OT: NFLPA Terminates Unaffiliated Neurotrauma Consultant in Tua Case
The NFLPA has exercised its option to terminate the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant involved in the handling of Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's concussion review during last Sunday's game against the Buffalo Bills, CBS Sports NFL Insider Jonathan Jones reports. The NFLPA made the decision after discovering "several mistakes" made by the doctor in its view, according to Jones.
Tagovailoa initially appeared to suffer a blow to the head last Sunday. He attempted to get up and run to the huddle but stumbled and fell to the ground. The Dolphins announced that he was questionable to return to the game due to a head injury as Tagovailoa was undergoing a concussion evaluation; however, the NFL's independent specialist in consultation with the team doctor deemed Tagovailoa was not suffering from a head injury but rather one to his back that caused instability. Tua later returned to the game, leading Miami to a 21-19 win over Buffalo.... <snip>
The NFLPA initiated a review of the matter early this week. On Thursday, Tagovailoa was cleared to play against the Cincinnati Bengals after he tested negative for concussion symptoms every day leading into the game. He started for the Dolphins under center but sustained a head injury during the contest after he was slammed to the ground on a sack.
Also
The NFL and NFLPA released a joint statement on Saturday night indicating that the league's concussion protocol will be changed in the wake of the controversy surrounding the handling of Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's recent injuries.
"The NFL and NFLPA agree that modifications to the Concussion Protocol are needed to enhance player safety," the statement read. "The NFLPA's Mackey-White Health & 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 being made in the coming days based on what has been learned thus far in the review process.
No specific changes yet. [CBS Sports link]
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:24 AM ^
CYAs quickly!
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:30 AM ^
“Find yourself a fall guy”
-Cris Carter
October 2nd, 2022 at 2:19 PM ^
Not just a Fall Guy, but a distraction.
Every news story and every talking head are all about the same BS, who do they point the finger at for letting Tua play. But that is not the problem. Concussion protocols are just a band aid.
THE REAL ISSUE, that nobody has mentioned, is why does the quarterback have to be tackled so violently and slammed on the back of his head with the purpose of hurting him. I’ve heard “play violently” is part of the culture. But just maybe, for the sake of human lives and the quality of life, violent tackling could be outlawed. And coaches like Sean Payton who institute a culture of bounties for injuries should be permanently fired. And just look at the guy who tackled Tua so violently and how he was celebrated afterward by his teammates. That’s a culture we can kill. I don’t need MMA in football.
IT IS THE UNNECESSARY VIOLENT HIT THAT CAUSED THIS.
Concussion protocols are just the left hand trying to distract the public from what is really going on in the right hand.
October 2nd, 2022 at 2:35 PM ^
If you want to make “violent tackling” a penalty, how are you going to define it?
October 2nd, 2022 at 3:01 PM ^
That’s a typical excuse.
When they decided to go to the moon did they have to know how they would get there (ed) first! Of course not.
October 2nd, 2022 at 3:06 PM ^
There not their, and you dodged the question with an inapposite analogy
October 2nd, 2022 at 5:12 PM ^
It’s a bull shit question.
As a leader in business I’ve set goals without all the answers and my team and I figured it out and achieved the results. If we took the time to deal with all the naysayers we wouldn’t have achieved what we did.
October 2nd, 2022 at 3:27 PM ^
They’ve already made many rule changes to try to lessen the risk of injury, and have improved helmet technology as well. Maybe there’s more that can be done, but you can never eliminate the risk of injury without changing the nature of what will always be a violent game, and the violence is a big reason why football is so popular. Would you watch flag football? I wouldn’t.
October 2nd, 2022 at 4:01 PM ^
I support your point however they pretty much knew how to get to the moon in the 1950s and 60s. The method chosen was lunar orbit rendezvous which actually had been worked early in the 20th century by some Ukranian guy. There was debate about how to get to the moon but NASA chose LOR in July of 1962 months before JFK's famous space speech.
October 2nd, 2022 at 4:21 PM ^
Great background on the moon. Thanks.
But it’s not about the analogy.
We set goals because they are the right thing to do and never do we have all the answers before hand.
