Tua Should Consider Retirement After Multiple Concussions – NBC 6 South Florida

For the second time in the last 12 games, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa missed action after being placed in the National Football League’s protocol for concussions. Tagovailoa is in the protocol after suffering from symptoms after taking a hit in last Sunday’s loss to Green Bay.

For those of you keeping track, that means the third-year quarterback has had as many as three concussions over a 13-game period – the last one suffered against the Packers, one suffered in Week 4 against Cincinnati that required him to be taken off the field on a stretcher and possibly one the week before against Buffalo when he kept playing for some reason.

In the ever-changing world where we are learning more about the dangers of playing football, the large number of concussions suffered by Tagovailoa in such a short period proves one thing: Tua needs to at least consider calling it a career.

There is an argument to be made that Tua should have been shut down after suffering what looked like concussions in back-to-back games earlier in the season. But it seemed to be clear to some fans and maybe some within the organization that winning mattered more than the future health of their big-name signal caller.

Anyone who has ever played the game of football like me at either the prep, college or professional level knows how real the dangers of a concussion are. The fear of suffering any kind of injury to your brain is something that many football players prepare for knowing that it can change life for both them and their families.

I’ve watched former teammates who are only in their late 30s still suffer the lingering effects of vicious hits that came with playing high school football in the state of Florida. I’ve seen former players associated with my father’s time with the team at Florida State University who are deep in the world of suffering from what we can assume is the brain degeneration known as CTE.

In all fairness, the NFL and the NCAA have done a much better job in recent years in increasing the focus on player safety and protections from concussions. However, when the standards before were essentially “how many fingers am I holding up,” both governing bodies had no choice but to do something.

I get the sentiment from some former professional players who believe that the amount of money made in their careers was worth all the medical care needed just to get out of bed each morning. I also understand that there are people who’ve never played a down of football in their lives who care more about the winners and losers than the future health of those players.

I also get as many as three concussions in less than a single season is beyond too many for a single player. What’s it going to take for people to realize the seriousness of even one concussion? Is a player going to have to die on the field from a serious head injury for people to understand the problem?

I’ll admit that I have been a critic of Tagovailoa during his Dolphins career based on his performance, but on this subject I am expressing my concern as someone who genuinely doesn’t want anything bad to happen to him. Whether he does it or not is up to Tua, but at this point it is something he should at least consider.