Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa doesn’t think the NFL is responsible for his concussion issues, blaming his head injuries on bad luck more than anything else.
The NFL has faced a landslide of criticism over their handling of concussions over the years. That mass of disapproval only grew after Tua Tagovailoa’s 2022 concussion saga.
The Dolphins quarterback was cleared to go back into one game despite displaying worrisome neurological warning signs after a hit. The very next game he suffered another head injury that required him to be carted off the field and sent to the hospital in an ambulance. And that was only the first of two official concussions he suffered before Miami shut him down for the season.
Despite all that, Tagovailoa didn’t bite when asked by CBSHQ if the NFL should be doing anything more to prevent concussions.
“This is a violent sport. We all know what we were signing up for. In my situation, it was bad luck,” Tagovailoa said, per The Miami Herald.
Tua Tagovailoa lets NFL off the hook with “bad luck” explanation
While speaking to USA Today, Tagovailoa credited the Dolphins for “protecting [him] from [himself]” by holding him off from going through concussion protocol until after the season was finished, which is what many talking heads demanded after his second official head injury.
Of course, all of this glosses over the initial failures of the NFL.
Players are more likely to sustain a second concussion after suffering their first and it certainly looks like someone dropped the ball in preventing what went down with Tagovailoa this season. Whether it was taking his initial stumbles against the Bills more seriously or acting with more caution when deciding if he could play days later against the Bengals, more could have been done to protect him from the get-go.
So, yeah, there was some bad luck involved. But as everyone in the NFL preaches, there’s an element to making your own luck as well. That’s precisely why Tagovailoa plans to practice Judo this offseason, so he can learn how to fall better.
The league’s run of “bad luck” in this regard is saying something.
