At what point should Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa retire?

Henry McKenna

NFL Reporter

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — It was the kind of moment when you know exactly what’s happening and yet it makes no sense. A moment when everything feels very fast and very slow all at once.

There was the speed of the collision. Tua Tagovailoa sprinted upfield. And his head met Damar Hamlin’s arm in the Miami Dolphins’ 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

It was the type of moment that made you wonder whether Tagovailoa should give all this up — whether he might retire for the sake of his long-term health. It wouldn’t be easy after he signed a four-year, $220 million deal. It wouldn’t be easy amid the polarizing evaluations of his career. It wouldn’t be easy after the Dolphins built their timing-based offense around him.

But he keeps getting concussions. In the NFL, he has had three documented concussions and one more example where he demonstrated concussion-like symptoms. In college, he had another on a play when he dislocated his hip. The other injuries Tua has suffered: broken finger, broken rib, sprained patella tendon, sprained thumb, sprained ankle (twice), strained quad, strained hip.

In football analysis, we often use the cliché about madness — the act of doing things over and over again and expecting a different result. But usually it’s about play choice or personnel or roster composition. It’s not about someone’s health and well-being.

Before we get into what’s next for Tua — because I do want to seriously consider where his career should go from here — let’s dive into what happened to Tua as seen by the players on the field.

“It was the saddest thing. I promise you it was the saddest thing,” Bills tackle Dion Dawkins said after the game. “We’re all just watching him run, and we’re like: ‘Slide bro. Slide bro. Slide bro. Slide bro. Slide.’ And this game is so fast. It’s a game of inches. If he were to just slide an inch before — it’s such a sad thing.”

Then there were Tua’s…


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Publish date : 2024-09-13 17:56:51

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