We all knew that Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was one play away from his next concussion. Tonight, it happened.
The concerns had become muted in 2023, with Tagovailoa specifically working on avoiding blows to the head and managing to start 17 regular-season games and the team’s lone playoff game.
The latest concussion, at least his third and likely fourth in less than two years, renews the same questions from 2022 about his present, and his future.
It wasn’t the result of Tua falling down and hitting his head. It happened because, in the heat of the moment, he opted not to slide after he’d gained the yardage for a first down. And he wasn’t close to the end zone. The extra territory he was fighting to gain was irrelevant.
True competitors have a hard time turning it off in those moments. But when the situation is as simple as doing everything possible to avoid blows to the head, it’s not the time to lower the shoulder and initiate contact.
So what’s next? Ryan Fitzpatrick suggested on the Amazon Prime postgame show that the Dolphins should immediately place Tua on injured reserve, giving him four weeks to heal. At some point, he’ll be cleared. Presumably, he’ll want to play.
Some (including Tony Gonzalez on the postgame show) have suggested Tua should retire.
Is that realistic? If his history tells us anything, he will undoubtedly want to keep playing.
His new contract carries more than $167 million in injury guarantees. He’ll give up that money if he chooses to walk away. Nearly all of his $42 million signing bonus could also be forfeited, if he affirmatively decides to retire now.
On one hand, this isn’t the time to talk about money. On the other hand, the money is too big to ignore. The notion of treating this latest concussion as a potential trigger for calling it a career would carry massive financial ramifications.
This wasn’t a fluke injury, like the one that happened in Week 17 of the 2022 season to Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who coincidentally tackled Tagovailoa on the play in question. For every football player, a concussion falls fully and completely within the risks of playing football.
We all knew it when he kept playing after the scary Thursday night incident in Cincinnati on a Thursday night in 2022. We all knew it when he kept playing in 2023, after the Christmas Day 2022 concussion (which no one noticed at the time) kept him out for the rest of the year.
We all knew it could happen on any given play. On every given play.
Whether he’s out for four games or one game or no games or the rest of the season, it’s hard to imagine Tua choosing to retire from football. If he didn’t do it when $167 million wasn’t riding on the decision, he’s far less likely to do it now.
Still, he can’t play until he’s cleared. And each successive concussion becomes the concussion that could be the one from which he won’t be medically cleared. Until that final concussion happens — the one that results in doctors telling him he cannot play again — it’s hard to imagine Tua walking away from the game.
That doesn’t mean he won’t make that decision. That said, the monetary aspect can’t be ignored.