Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered another concussion on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, which leaves his status for Week 17 in jeopardy.
NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills discussed the injury on Tuesday, where he revealed that Tagovailoa “exhibited zero injury behaviors and reported zero symptoms” that would have triggered the NFL’s concussion protocol.
“What our spotters and our unaffiliated neuro doctors are looking for is any blow that transmits force to the head or neck area, followed by that injury behavior,” said Sills in an interview with NFL Senior National Columnist Judy Battista via NFL.com. “There are many blows to the head that occur during a game. We are always looking for the blow plus the injury behavior and obviously if we see any injury behavior, then there’s a call down made to evaluate that player.”
“There were no visible signs present, even though there was a blow to the head and the player did not report any symptoms, despite being in contact with the medical staff throughout the game. So, there was nothing that would have triggered the protocol in the moment.”
While Tagovailoa seemingly did not show any visible signs to be pulled out of Sunday’s game, there’s no doubt that his performance suffered greatly after the viral video of his head hitting the ground during a play in the game.
Before the hit, he was 9-of-12 for 229 yards, one touchdown, and zero interceptions. After the hit, he was 7-of-13 for 81 yards, zero touchdowns, and three interceptions.
if this play at 2:40 was Tua's concussion, here are his stats:
pre-concussion: 9/12, 229 yds, 19.1 YPA, 1 TD, 0 INT
post-concussion: 7/13, 81 yds, 6.2 YPA, 0 TD, 3 INTspic.twitter.com/0FvirTtxnR
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) December 26, 2022
Regardless of when the injury was suffered, Tagovailoa should be handled delicately for the remainder of the season by the Dolphins considering the number of head trauma that he has taken this year.
[NFL.com]