“It’s not possible” is an all too common excuse. Fortunately not everyone looks at things that way.
In politics, “tell us your plan with all the details” is often a political attack tactic to pick apart the opposition where those attacking are not offering any solutions of their own.
October 2nd, 2022 at 5:40 PM ^
So the analogy no longer matters when the example is proven false?
October 2nd, 2022 at 3:29 PM ^
I imagine there are a few ways you could start: expanding the definition of what is “unnecessary roughness” and/or more conservatively defining what is a legal tackle, then provide greater penalties for players who don’t play accordingly. Continue to adjust each season.
October 3rd, 2022 at 12:30 AM ^
The rag dolling approach to tackling a QB would be fixed just by bringing back the "in the grasp" rule, which the NFL should do at this point imo.
October 2nd, 2022 at 2:35 PM ^
Double post
October 2nd, 2022 at 3:56 PM ^
BoFan, as I'm sure you know, football is a violent game. While improvements can always be made in safety, the one thing that cannot be done, without changing the basic nature of the game, is take violence out of it. Which a rule like, "you tackled too hard" would equate to. So football either: 1) remove all pads, go back to soft helmets and make tackling more like rugby or 2) continues down the road its on by improving safety on the margins.
As a fan, we can either accept the violence or stop watching (so the wallet doesn't finance it.) I've tried the latter and it's all good until Michigan is beating Ohio State and then I'm yelling at the TV as I'm looking for one of the good guys to knock one of the bad guys into last week.
October 2nd, 2022 at 4:18 PM ^
I'm supportive of doing some things to change the nature of the game. Removing hard pads and helmets (and substituting them with something which still protects the head and eyes but doesn't encourage using them as a weapon) would require more technique in wrapping up and taking a ball carrier down rather than trucking into them at full speed.
October 2nd, 2022 at 5:30 PM ^
UM85
Yours is a great and constructive post. Thanks.
Targeting is a good rule that starts at the edges. There are many who don’t like targeting but many of us would rather see a few bad targeting calls (which are rare with video replay) in exchange for long term brain health.
Tackling and aggressive hitting to get someone down is fine. Violent hitting to make someone think twice about running at you or catching the ball is probably going to remain acceptable.
What is not acceptable are tackles made with the intent to injure a star player like violently slamming someone on their already injured back and head. He had Tua tackled without that extra move. The rest was an intent to injure. It’s no different than the player who throws in that extra 360 degree twist of the knee after the tackle is pretty much already over. How would everyone feel if that was a 45 year old Tom Brady slammed down like that?
This is a cultural thing where some think injuring a player is acceptable to win a game. Think about that for a moment. There are some coaches and players that think it is acceptable to ruin someones health or career, damage someones ability to care for their family, just to win a game. We all know this culture exists and there are certainly things that can be done. Some changes will scratch at the margins. Some can be the equivalent of a nuclear button and put a stop to it with some collateral damage, not to the game, but to a few players with no intent.
October 2nd, 2022 at 5:13 PM ^
It was definitely the brand new coach who won his first few games thinking he was invincible and not wanting the hype train to stop he put wins in front of player health despite what he says he’s full of it.
October 2nd, 2022 at 6:00 PM ^
The coach that wants the injured star player back in the game, the coach that wants his players to cause the injury, and the players with the intent to injure, all to win a “game”, are equally as bad.
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:53 AM ^
It’s obvious that this whole “independent” concussion protocol they implemented was just a matter of avoiding liability. Any layperson could tell that Tua experienced a horrible concussion in that Bills game and should not have seen the field against the Bengals.
October 2nd, 2022 at 12:47 PM ^
Even Brady Hoke!
/too soon???
October 2nd, 2022 at 1:46 PM ^
I'm sure Hoke was at least partially aware of what Tua was experiencing
October 2nd, 2022 at 2:59 PM ^
But can he still hear football if wearing. A headset?
clap, clap, clap
October 3rd, 2022 at 2:27 PM ^
The doctor seems like a convenient fall-guy. I'm skeptical of the "independent" nature of the concussion doctors, but frankly I don't know enough about their employment and relationship to the team to know whether my skepticism is justified. Would love to see info from someone who has insider knowledge of this arrangement.
