Marcel Louis-Jacques, ESPN
MIAMI GARDENS — For the primary time in 42 days, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa stepped to the rostrum on the group’s coaching facility on Monday. He’d held the door open for a communications staffer, as he all the time does, earlier than taking his acquainted place in entrance of a bunch of media members.
He’d spent the previous 5 weeks on injured reserve after struggling the third concussion of his NFL profession on Sept. 12. Per NFL coverage, gamers on reserve aren’t required to talk to the media. Tagovailoa was technically nonetheless on reserve, however a group supply mentioned he opted to get his weekly information convention out of the best way earlier than his apply window opened in Week 8.
Tagovailoa was terse all through the 13-minute trade, admitting he had been pissed off by the method of going by way of concussion protocol for the third time in two years. He mentioned he’d been absent of any concussion signs since Sept. 13, however the group positioned him on IR so he may relaxation and permit his mind to heal.
He mentioned he did not like the choice to take action — particularly as Miami went 1-3 with out him — however understood the Dolphins’ reasoning.
“What I do know is that I feel the group did what was finest within the curiosity of me,” he mentioned. “Figuring out that I am a competitor, and given what the medical doctors have advised me that having a considerable period of time to relaxation and get better would have been good for me, I feel they did what was finest by way of defending myself from myself.”
On Friday, the Dolphins introduced Tagovailoa would return for Sunday’s sport in opposition to the Arizona Cardinals (1 p.m. ET, CBS). His lengthy street again to motion was a cautious one. It featured visits with a number of neurologists to gauge the dangers of constant to play soccer. Although Tagovailoa says he has been symptom-free for the reason that day after struggling the concussion, his stint on IR was the longest of his profession. And now that he is set to return, his coaches and teammates are urging him to play smarter, together with sliding extra when scrambling.
“Properly, how a lot danger can we take once we rise up within the morning to go drive to work? Get right into a automobile crash, I do not know,” he mentioned this week. “Each time all of us swimsuit up, we’re all taking a danger that we may probably get damage, whether or not it is a concussion, a damaged bone, something. You rise up off of the mattress the mistaken approach, you probably may danger you spraining your ankle.
“There’s simply danger in any and every thing and I am prepared to play the chances, that is it.”
TAGOVAILOA WAS BRIEFLY hospitalized after hitting the again of his head on the bottom and struggling a concussion in a Week 4 sport in opposition to the Cincinnati Bengals in 2022. The blow triggered a fencing response — an unnatural posturing of the higher extremities that signifies a traumatic mind harm — witnessed by a nationwide viewers on “Thursday Evening Soccer.”
He missed two video games earlier than returning to play in one other nationally televised sport in opposition to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Within the first quarter of that sport, he lowered his shoulder into linebacker Devin Bush as he completed off a five-yard scramble. He did it once more to select up a primary down within the third quarter.
“Coach, I am sorry,” Tagovailoa advised McDaniel after the primary hit he initiated. “I wanted that.”
He completed the sport and went on to begin the following 10.
In Week 16, nonetheless, his head hit the bottom once more in opposition to the Inexperienced Bay Packers. He was recognized with one other concussion, which ended his season.
He spent 36 days in concussion protocol earlier than being cleared after the season ended.
“For concussion protocol, I feel the group did me the most important service all through that,” Tagovailoa advised USA As we speak in 2023. “They by no means allowed me to undergo protocol usually till the season was accomplished. In order that’s why it may need appeared prefer it took without end, however they have been simply defending me from myself. And me and my household are very grateful to the Dolphins.”
Based on a group supply, whereas the group didn’t explicitly shut Tagovailoa down for the rest of the 2022 season, he and the group by no means mentioned a timeline to return — an effort to maintain his deal with resting, not a fast development by way of protocol.
When requested, McDaniel mentioned the occasions of that 2022 season wouldn’t affect how Tagovailoa was dealt with in 2024.
