McDaniel, Dolphins players, medical experts react to Tagovailoa’s concussion

Reaction from Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, players and medical experts in the wake of Tua Tagovailoa sustaining his third confirmed concussion in 25 months, in a 31-10 loss to Buffalo on Thursday at Hard Rock Stadium:

McDaniel gave Tagovailoa a kiss on the side of his head as he left the field. He said Tagovailoa “went around the locker room” and talked to teammates and “he’s in good spirits.”

▪ McDaniel declined to speculate on how long Tagovailoa will be out.

“It’s about getting a proper procedural evaluation [Friday]. He will spend a good amount of time being evaluated. The furthest thing from my mind is what is the timeline.”

Will Tagovailoa’s past concussions (reportedly at least three in his life and at least two as a professional) affect how the Dolphins move forward with him?

“Every situation is unique,” McDaniel said. “I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands. I’m just worried about the human being. He’ll drive the ship when we get the appropriate information.”

Asked if it’s safe for Tagovailoa to play football again, McDaniel said he’s not qualified to answer that because it’s not his expertise.

Tagovailoa sustained the concussion in the third quarter when he tried to run for a first down and his helmet collided with Damar Hamlin’s body. After Dolphins medical staff attended to him for several minutes, Tagovailoa was able to walk off under his own power and went to the locker room.

According to the Amazon coverage, Tagovailoa was alert after the game and had full movement in his extremities. After the concussion, he remained in the locker room with his family.

▪ Skylar Thompson, who entered when Tagovailoa exited, said Tagovailoa’s concussion “makes me sick.”

▪ Chris Nowinski, co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, said on the social media platform X that “Tua suffered a traumatic brain injury on this play, no question. His right arm shows the ‘fencing posture’ indicating loss of consciousness and is on the severe end on the concussion spectrum. He is done for the night and must miss the next game.”

David Chao, a former Chargers team doctor and now a media personality, said: “We all know Tua has an injury history, concussion history. Each concussion leads to potentially easier concussions. Given his history of concussions, worry for multiweek absence.”

CBS 4 reporter/analyst Kim Bokamper, a former Dolphins player, said he expects Tagovailoa to miss four to six weeks and that he was close to a “wobbly” Tagovailoa as he left the field.

▪ Last year, after Tagovailoa sustained at least two concussions in the 2022 season, the Miami Herald asked two concussion experts — Nowinski and Robert Cantu — how the situation should be handled if he had another one.

Neither said retirement would be necessary.

One of the doctors, Cantu, said in my 2023 Miami Herald article that he would hold Tagovailoa out a bit longer than players who sustained a similar concussion for the first time, but not appreciably longer. But keep in mind that this was a serious concussion that would typically keep any player out multiple weeks.

Cantu — one of the founders of the Concussion Legacy Foundation and Medical Director and Director of Clinical Research at the Cantu Concussion Center at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts — said the concussion clock “starts at zero” for Tagovailoa in a new season.

“If you put a great deal of months between concussions, you’re much more likely to go back to what your baseline is [before that stretch of concussions],” Cantu said. “If he has a fourth [overall] concussion… that would still be his first [of the season]. There’s not the science to say that you should be two or three weeks more conservative. But common sense would say rest him a little longer” than others who experience this type of concussion for a first time.

▪ Nowinski, in that 2023 Miami Herald article, said that “concussions tend toward getting more severe with longer recoveries [as they add up], but that’s not the case for everybody and there are examples of people who appeared to have career-ending concussions who returned without problems. Tua doesn’t have chronic symptoms, so that’s a good sign.”

▪ Cantu said during that 2023 Miami Herald interview that a scenario that should cause Tagovailoa to consider retirement would be this: “If blows that do not normally produce symptoms now are producing concussion symptoms. If the intensity is considerably less and not expected to produce symptoms and are still producing symptoms, that’s the person at real risk,” Cantu said. “That would be a bad situation and mean your career is over.”

▪ Cantu said there’s no concussion magic number that exists after which a player should definitely retire.

“I worry more about what seems to be a mild blow that produces concussion symptoms, especially if those symptoms last,” Cantu said. “Concussions are talked about as if they are all the same and they’re not. Concussions with symptoms for 30 minutes or an hour or a day are not the same brain injury as someone who has symptoms for three months or six months.”

▪ Fullback Alec Ingold, on Tagovailoa’s concussion: “It’s just an unfortunate situation. All of our prayers are out to him and his family. We’re a tight-knit family on this team. We’re just hoping he’s safe and we’ll move forward with that. We’re always praying for guys to come out healthy so this is a tough one to see.... Obviously it’s tough to see your leader go down like that. We’re going to have him and his family in our thoughts and prayers.”

▪ Bills quarterback Josh Allen, on the Amazon postgame show: “You can’t help but feel for [Tagovailoa]. He’s a great football player but an even better human being.”

▪ On Amazon’s postgame show, former Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick said the Dolphins should place Tagovailoa on injured reserve, which would sideline him for at least four games. McDaniel declined to say if that’s the likely scenario.