Tua Tagovailoa was a full participant in practice Thursday, and it seems likely that he’ll be back on the field for the Miami Dolphins’ Week 8 game against the Arizona Cardinals. His final step before clearing the NFL’s concussion protocol is to be cleared by an independent neurological consultant.
Despite another scary scene in September that had former players pleading with him to consider retirement, the star quarterback has opted to pursue a comeback after his fourth known concussion between his college and NFL careers.
Tagovailoa also won’t utilize the new guardian cap option available to players—”personal “hoice”—but helmet safety technology isn’t what’s going to save his career, in my view.
The guy needs to slide.
Tagovailoa’s concussion in Week 2 against the Buffalo Bills could have been avoided if he had dropped his rear end to the ground to slide feet-first and avoid contact, the way quarterbacks have been taught to do it for decades. Instead, after gaining the necessary yardage for a first down on his scramble up the middle, Tagovailoa semi-lunged into Damar Hamlin’s attempted tackle, needlessly lowering his head on the defender.
What makes it all the more frustrating for his supporters and teammates is that this wasn’t one, uncharacteristic bad decision. Tyreek Hill said teammates have been asking Tagovailoa to slide for some time now.
“When we were playing against the Colts, you see the fans start clapping for Anthony Richardson when he slid,” Hill said. “I said our fans need to clap for Tua; make him slide.”
Go back to 2022. After Tagovailoa’s concussion against the Bengals—the fencing response and hospitalization, the controversy around whether he was properly cleared to play in the days before the game—it took less than a month before he returned to face the Steelers.
Twice in that game, he lowered his head and shoulder at the end of a run, scaring the daylights out of everyone watching.
The following week, Tagovailoa summarized: “Obviously, I had my coaches telling me, ‘We don’t ever want you to do this.’ Obviously, I get that, coming off the injury and what happened prior with the concussion. To me, it’s football. You go out there, and for me, I can see the first down in instances and want to do all that I can to get it.”
There’s the entire issue.
Tagovailoa lets his competitive instincts override his need for self-preservation. It resulted in another concussion last month against Buffalo. Now his teammates and coaches are basically begging him to slide.
“We can say those things to him until we’re blue in the face, but one thing that I would say that’s always my saying is, ‘Hey, you can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink, right?’“ Dolphins RB Raheem Mostert said Thursday. “We’re going to bring Tua to that water, but we can’t make him drink. He has an understanding of that, and moving forward, he’s going to do his best.”
That’s a pretty wild admission to make about your highly-paid franchise quarterback! Even setting aside Tagovailoa’s own well-being, his greatest ability is availability when it comes to the well-being of the team. Miami is 1-3 since his injury. They’re counting on him to play things safer, or at least wiser, in service of the team’s long-term goals.
NC State quarterback Grayson McCall retired from football this week after suffering the latest in a series of concussions. McCall was a terrifically fun player to watch in his Coastal Carolina days before transferring, but his most recent helmet-jarring hit was unfortunately the last straw.
“Brain specialists, my family, and I have come to the conclusion that it is in my best interest to hang the cleats up,” McCall wrote on social media. “As I feel like my whole world is being taken from me, I feel some sense of contentment. Every time my feet hit the grass, I left every single ounce of myself on that field. I always played my hardest and to the best of my ability because I never knew what play would be my last.”
However much you think ACC quarterbacks make in NIL money, McCall didn’t sniff one one-hundredth of Tagovailoa’s career earnings from football.
Put another way, Tagovailoa has financial security to retire early.
McCall had plenty more to play for if he were stubborn enough.
McCall made his decision. Tagovailoa has made his.
Players’ personal medical histories vary wildly, as do their motivations, so concussion-related decisions will never be one-size-fits-all.
“I appreciate your concern. I really do,” Tagovailoa said to those who are worried for his health. “I love this game. And I love it to the death of me.”
I just hope he’s listening to the concerns of his coaches and brothers on the Dolphins.