The scene was grim Thursday night when Tua Tagovailoa scrambled for a first down, collided headfirst with Damar Hamlin’s arm rather than sliding and crumpled to the ground.
The Miami Dolphins’ star quarterback appeared to exhibit the fencing response on “Thursday Night Football” for the second time in three years. Flashbacks to his 2022 injury against the Cincinnati Bengals prompted understandable fear and concern on social media feeds. “Oh no, Tua.” “Not again.”
Unlike 2022, when he was taken off the field by stretcher, Tagovailoa walked off under his own power on Thursday night. Within minutes, he was diagnosed with the third known concussion of his NFL career. He also had one at Alabama.
I’m in no position to tell Tagovailoa to hang them up. I’m not a doctor, I’m not in Tagovailoa’s inner circle and I’ve never even had a concussion myself. But when former NFL players — not critics of football, but actual star players — are starting to say you should retire, you have to consider if they have a point.
“Really hope Tua is ok, but he’s gotta seriously think about shutting it dwn,” Shannon Sharpe wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I H8 saying this. His concussions are getting worse and worse and he’s a young man with his entire life ahead of him.”
“That’s it…. NFL go ahead and do the right thing,” wrote Dez Bryant, apparently arguing that the league should step in and force Tagovailoa to retire. “Tua has had entirely way too many concussions. He need to retire for his longevity health concerns.”
If Sharpe and Bryant are two men whose opinions you don’t particularly respect, they weren’t alone. On Amazon Prime’s postgame show, Tony Gonzalez said, “I’m thinking retirement here” … before awkwardly following that up with the poorest word choice possible: “To me, it seems like a no-brainer.”
And former player and front office executive Louis Riddick: “Part of the discussion is going to be about if he should play anymore. Ever again. That’s the reality. That makes me feel sick. But it’s part of the discussion now. Just want the man to be safe and healthy.”
There’s a certain kind of keyboard reactionary who will say that Tagovailoa knew what he signed up for when pursuing a football career, that this whole concussion thing is getting overblown. Here’s the problem with that: We aren’t legislating whether tackle football should be legal for everyone, or at what age to start tackling. That’s a separate conversation. We aren’t agonizing about what will happen when the hits start coming. For Tagovailoa, the hits have come.
Remember, Tagovailoa has already admitted to considering retirement after his difficult 2022 season. The man cleared concussion protocol scandalously fast in Week 3, frightened the football world in Week 4 and had another known concussion in December. We’re less than two years removed from that.
Amazon sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung said late in Thursday’s game that Tagovailoa was alert and had movement in all of his extremities. She also reported that his family was with him in the locker room. His mother asked him to reconsider his playing career back in the offseason of 2023. This time, the family’s pleas may be stronger.
Whatever decision Tagovailoa makes, his NFL career will be defined by his battle with concussions. We know too much about CTE to ignore a player with a history of concussions ever again. Everyone’s bodies heal differently, but when it comes down to it, we only get one brain.
