The NFL Is Still Not Taking Concussions Seriously Enough
The NFL has a dark cloud looming over it. It is by far the most successful sports industry in the country. An average NFL game sometimes outperforms playoff games in other sports. But even with that said, there is an issue that is hard to stomach. Head injuries and concussions. The revelation about just how serious these head injuries are came to light nearly 10 years ago when Junior Seau passed away and a post-mortem brain scan showed the severity of the trauma.
You would think that after all of those studies about CTE, and the long-term damage concussions can have the NFL would take the issue a bit more seriously. But the events surrounding Tua Tagovailoa this season show that they are not treating the problem with the severity it merits. We all know what happened to Tua earlier in the season. First, he took a hard hit back in week 3 against the Bills. He was wobbly after getting up, making many presume that he had a concussion. He reportedly passed concussion protocols and was allowed to return to finish the game. But then a few days later on Thursday Night Football, he took another big hit. And this time he did not get up.
It was one of the scariest moments on a Football Field in recent memory. Tua laid there motionless on the field, with his hands locked in a position that is according to medical experts a sure sign of brain trauma. And for the following week it the way the Dolphins and the NFL handled it was a big topic of conversation. There was talk of protocols having to change. But nothing ever did. Because here we are again with Tua suffering at his least second concussion of the season, if not the 3rd since we still don’t know what happened in the Bills game.
And to make it worse, they allowed Tua to stay in the game. At this point, many assume the concussion happened on this play in the 2nd quarter.
This would seem to be the play on which Dolphins’ QB Tua Tagovailoa was injured, when his head bangs the ground. pic.twitter.com/zCQXadHm2r
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 26, 2022
We can’t say for a fact he was allowed to play with a concussion earlier in the year. He showed many of the signs of being concussed in the Bills game. But Tua never got officially diagnosed with a concussion. This case does not have that lack of clarity though. He suffered a concussion in the game, yet stayed in the game. The NFL has doctors not affiliated with either team for this exact purpose. So a non-bias party can be the one to determine if a player is cleared to play. A player will lie so they can go back in. We know that Coaches are at times willing to make players play even if it’s not safe. But a non-team doctor theoretically should have none of those biases.
And yet, here we are. Once again a concussed player was allowed to stay in the game. And to make it worse it was a player who already had a concussion this season. This is not an ankle injury or some sore muscles that will heal. The brain doesn’t work like that. Repeated brain trauma is dangerous. And if Tua took another bad hit while he was already concussed the consequences would have been severe. We know the science at this point. And we have seen way too many former players suffer from the aftereffects of these repeated brain injuries.
Obviously, we can’t legislate all hits out of the league. It’s a contact sport. Even with all the penalties for hits to the head, there will occasionally be tackles that cause head injuries. This example was not even a hit to the head. It was a fairly normal tackle, but Tua’s head smacked into the ground. And we also know that it can be the repeated light contact, such as linemen colliding on every play, that leads to long-term brain trauma. There will always be some risk to playing Football.
But we can be smarter. We can protect players from themselves. The NFL, and these coaching staffs, need to do their part to protect these players. The Dolphins and the NFL let Tua down. Hopefully, it won’t have long-lasting effects on his health. But this many head injuries within a few months span is dangerous. And him continuing to play this past week even after suffering the concussion shows a blatant lack of concern for his health.
There were no consequences for when this happened back in Week 4. There should be now. For Mike McDaniels, for the doctor assigned to this game whose job is the prevent his from happening, and for the Dolphins as a whole. It needs to be made clear that showing this little concern for head injuries will not be allowed. The NFL itself needs to be held accountable as well. But we know by now Roger Goodell and the NFL owners won’t take responsibility for anything they do wrong. That may fall on someone in congress calling for a hearing on how the NFL handles head injuries.
We can hold the Dolphins accountable though. They already lost this year’s first-round pick for their conspiracy to commit collusion. So take next year’s first-round pick too. Drop the hammer. Do something. Show that failure to protect players will have dire consequences. Because if this is just brushed under the rug again, there will be no reason for any team to take head injuries seriously unless the people in charge just genuinely care about player health. But that is sadly not always the case.
The NFL seems like an unkillable juggernaut right now. But so have other sports in the past. Boxing was once king, now most people know next to nothing about modern boxers. Baseball was at one point America’s Pastime. Now it is at best the 3rd most popular sport. There is no such thing as being too big to fail. If parents don’t let their kids play Football to protect them, then the future generations of Football players may not be as elite as they are now.
Football will eventually fall as the number one sport. It may not be anytime soon, but it is going to happen as people and generations change. If the NFL refuses to take this issue as seriously as it merits, that could happen sooner than it has to. But more importantly, these are human beings. We should want to prevent future cases like Junior Seau. Learn from our mistakes. And we should not want to see someone like Tua struggling with CTE 20 years from now because he had too many head injuries in one season. The NFL Claims it is all about player safety. But apart from penalizing certain types of hits, they have yet to show they actually care.