October 2nd, 2022 at 11:59 AM ^
Not sure why it will take "days" to figure it out - if a player gets concussed, or is unstable while trying to walk - he's out of that game and and the next, beginning immediately. Guess they don't want to hurt the bookies' feelings, lots of money on these games...
I had to turn off NFL Live this morning, they were on a self-righteous bender about Tua that was a good 15 minutes long before I tuned out. Seriously, how long do 5 people need to report this news?
October 2nd, 2022 at 12:34 PM ^
I’m no doctor and there are plenty of actual doctors on this board so maybe I can ask as a question…why is it hard to accurately assess the existence of a concussion. Can you not test this easily? I mean I know why for your average joe but surely these NFL teams could buy or access just about any test or equipment they’d need, no?
and doctors or not…if someone was more than likely concussed, even if you can’t test it easily, why isn’t the policy to err on the side of caution? Yes yes I know…money. But still. This is a human being who has far more valuable to this business if he can play several more years than if he is down for the season or career due to traumatic Brian injury no?
October 2nd, 2022 at 12:45 PM ^
I’m a resident but concussions are diagnosed clinically based on symptoms but can’t be seen on imaging. So it was probably a judgment call based on clinical findings. I haven’t read much about this though
October 2nd, 2022 at 12:46 PM ^
I know a 'Shane Morris' when I see one. Tua was Shane Morris'd against Buffalo.
After Thursdays game I would have fired Brady Hoke again on principle.
October 2nd, 2022 at 1:43 PM ^
This reminds me, I really need one of those "Ann Arbor Torch and Pitchfork" Tshirts
October 2nd, 2022 at 1:08 PM ^
New rule: if a player stumbles to the ground he's automatically not going to play another down that game.
Let's start there.
October 2nd, 2022 at 1:13 PM ^
I was expecting it to be a tweet
#scapegoat
October 2nd, 2022 at 1:27 PM ^
What is concussion protocol now. Isn’t it basically 2 games off the bat? The one you’re in and next.
on a related note, did anyone else notice what Rakim Jarrett looked like after he hit the ground, breaking up Sainristil’s INT, last week? His arms locked up in front of him, totally looked like he was out for just a second. I don’t think he played the rest of the game but was in this week.
October 2nd, 2022 at 1:35 PM ^
you don't need to be a doctor to diagnose what happened to tua twice in the last week.
firing is the least of the consequences that should happen to that dr. and to many others in the chain of command.
October 2nd, 2022 at 4:03 PM ^
From what I understand of how the "protocol" is supposed to work, it's simply a matter of observing "no-go" symptoms - loss of consciousness, gross motor instability, confusion, amnesia, etc.
Once they observed he had gross motor instability, the only way NOT to put him in protocol was to have a clear diagnosis of other injury that explained it (such as a knee injury that made him unstable).
By claiming "back spasms", this appears to be the way they bypassed the protocol. But, he was clearly shaking his head, grabbing his head, actually jogging fine before went down, etc. and this was ignored.
I agree. I don't see how any competent exam on the sideline could discount the original no-go symptom that everyone watching the game observed.
October 2nd, 2022 at 1:44 PM ^
Maybe the NFL should also fix their dumbass scheduling that doesn't have teams playing two games only 4 days apart.
October 2nd, 2022 at 2:21 PM ^
The replacement.
October 2nd, 2022 at 2:47 PM ^
I don't think there's a single person who's heard of this story that believes for a second that any legitimate concussion protocol was passed, certainly not repeatedly.
October 2nd, 2022 at 4:36 PM ^
Why can't the NFL terminate the Fords?
They've been breaking hearts and killing dreams for going on 60 years.
October 2nd, 2022 at 5:37 PM ^
This doctor obviously fouled up but don't for a second believe what happened to Tua was limited to his/her ineptitude. The NFL is all about passing the buck and nobody should take them or the Dolphins at face value when it comes to how this whole fiasco was handled.