Tua Tagovailoa Suffers Concussion, Dolphins Staff Potentially Facing Punishment?
There is major controversy surrounding Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins' front office after their star quarterback was diagnosed with a concussion following last night's loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
This Sunday, third-year quarterback Tua Tagovailoa got rocked on a play and came back up wobbling. While he was taken off of the field, the Dolphins’ third-year quarterback returned to the game after the medical staff determined that it was a back injury and not a concussion. Following Sunday’s games, there was a lot of backlash surrounding the Dolphins’ decision to send Tua back into the game.
Miami’s starting QB was off to a dazzling start this season for 765 yards, seven touchdowns and just one interception. The Dolphins foolishly allowed Tua to play on Thursday after sustaining an undiagnosed concussion on Sunday. Clearing the red-hot QB last night was a worst case scenario in motion which then took place on the field.
He spent more than 10 minutes laying down on the field with his fingers sticking out of his hands in agony. Tua was rushed to the hospital and was later diagnosed with a concussion. Fortunately, Tagovailoa sustained no structural damage to his neck (particularly any spinal discs).
Veteran backup Teddy Bridgewater took over for the Dolphins as they were handed their first loss of the 2022 regular season. Heading into Sunday, the 3-0 Philadelphia Eagles are the only remaining undefeated team in the league.
Tua traveled back with the Miami Dolphins back to South Florida last night and left the team in “good spirits” according to reports. Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniels stated that he would never want to jeopardize the health and well-being of his players. He looked spineless and rightfully humiliated by his disastrous decision to allow Tagovailoa to play on Thursday night. None of the decisions he and his coaching staff have made on Sunday, or throughout the week (in practices, reps, etc…), or Thursday night indicate that he meant anything which came out of his mouth in the post-game press conference last night. It is my opinion, as it is Stephen A Smith's, that some people on the Dolphins’ coaching staff need to be held severely accountable.
The NFL community of current and former players has come out vocally about this situation. No one is speaking about the Cincinnati Bengals’ victory or the fact that the Philadelphia Eagles are the only remaining undefeated team in the NFL. Former TE Benjamin Watson, who is and has been a vocal activist on many issues for a long time, stressed that he knew what he saw on Sunday and that anyone who’s been in Tua’s shoes would know too.
ESPN’s Bart Scott said on First Take today that the Dolphins may have taken advantage of the fact that a guy like Tua is still trying to secure his position as the team’s starting quarterback of the future in order to guarantee that he and his family are taken care of financially for life. In such a scenario, the player in question will do everything in their power to stay on the field no matter how hard they get hit. This was likely the case for Tua on Sunday. Scott was on point today, also explaining that the Dolphins are desperately trying to hold on to their current playoff-potential status. They’ll certainly have a better chance of achieving that if Tua is on the field and not Teddy-B. If Tua can't suit up for Week 4, every single member of the Miami Dolphins should see a slight downtick in value with Bridgewater under center. That being said, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle should still hold significant value, particularly in PPR formats.
Tua never got a chance to try to come back into the contest Thursday night though. Instead he walked out of the hospital this time with a professionally diagnosed concussion by medical experts (who don’t work on the Dolphins’ staff clearly) and flew back to Miami where he can hopefully recover from the injury and what was a simply unacceptable set of decisions by the NFL team he plays for.
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