The NFL witnessed a scary moment on Thursday Night Football when Tua Tagovailoa took a hard hit that resulted in a concussion.
The Miami Dolphins had already been under fire for how they handled Tagovailoa in Week 3 when he briefly exited the game after sustaining what looked to be a head injury before returning when team doctors medically cleared him.
Concussion protocols have always been a sensitive topic in the NFL, and Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay weighed in on the matter, via Scott Thompson of Fox News:
“I think the biggest thing is that it’s about the person before the player,” he began. “And some of these things, when you realize this game is so important to so many of us, and when you’re in the midst and in the moment of it, you think that this is just going to be forever, but you realize this is a small blip in time. There’s so many things to life with family, with friends, with the people that love and support you and care about you unconditionally, and I think it’s our job as coaches and really in general to look out for the person, one, the player next. And these are things that [I] certainly don’t take lightly.
“I know that I’m not the expert in that arena, but I also defer to those guys, and I think being able to have relationships where you’re able to kind of understand where they’re coming from, and then you can almost take the decision out of their hands because these guys are such competitors, and there’s an element of, ‘I don’t want to let people down.’ And you got to be able to help them to realize you’re not letting anybody down. This is a small blip, we’re going to be smart with this. This game has brought so many blessings, but you have to be able to draw the line in terms of, ‘Alright, what’s really the most important thing in the big picture?’ And certainly safety always is that at a premium for us.”
Player health and safety should always be the priority for teams, and right now the NFL and the player’s association must work together to ensure situations like Tagovailoa’s don’t happen again.
