All Things Sports

Hi guys, welcome back to All Things Sports! Today I want to start by talking about one man: Tua Tagovailoa. A very talented quarterback who plays for the Miami Dolphins in the NFL. Tua has made headlines a lot this season for two reasons: his stellar play that had in MVP conversations at one point and his concussions. 

Now Tua Tagovailoa is no stranger to injuries having suffered many in his career, but this year it has sparked a national conversation. You see this year alone, Tua has had 3 concussions with his 3rd being diagnosed earlier this week. The other 2 were very notable as one landed him in the hospital with potential paralysis and the other was misdiagnosed the week before he landed in the hospital. Now the NFL has put a focus on player safety in the last couple of years as research about concussions and CTE has sparked nationwide concern over player safety. The NFL has responded by improving safety equipment and issuing harsher penalties for rough hits that endanger players. For example LA Chargers player Derwin James was ejected on Monday for a dangerous hit on a Colts wide receiver that put the receiver in concussion protocol. Yet, concussions still remain a major problem in the NFL. Let’s look at what happened to Tagovailoa. In a Week 3 win Tua Tagovailoa appeared to randomly stumble off the field after a sack and was promptly taken into the medical tent for examination. The team had initially said that it was a head injury, but later, after he went back into the game, they announced that it was a back injury that had caused the stumble. Tua himself had wanted to go back into the game, but this must be taken with a grain of salt as any player would want to go back and play in a game that was against a rival, and one which the Dolphins would go on to win. However, as it would turn out they had missed an obvious concussion and potentially endangered his life. In the next game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Tua was sacked on a play and was left motionless on the floor. He was partially paralyzed for a period of time. Definitely a back problem. He was taken to the hospital where thankfully, he made a full recovery. However, this should have never happened. The team should have caught the concussion the week before but they didn’t. 

The NFLPA investigated the incident and found that the protocol was not followed and the symptoms exhibited by Tua should have kept him out of the game. That obviously didn’t happen and his career and life were endangered because of it. Now they are investigating the latest concussion suffered as there was a noticeable drop in performance between the first and second half of the game. However, Tua wasn’t the only case. In a game against the Arizona Cardinals, Patriots receiver Nelson Agholor had to stop play because he saw that his teammate Devante Parker was not looking right. Turns out, he had a concussion. It was found that the spotters in the stands didn’t miss it, however there is still an issue here. The player was almost kept on the field despite having a concussion, which as we now know, is potentially life-threatening. Now all these show that the NFL needs to do better when it comes to concussions. 

However, concussions aren’t the only problem. Safety in general has still not been achieved. Minnesota Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson(the man carrying my fantasy team) has suffered numerous hard hits to the point where coach Kevin O’ Connell has said that something needs to be done. He isn’t the only case of players suffering unnecessarily violent hits. Ryan Shazier, Antonio Brown(when he was still ok), these are just two examples of many where players are endangered because the line of what is ok gets blurred by the violent nature of the game.  We can’t have star players such as Jefferson, who leads the league in receiving yards, being endangered by violent hits. Guys, I want to get second in fantasy. It’s personal for me. Now jokes aside, football by nature will always be violent but lines can be drawn. It appears that these lines need to be drawn by the NFL otherwise they will get crossed every single week. People shouldn’t have to worry about their lives just to play a game that they love and earn a living for them and their families. So the NFL wants to say they are doing good on player safety? They can, it will just be wrong.