Tua Tagovailoa was supposed to be the franchise quarterback with all the talent to finally give the Miami Dolphins a Super Bowl win. Now, the player’s future in the NFL is in jeopardy.
A few weeks ago, during a game against the Buffalo Bills, Tua suffered another concussion and now is seeking for medical advice to determine what’s best for him.
However, the league also has the chance to intervene if a possible return compromises his integrity. Now, a final decision has been made by Roger Goodell and the entire staff.
Is Tua Tagovailoa retiring?
According to many reports, Tua Tagovailoa doesn’t want to retire from football. Nevertheless, it all depends on medical clearance and the NFL’s final word. This was the message from Dr. Allen Sills, the league’s chief medical officer.
“Patient autonomy and medical decision-making really matters. And I think that’s what we have to recognize with our concussion protocol as well. Ultimately, when patients make decisions about considering their careers, it has to reflect that autonomy that’s generated from discussions with medical experts giving them best medical advice.”
Will Tua Tagovailoa play football again?
This crucial answer from the NFL means that, if Tua Tagovailoa gets medical clearance, the league won’t stop his possible return to the field. In that case, it’s full responsibility for the quarterback with his choice.
Sills emphasized that there’s no way to predict a level of risk if Tagovailoa plays again for the Miami Dolphins. The key factor is to collect all posible information, deliver it to Tua and let him decide freely.
“There is no detailed formula to predict the risk. It’s not like we can put in your number of concussions and how long between them and your age and some unusual constant or Avogadro’s number and come up with a risk. It just doesn’t work that way.”
“What we end up having to do is look at the totality of the patient’s experience. How many concussions, the interval between those concussions, some about duration of symptoms after each concussion and then very much the patient’s voice about where they are in their journey, their career, their age and things of that nature. And from that, we try as medical professionals to provide our best guess. But that’s really what it is. It’s a guess at what is someone’s future risk of concussion.”