Yahoo Movies Tagovailoa returns with team to South Florida. Initial test results encouraging
Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa returned to South Florida with the team on Thursday night after sustaining head and neck injuries during a game in Cincinnati, and initial test results revealed no broken bones or fractures, according to a league source.
Tagovailoa, who sustained a concussion in the game after he was thrown to the ground by a Bengals defender, wore a neck brace after the game and will undergo an MRI on his neck in the next day or so.
“He is doing well,” Tagovailoa’s trainer, Nick Hicks, said on Twitter. “Negative X rays. No internal bleeding. Will get MRI and second opinion but all things look good at the moment.”
Tagovailoa is in the NFL’s concussion protocol program and would need to pass a series of benchmarks before he is cleared to play.
Time can vary considerably for when a player is cleared to return after a concussion. Some players need only a week; others take considerably longer.
The Dolphins’ next four games are at the Jets, home to Minnesota and Pittsburgh and at Detroit.
The Dolphins have one other player in concussion protocol — tight end Cethan Carter — and he has missed three games so far.
During the second quarter of Thursday’s 27-15 loss to the Bengals, Tagovailoa was sacked by defensive tackle Josh Tupou and lay motionless for several minutes after hitting his head on the turf before being carted off on a stretcher.
The Dolphins quickly ruled him out for the remainder of the game with a head and neck injury but said he was conscious and had movement in all his extremities. He was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, about four miles north of Paycor Stadium. He was released from the hospital after a couple of hours.
Coach Mike McDaniel spoke to Tagovailoa on the field and said the quarterback was “trying to grasp what was going on.” McDaniel said it was obvious that Tagovailoa had sustained a concussion and that he asked about the circumstances that led to his injury.
“What I was worried about was other things on top of that,” McDaniel said. “Obviously I was very worried about his head. But you want to make sure that all things with relation to the spine and back and all that stuff, you want to make sure that’s OK.”
Tagovailoa’s injury created a firestorm on social media, with doctors, fans and players questioning the decision to allow him to play the second half against Buffalo — even though an independent neurologist and the Dolphins medical staff determined that he didn’t have a concussion or display concussion symptoms when he took a hard fall against the Bills. Tagovailoa and the team said he had a back injury - not a head injury.
Asked if he was 100 percent that Tagovailoa didn’t sustain a head injury against Buffalo, McDaniel said he was.
Asked if he would have done anything differently with Tagovailoa in retrospect, McDaniel said: “Absolutely not. If I would have, that would be irresponsible in the first place, and I shouldn’t be in this position.
“I don’t believe an injury last [Sunday] made him fall the same way [Thursday]. I do not have any, like absolutely zero patience for — or will ever — put a player in a position for them to be in harm’s way. That is not what I’m about at all, and no outcome of a game would ever influence me being irresponsible as the head coach of a football team.
“For me, as long as I’m coaching here, I’m not going to fudge that whole situation. If there is any sort of inclination that someone has a concussion, they go into concussion protocol, and it’s very strict. People don’t vary or stray. We don’t mess with that. We never have. And as long as I’m the head coach, that will never be an issue that you guys have to worry about.”
Nevertheless, the NFL players union has launched an investigation into whether procedures were properly followed when Tagovailoa was cleared during the Bills game.
NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith sent a text message to Amazon studio analysts Andrew Whitworth - the former NFL offensive lineman - and Richard Sherman (a member of the NFLPA executive committee) with this message: “We insisted on these rules to avoid exactly this scenario. We will pursue every legal option, including making referrals against the doctors to licensing agencies and the team that is obligated to keep our players safe.”
Amazon reported that during its postgame show.
