Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was carted off the sphere on a stretcher after he appeared to expertise his second head harm in lower than every week when he was thrown to the bottom, hitting his head on the turf, on Thursday night time.
Halfway via the second quarter, Tagovailoa dropped again to go round midfield. Bengals defensive deal with Josh Tupou grabbed Tagovailoa, spun him round and threw him to the bottom. Tagovailoa’s elbow hit the bottom first, after which the again of his helmet.
Tagovailoa instantly raised his palms along with his fingers splayed, a gesture that may be an indication of mind harm known as a “fencing response.” Dolphins trainers ran onto the sphere and after a number of minutes, put Tagovailoa on a stretcher and wheeled him off the sphere.
A couple of minutes later, the broadcasters introduced that Tagovailoa had sustained head and neck accidents, was acutely aware and had been taken to the College of Cincinnati Medical Heart. Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel instructed a sideline reporter that the harm was a “scary second.”
Chris Nowinski, the chief government of the Concussion Legacy Basis who has usually criticized the league’s dealing with of concussions, was unsparing on Thursday night time.
“It is a catastrophe,” he wrote on Twitter quickly after Tagovailoa was wheeled off the sphere. “Pray for Tua. Fireplace the medical staffs and coaches. I predicted this and I hate that I’m proper.”
However Tagovailoa’s harm raised recent questions in regards to the Dolphins’ dealing with of the league’s concussion protocol, which first arose due to the crew’s determination to permit him to re-enter a recreation towards the Buffalo Payments on Sunday after a success during which he appeared to slam his head on the turf left him wobbly.
Within the second quarter of that recreation in Miami, Tagovailoa was pushed to the bottom, hit his head, grabbed the perimeters of his helmet, staggered to his ft and after taking a number of steps, fell to his knees. He walked off the sphere and spent the remainder of the primary half within the locker room, however returned to play within the second half.
His return to the sport prompted the N.F.L. Gamers Affiliation to start an inquiry into the crew’s dealing with of the harm, an possibility added to the collective bargaining settlement in 2020. The method consists of reviewing video and interviewing crew and league medical doctors who recognized Tagovailoa. The method can take weeks.
On Wednesday, the N.F.L. mentioned that it welcomed the inquiry into the dealing with of this incident on Sunday. On a convention name with reporters, Jeff Miller, the league’s government vice chairman of communications, public affairs and coverage mentioned that “each indication” was that the league protocols have been adopted.
The Dolphins listed Tagovailoa as “questionable” on the crew’s harm report forward of Thursday’s recreation with a “again/ankle” concern.
After Tagovailoa’s exit from a second recreation, the league’s confidence in its concussion protocols will probably be questioned anew. His harm in a first-rate time N.F.L. recreation adopted that of Payments cornerback Dane Jackson, who was additionally carted off the sphere throughout a Monday night time recreation on Sept. 19 after he inadvertently collided with teammate Tremaine Edmunds. The hit prompted Jackson’s head and neck to snap again. He was launched from Erie County Medical Heart the next day after being cleared by a CT scan.
“It brings us again to the fact of the violence of the sport, and I hope it offers individuals perspective,” mentioned veteran cornerback Richard Sherman, a commentator for Amazon, which broadcast Thursday’s recreation. “These are human beings and so they have households and so they have futures and so they’re placing all of it out on the road to entertain individuals.”