“It is vital to strategy every state of affairs very like you strategy each harm, which is mainly, ‘we’ll deal with this explicit state of affairs with this explicit participant,'” McDaniel mentioned the evening Tagovailoa was injured in September. “Each state of affairs is exclusive to its personal. I feel for me, I am not anxious about something that is out of my arms by way of I am simply anxious in regards to the human being. And he’ll drive the ship once we get the suitable info. But it surely’s day-by-day well being actually. Attempt to strategy all that stuff that approach, notably with concussions.”
BASED ON MEDICAL suggestions, Tagovailoa and the Dolphins didn’t set a selected period of time that he wanted to overlook, however they knew he wanted relaxation.
These suggestions led to the group’s Sept. 17 resolution to put Tagovailoa on injured reserve, which mandates a participant miss no less than his group’s subsequent 4 video games.
“The medical specialists deemed that he could be finest served with time,” McDaniel mentioned Monday. “And by way of the roster and equating what that timeline seemed like, it was a bit unknown, and so when the mind’s well being will likely be decided by the point, you make that call. Every concussion is exclusive to its personal, however that is why it’s important to actually depend on people who examine the mind for a dwelling and that was the driving drive (behind the choice).”
McDaniel refused to put a timeline on Tagovailoa’s return within the instant aftermath of his quarterback’s harm. One good thing about injured reserve, he mentioned, is it removes the temptation to return earlier than 4 video games.
It was a constant message from McDaniel not simply to the general public, however to Tagovailoa as properly.
“All of the science behind concussions tells you what we have discovered is how delicate the time is true after an harm and the way vital it’s that you do not institute further sources of tension,” McDaniel mentioned. “So from my vantage level, I really feel it is supremely vital in understanding that, and that I am not giving off any kind of vibes. I am not attempting to even take a look at, ‘OK properly, how critical is that this relative to his previous ones?’
“For me, I completely positively is not going to do something to make something worse or damage any certainly one of our gamers, particularly guys which can be in concussion protocol … There’s plenty of followers and there is lots of people that need to help, however fairly actually, questioning timelines — that offers forth anxiousness. Attempting to satisfy them, attempting to evaluate what this implies for enjoying.”
Ten days after his harm, Tagovailoa traveled with the group for its sport in opposition to the Seattle Seahawks and watched the sport from the sideline, as many injured gamers typically do; nonetheless, that is one thing he didn’t do throughout his earlier stint in concussion protocol in 2022.
He mentioned he was asymptomatic courting again to the day after he was recognized, however was instructed by the group to relaxation throughout his first week on injured reserve — McDaniel, particularly, advised him to deal with being a husband and a father to his two younger youngsters.
Tagovailoa mentioned he briefly thought-about retirement after the 2022 season, and several other former gamers urged him to rethink instantly following his concussion in September. When requested about the opportunity of Tagovailoa’s retirement on Sept. 13, McDaniel mentioned it wasn’t his place to invest.
“I feel it might be so mistaken of me to even sniff that topic,” he mentioned. “His profession is his.”
A group supply advised ESPN that not one of the neurologists Tagovailoa consulted really useful retirement, nor did they specific concern he was at larger danger of further harm after giving his mind time to heal. Tagovailoa mentioned Monday that he by no means thought-about retirement this time round.
Chris Nowinski, the co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Basis, mentioned there isn’t any common period of time a concussed participant should relaxation earlier than being deemed wholesome, however Tagovailoa’s month-long keep on IR was longer than most gamers obtain.
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Yates: Tua Tagovailoa is among the many prime streaming QB choices in Week 8
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“A month off is a big period of time off,” he mentioned. “The query is attempting to foretell the longer term and attempting to play this out, as a result of he comes again in a month and hopefully his mind is recovered, hopefully he would not get unfortunate with an enormous hit and he finishes the season and everybody’s glad.
“But when he will get one other concussion this season, the query on this dialogue will get even more durable.”
Given Tagovailoa’s lack of concussion signs, the Dolphins opened his apply window when he grew to become eligible in Week 8. Previous to his return Sunday, the group and Tagovailoa’s teammates have emphasised to him the significance of defending himself — with an emphasis on him sliding and getting out of bounds throughout scrambles.
“No one — nobody’s kind of recommendation had affected something that I believed by way of returning, so nobody had an impact on it,” Tagovailoa mentioned. “Had some conversations with my spouse, however that was it.”
