BOSTON — The NFL and NFLPA on Saturday announced the findings of their most recent review of how the Miami Dolphins applied the concussion protocol to Tua Tagovailoa.
Their determination? The Dolphins handled the situation during last Sunday’s game properly. And the details of when Tagovailoa developed symptoms of at least his second concussion of the season were what the team has said they were in the days since.
Tua Tagovailoa Concussion Protocol Inquiry
“The joint review determined the protocol was not triggered,” the league and union said. “The protocol is initiated when a player receives an impact to the head and exhibits or reports signs or symptoms suggestive of a concussion.
“The review established that symptoms of a concussion were neither exhibited nor reported until the following day at which time the team medical personnel appropriately evaluated and placed Mr. Tagovailoa in the concussion protocol.”
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa reported concussion symptoms on Monday, a day after he played every snap against the Green Bay Packers. It’s unclear when exactly Tua suffered the concussion, but he wasn’t the same player in the second half as he was in the first.
Tagovailoa threw interceptions on the Dolphins’ last three possessions. Upon reviewing the film Monday, the coaching staff noticed inconsistencies in Tagovailoa’s performance, which clued them into the possibility that he had suffered a head injury.
The team’s medical staff determined he was indeed concussed. Tagovailoa is out indefinitely. Teddy Bridgewater will start Sunday against the New England Patriots.
Tua Tagovailoa Concussion History
This is the second time this year the NFL has reviewed how the team and independent doctors have handled Tagovailoa’s health during a game.
The Dolphins cleared Tua to return to Miami’s Week 3 win over the Bills despite him showing gross motor instability following a blow to the head.
While the NFL/NFLPA inquiry determined the Dolphins followed the protocol as it was written at the time, the episode triggered a revision of said policy. Tua would have been barred from return had the current rules applied then.
Four days after that Bills game, there was no question that Tagovailoa suffered a concussion. He was immobilized and hospitalized after a frightening hit in the Dolphins’ Thursday night game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
That injury kept Tagovailoa out of the next two games.
“He’s still in protocol, and I just go day-by-day as instructed,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Friday. “I would say that he’s better than the day before, but I’m also trying to get a team ready to play this game, and it really doesn’t do anybody any service to overtalk in this scenario where he’s got to be focused on his health and nothing else.
“So a lot of times in conversation with Miami Dolphins football players, Miami Dolphins football comes up with me, so we’re trying to stay away from that.”