The unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant who cleared Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to return to play during Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills has been fired.
The NFL Players Association exercised its prerogative to remove the consultant from the position, NFL Network, ESPN and NBC Sports reported on Saturday afternoon.
The position is funded jointly by the NFL and the NFL Players Association. The neurotrauma consultants are present at each NFL game, and a player suspected of having sustained a concussion cannot return to the field until being cleared by his team physician and the unaffiliated specialist.
On Sunday, the back of Tagovailoa’s helmet hit the turf when he took a roughing-the-passer hit with two minutes left in the first half against the Bills. He was unsteady getting to his feet, stumbled to the ground after a few steps and was sent off the field.
But when the second half started, the former Alabama All-American was back at quarterback for the Dolphins and helped them rally for a 21-19 victory.
On Friday, Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, said Tagovailoa had passed multiple concussion tests, including one at halftime of the Buffalo game, as well as daily until the Dolphins’ contest on Thursday night against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Sills made the remarks because on Thursday night, Tagovailoa suffered a concussion on a sack severe enough for him to be taken off the field on a stretch and transported to University of Cincinnati Medical Center during the game.
Tagovailoa’s return for the second half after his manner of exit in the first half against Buffalo drew puzzlement and accusations that only intensified after Tagovailoa got hurt again when the back of his helmet hit the ground in the NFL’s Thursday night game.
“I just, like probably most people, I couldn’t believe what I saw last night,” Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh said during his Friday press conference. “I couldn’t believe what I saw last Sunday. It was just something that was astonishing to see. I’ve been coaching for 40 years now in college and the NFL – almost 40, not quite – and I’ve never seen anything like it before. It just was really something that I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, so I really appreciate our doctors, I appreciate our owner, I appreciate our general manager from the standpoint that there’s two things that you have to keep in mind. One of them is the players.
“A lot of times, players want to play. They want to go out there, and they want to play, and sometimes you just have to tell them, ‘No.’ You have to say, ‘No.’ No has to be the answer, and I appreciate that. We had Devin Duvernay a couple weeks ago with his situation, and he didn’t really have much in terms of symptoms and stuff like that, but he was out. He was out for the game, and he was out for most of the week. He never had a symptom, and he didn’t practice the whole week until Friday, I think, when he was finally cleared. I think that’s the approach you take. …
“You don’t put them out there until they’re ready, until they’re ready in their minds. The game is too hard, the game is too tough for a player not to go out there who’s confident in his own ability to protect himself and play well.”
After Sunday’s game, Tagovailoa blamed his unsteadiness on a back injury that he sustained on a quarterback sneak earlier in the first half. But the NFL Players Association almost immediately requested a review of Tagovailoa’s handling to see if the NFL’s concussion protocol guidelines had been followed correctly.
DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the NFL Players Association, explained the reason for the investigation during an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Saturday.
“It focuses on really two things,” Smith said. “One, whether the protocols were followed when there was an obvious indication that he may have suffered a traumatic brain injury last week. The second focus that we have the opportunity to do under the collective bargaining agreement is to look at the decision of the medical personnel and primarily to ensure that they were treating this player like we want all of our players treated – like a patient first instead of a player first.”
The NFL and the NFL Players Association issued a joint statement released on Saturday evening about the investigation, revealing that changes in the league’s concussion procedure would be made.
“The joint NFL-NFLPA investigation into the application of the concussion protocol involving Miami Dolphins’ quarterback Tua Tagovailoa remains ongoing,” the statement read. “Therefore, we have not made any conclusions about medical errors or protocol violations.
“The NFL and the NFLPA agree that modifications to the Concussion Protocol are needed to enhance player safety. The NFLPA’s Mackey-White Health and Safety Committee and the NFL’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee have already begun conversations around the use of the term ‘gross motor instability’ and we anticipate changes to the protocol being made in the coming days based on what has been learned thus far in the review process.
“The NFL and NFLPA share a strong appreciation for the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultants who contribute their time and expertise to our game solely to advance player safety. This program has made our game safer for the athletes who play it for the past 12 seasons.”
· BENGALS’ JOSH TUPOU: ‘I DIDN’T WANT TO HURT TUA’
· DOLPHINS QB SAYS HE’S ‘FEELING MUCH BETTER’
· DOLPHINS COACH: ‘I CAN HEAR NORMAL TUA IN HIS VOICE’
· TUA TAGOVAILOA FACES 5-STEP RECOVERY PROCESS TO RETURN TO PLAY
· MIAMI COACH DEFENDS HANDLING OF QUARTERBACK’S SUNDAY INJURY
· NFL THURSDAY NIGHT: DOLPHINS LOSE QUARTERBACK, GAME
· NFL PLAYERS, SPORTS WORLD WISH MIAMI QB BEST AFTER INJURY
· DOLPHINS GET ‘BEST NEWS’ ON TUA TAGOVAILOA, COACH SAYS
· NFLPA TWEETS CONCERN FOR TUA TAGOVAILOA: ‘INVESTIGATION INTO POTENTIAL PROTOCOL VIOLATION ONGOING’
· AFTER INJURY, NEUROSCIENTIST ATTACKS DOLPHINS: ‘YOU GUYS SHOULD GO TO JAIL’
· MIAMI QB LEAVES THURSDAY NIGHT GAME STRAPPED TO STRETCHER
· CTE PIONEER SAYS TUA TAGOVAILOA SHOULDN’T BE PLAYING
FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
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