The Miami Dolphins have been without Tua Tagovailoa since Week 2 when he suffered his third professionally documented concussion. After Tagovailoa ran head-first into Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, he was instantly hurt. Tagovailoa also appeared to make the “fencing posture” in the same manner he did in 2022.
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After the concussion occurred, many pundits, fans, and players (past and present) were calling for Tagovailoa to retire. However, shortly after the concussion occurred, Tagovailoa announced he had no plans to retire.
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel also stated that Tagovailoa would approach the situation in the same manner he did in 2022. He would speak to outside neurologists and doctors to determine his playing future.
Naturally, this also led to many wondering if the NFL would step in and prevent Tagovailoa from taking the field again. Now, the league has made it known that they will not interfere with Tagovailoa returning.
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NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills spoke to reporters and cleared the air about the league’s involvement.
“Patient autonomy and medical decision-making really matters,” Sills said. “And I think that’s what we have to recognize goes on with our concussion protocol as well. Ultimately when patients make decisions about considering their careers, it has to reflect that autonomy that’s generated from discussions with medical experts giving them best medical advice.”
Tagovailoa has been meeting with outside doctors, which is well within his rights. Because of his approach to the decision, the league is not going to interfere.
“It’s not like we can put in your number of concussions and how long between them and your age and some unusual constant or Avagadro’s number that always seemed to be in freshman chemistry somehow, and come up with a risk,” Sills said, speaking generally and not about Tagovailoa in particular. “It just doesn’t work that way. So what we end up having to do is look at the totality of the patient’s experience, how many concussions, the interval between those concussions, some about duration of symptoms after each concussion, and then very much the patient’s voice about where they are in their journey, their career, their age, and things of that nature.
The Dolphins are in the same boat as the league, as they will allow Tagovailoa to speak to outside doctors to determine what his next steps are.
Recent reports also indicated that Tagovailoa was showing “no symptoms” after this concussion and was planning on returning in Week 8. The Dolphins placed the signal caller on IR so that he could consult doctors, and he is eligible to return in Week 8.
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The hope is that Tagovailoa can be prepared to return in Week 8 and will be ready to lead the offense. The Dolphins offense looks lost without him, and they have gone through Skylar Thompson, Tim Boyle, and Snoop Huntley at quarterback.
Huntley is getting his second start against the New England Patriots on Sunday. Though he was underwhelming in Week 4, he does have another week with the Dolphins offense. For now, Huntley appears to be the starter until Tagovailoa can return.
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