The Wide World of Dirt

The Miami Dolphins placed starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa on injured reserve today, putting the southpaw gunslinger out of the lineup for the next four weeks.

Last year’s NFL passing yards leader sustained a concussion following a collision with Buffalo Bills’ safety Damar Hamlin in a week 2 Thursday Night Football matchup.

Faced with a 4th & 4 from the Bills’ 13-yard line, Tagovailoa knew time was of the essence as the Dolphins found themselves down 31-10 with four-and-a-half minutes left in the third quarter.

The former Heisman hopeful tucked the ball and ran it himself, gliding by the first down before lowering his shoulder to brace for impact with Hamlin.

Hamlin was merely a spectator in the tackle that sent Tua to the ground and into the dreaded fencing pose, confirming for everyone in attendance and at home that this was indeed another head injury.

Since the beginning of the 2022 season, Tagovailoa hit the injury report three times for a concussion (along with an additional time for his “neck” after the week 3 matchup with the Bills that preceded his concussion against the Bengals on TNF.)

Following a particularly poor performance on Christmas against the Packers, Tua sat out the final few games of the year with many speculating that he should seek retirement for his health.

The entire 2023 season came and went without Tua missing a game, especially not for a head injury. This could be chalked up to the Miami field general seeking out martial arts training in the offseason to better brace for impact.

Whatever it was, Tagovailoa took better care of himself last season, leading to him being named a Pro Bowl starter, getting the Dolphins to the playoffs for the second straight season, and delivering his fourth straight winning season as a starter.

And, all of that recognition was washed away when he took a bad hit on Thursday.

I will level with you: this has been hard for me as someone that has come to appreciate Tua as a player and a member of the Miami Dolphins community.

He presents himself as a great person on and off the field, and it’s painful to see him be put through these injuries and all the speculation that surrounds his injuries.

Just to throw something out there, Denzel Ward came out of Ohio State in 2018 and went to the Browns with the fourth pick in that year’s draft. Ward remains in Cleveland where he’s built an amazing reputation for himself as an elite corner.

Five diagnosed concussions later, folks still consider Denzel Ward a great corner and have no concern about the long-term ramifications that these head injuries may have to his health.

The last thing I want to do is psyche up the “modern players are soft” brand of people because that’s not at all what I’m trying to say.

It is concerning that Tua has had all of these high-profile head injuries. It should concern anyone watching football every Sunday.

However, anyone calling for Tua Tagovailoa to retire is overreacting.

If Tua decides that retiring is what would be best for his health going forward, I will stand by his decision as a fan of the Miami Dolphins. It would be god-awful, but I can live with the fact that he’s making the best choice for himself and his family.

What I don’t want happening is people trying to get into Tua’s ear through the media to force him into a decision he doesn’t want to make.

The game of football is naturally violent and brutal on the human body; some argue that this is exactly why people like it.

One of the most vulnerable places on our bodies runs the risk of being hit multiple times over every single game: our heads.

Despite being covered by a helmet, serious contact to the head can bring about a concussion that — in almost all cases nowadays — gets identified with immediacy in today’s game, something that couldn’t be said even 15 years ago.

Think about the average offensive lineman. They wrestle in the trenches with the defensive line of the opposing team for about 50-70 plays every game, clacking helmets with their opponents.

If porpoising in Formula 1 is having a negative effect on the brains of its drivers, it is logical to assume that a similar or even worse phenomenon occurs every snap of every football game on the line of scrimmage.

Compare that offensive lineman to a common linebacker, a player whose job is to identify the ballcarrier and obliterate them. If every tackle feels like a car crash, I would imagine linebackers are at greater risk for head injuries than a quarterback.

That is what is being lost in all of this chatter: Tua is a quarterback.

The Miami QB averaged 6.5 hits per game in his first two seasons, yet that number has ballooned to 8.6 since Mike McDaniel took over along with the organization reinforcing the offensive line.

In a moment of pure football play on a Thursday night, Tua lowered his shoulder like he did hundreds of times before throughout his football career. In fact, Tua blowing up Michael Carter II in 2021 is a fondly looked upon as a career highlight.

Tua has been unable to shake the attributes of his pre-2023 self, and it presented a profoundly sad moment in a game that already seemed out of reach.

That doesn’t mean he should have to retire because he gets a concussion.

What makes CTE worse is going back out on the field while already concussed and putting yourself further in harm’s way, which we have been able to avoid for the most part over the last decade due to expanding concussion research.

Because of that, I am not worried about Tua Tagovailoa long-term.

Advocating for his retirement comes off as people acting concerned for his well-being because their true intentions are to protect the game of football.

One of the NFL’s biggest stars taking hits and assuming the fencing pose is a horrible look for the sport’s current and future, and there’s no way around that.

Many have lamented how much the sport has had to adapt to modern rules that are designed to make the games safer; I am not among them.

I want the game to be safer, but I don’t think it gets safer by telling players to retire four seasons into their career because the way they look when they get injured is a bad look for the sport.

And again, we aren’t having the same conversations around Denzel Ward or multitudes of linemen and linebackers throughout history.

Peyton Manning remains one of the sharpest NFL commentators and breaks the game down well even at the age of 48, even after tanking concussion tests deliberately throughout his career in order to keep on playing.

Jay Cutler suffered four throughout his pro career (and three in college), and nobody batted an eye about it,

So, why are we really having all of this hand-wringing over Tua? If it was really out of concern, then we should start calling for a lot more of these players to retire as well.

(Top Photo Credit: Megan Briggs/Getty Images)