Former Steelers LB Ryan Shazier Addresses Tua Tagovailoa Situation
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PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers held alumni weekend at Acrisure Stadium, hosting former players at the game and allowing them to interact with fans prior to kickoff.
It's always a joyful weekend for the team, but with Ryan Shazier in the building, a trending topic within the NFL needed to be addressed.
Shazier's career ended with a spinal cord injury that limited his movements in his lower extremities. The injury that happened in 2017 stopped the momentum of what appeared to be the next great Steelers linebacker.
Now that he's on the other side of the injury, and the devastating result of what could happen in an NFL game, Shazier is open to talking about others who experience traumatizing injuries.
Shazier spoke about the recent concussion of Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa that stormed through the NFL due to a terrifying reaction from Tagovailoa's hands.
"I was praying for him. I was hoping the best for him," Shazier said. "The one thing as a player, you always want to be out there, you always want to play, you always want to push the edge. You always feel like you can play the next game. The only thing I always thought is that we need to continue to take care of ourselves and make sure that we put ourselves in the best position. As a football player, there's times when I want to push past a little bit further than I need to go, and sometimes it hurt me and sometimes it helped me.
"I don't know the whole situation, I don't know what happened beforehand. I just know unfortunately he hit his head, and when he got slammed down that was a pretty hard hit. Anybody that got hit in that situation would've had a concussion. I just wish the best for him and I hope that everything is taken care of the right way."
Tagovailoa's situation is controversial because of the circumstance. He was hit in Week 3 against the Buffalo Bills and stumbled when trying to get to his feet. He was evaluated for a concussion but cleared to return to the game. The team then labeled the injury a back issue.
The independent doctor involved in the decision was fired for his evaluation of Tagovailoa, and the NFL made changes to their concussion protocol in hopes of resolving the issue.
Shazier said there's not much the league or team can do, but rather the players need to hold each other accountable.
"Honestly, just anything in life, if you really want something bad enough, even if you're not feeling 100%, you're going to give it the best you have," Shazier said. "Whether you're in football, in basketball, at work, if you feel like if you need to go this extra effort to get this promotion or to get this [whatever], you're going to do that. That's how football players think when they're playing football."
"The biggest thing is for us to hold ourselves accountable, but to have someone close to you that holds you accountable as well. If I wasn't feeling well on the field, T.J. [Watt] would've let somebody know, 'Hey, Ryan isn't looking like himself.' Or Vince [Williams] would say, 'Ryan doesn't look like himself.' I think we have to have more guys in the locker room that hold us more accountable for ourselves. Obviously, we all want to win, but sometimes we have to hold ourselves accountable when it comes to health not just wins."
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