 14 yrs after minor surgery..let’s see what the Drs say b4 we end his career..either way well wishes Tua..God Speed
Just to clear up who is responsible for clearing the player. This is from the NFL protocol on concussions. The team is responsible:
“…the decision to return a player to a game remains exclusively within the professional judgment of the Head Team Physician or his/her physician designee responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of concussion.”
The Dolphins fans pinning this on an “independent” neurologists just aren’t looking at this objectively. The team doctor, trainers and coaching staff have the ability, and should have the common sense, to keep Tua off the field. It doesn’t take a neurologist to do the right thing. They put winning above the player’s health, plain and simple.
I have no special expertise in neurology, I thought I might be able to help shed some light on neurologic exams. I agree that the Miami dolphins handling of Tua’s apparent concussion Sunday was disgraceful. Some sports programs administer a written cognitive assessment test before the season which is graded in several categories for later reference. Then if a student athlete does undergo a concussion, they take the exam again if they do not score as high as the initial test what is a regard to say I have not sufficiently recovered from concussion. I think it is likely to use some similar should evaluation for a quick locker room evaluation of mental status. In trauma and in every other phase of medicine, physicians use mini mental status exam for quick evaluation of mental status. These vary in the degree of involvement but usually involve determining if a patient is oriented to person time and place. Their name, the date, where they are, and question such as who is the president, and sometimes asking the patient to recall three words they are given at the start of the exam, and often including copying a drawing of an image or drawing a clock etc.
The dolphins assertion that this was a back and ankle issue after the game is disgraceful and disgusting, if his lower extremity instability was caused by a direct blow to the spinal cord that is an infinitely worse diagnosis commonly referred to as a bruised spinal cord.
At the very least this neurological consultant must be replaced and should never work for the league again in this capacity. Parenthetically I am also very disappointed in Coach McDaniels. I had thought him a very bright and engaging character, on him mousy, misleading, and prevaricating and his stuttering stammering fence the team put into it back in after a 100% clear concussion. I would bet the most likely scenario is that this “trauma neurologist“ performs a more or less full neurologic exam in the locker room: this involves question and answers but also the full battery of simple neurologic tests such as finger to nose, eye exam, pupillary examination walking a straight line checking reflexes checking strength and all four extremities etc. Clearing him to return Sunday was more than negligent or incompetent: it was certainly illegal.
That was scary. I am no doctor, but last week surely looked more like a brain injury than a spine injury. Even if it was a back injury, how the hell is he back on field in 4 days, with a two hour flight in between, no less? I can see this being a landmark case for NFL/medical staff/spotters, etc… They must be furious at Al Michaels saying that a former team doctor said that the hands were the result of “neuropathic head trauma”…It is a fact that concussions are typically more severe each successive time. Compound that with only about 100 hours between occurrences, and you have a recipe for disaster. Hope he gets healthy soon, but I really think this could end up being a huge story.
randalpnaditch says: September 29, 2022 at 10:01 pm The rebound off of modern turf is ridiculous, it absorbs nothing.
This is absolutely part of this story. Shame on the Dolphins for playing Tua this week, but also shame on the Bengals for having outdated artificial turf. The only team in the AFC North not playing on grass.
datruth407 says: September 29, 2022 at 9:55 pm
Some of you don’t know what you are talking about. Last week he was cleared by team doctors and a neurological Doctor Who is not affiliated with the team
You’re wrong. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Look it up. Final say falls to the Team Doctor.
Eerily similar reaction to what happened to Budda Baker (AZ vs LAR) on playoffs last week. It’s a violent sport with violent results…
Poor kid…this is, in my view, criminal…his life is on the line…a player does not decide when they continue to play… that is like asking a kid if they want an ice cream or a cookie…
Keep that bee hive padding on his helmet that they wore n trying camp!!
Just hope the young man gets better and he shouldn’t play for a prolonged period of time, he has a trauma issue and just get better and to the bottom of it.
“A neurological Doctor Who” indeed
Why wasn’t Tupou penalized on his throw-down of Tua? The NFL says rules are in place to protect the quarterback. There is no consistency in NFL officiating. Goodell should fine himself $1M along with the head of NFL officiating for being so bad. Most importantly, lets hope Tua recovers to lead a normal life, even if he no longer plays NFL football again. When NFL players go beyond tackles with throw-downs and targeted hits, they should be suspended without pay for as long as the injured player is out, fined accordingly, and their team should be forced to turn over a 2nd-round draft pick or more to the offended team. The players who cause these type of injuries are never adversely affected and they should be. Set examples to prevent it from hapening again.
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