Nowinski mentioned there are only a few “black and white” indicators that will transfer a physician to medically advocate {that a} participant ought to retire. Amongst them are mind atrophy — which he mentioned is unusual for somebody of their 20s — and chronic concussion signs.
That is to not say there aren’t any long-term results.
“The true retirement query each NFL participant must be having although, is with how snug they’re with growing continual traumatic encephalopathy (CTE),” he mentioned. “The research are clear that the longer you play and the extra hits you are taking, the larger your odds of growing CTE.”
MCDANIEL SUCKED HIS TEETH Monday when reminded of Tagovailoa’s first sport again from concussion protocol in 2022.
His message to his quarterback this time round supplied a callback to Tagovailoa’s sideline feedback two seasons in the past.
“My reply could be, ‘You do not want ‘that one’ this time round,'” McDaniel mentioned, referring to Tagovailoa feeling the necessity to take a tough hit after getting back from a concussion in 2022. “And I feel it has been eye-opening. … He is simply in a special place so far as a frontrunner of this group and feels super accountability to do every thing in his energy to be on the sector, so a part of that’s defending your self. I’ve acquired to ensure that he is correctly protected, however on the similar time I can not management every thing and he has to have the ability to defend himself — whatever the first down conversion that he is attempting to get.”
Tagovailoa acknowledged his accountability to guard himself, saying it requires him to vary part of his aggressive enjoying fashion that dates again to highschool, when he was the top-ranked dual-threat quarterback within the nation. Meaning sliding, getting out of bounds — no matter helps him keep away from contact, when attainable.
His teammates agree.
“Rattling proper, inform his ass on a regular basis,” large receiver Tyreek Hill mentioned Wednesday. “S—, once we have been enjoying in opposition to the Colts, you see the followers begin clapping for [Colts quarterback] Anthony Richardson when he slid. I mentioned our followers must clap for Tua, make him slide. We want you, bro, subsequent play.
“That s— is actual, it is actual. We love him. From brother to brother, we love him. Like he is an enormous a part of this group.”
Whereas Tagovailoa’s keep in concussion protocol is technically longer than any of his earlier stints, his development by way of protocol was slowed by league guidelines.
Gamers can not clear protocol with out being a full apply participant, and gamers on injured reserve will not be allowed to apply till they’ve missed no less than 4 video games.
Tagovailoa is not going to put on a Guardian Cap upon his return, which is worn on prime of a participant’s helmet and is supposed to attenuate the danger of sports-related concussions. The NFL mentioned it noticed a 50% lower in concussions as soon as its gamers started utilizing them in 2021 — however a peer-reviewed examine revealed within the Journal of Athletic Coaching mentioned the info behind the NFL’s declare has by no means been revealed, and the extra safety offered by Guardian Caps is marginal, at finest.
Nowinski, who earned a doctorate diploma in behavioral neuroscience from Boston College, mentioned the upside of sporting a Guardian Cap is “not confirmed” and the 1.5-pound cap would really make Tagovailoa’s head extra prone to strike the bottom.
Tagovailoa didn’t provide perception into why he will not put on one, calling it a “private resolution.”
Tagovailoa wears the VICIS MATRIX QB helmet, which is particularly designed for quarterbacks. A collectively carried out laboratory check run by the NFL and NFLPA discovered it to be safer than sporting a standard helmet with a Guardian Cap atop it.
Nowinski mentioned it is troublesome to say a participant is extra vulnerable to concussions after struggling one.
“The science on that isn’t robust,” he mentioned. “So we are saying that generally, you take a look at particular person instances and general tendencies, you turn out to be extra vulnerable to further concussions the extra concussions you may have. But it surely’s not a straight line for everyone. And the severity of every concussion just isn’t a straight line for everyone.”
Tagovailoa mentioned he is prepared to imagine the dangers. He mentioned he hasn’t paid consideration to any hypothesis exterior the Dolphins’ facility, however he was requested Monday for his message to followers who have been genuinely involved for his well being.
“I respect your concern, I actually do,” he mentioned. “I like this sport and I adore it to the demise of me, that is it.”
