Chris Nowinski was in New York City giving a chat and elevating $20,000 for the Concussion Legacy Foundation on Thursday night time when he appeared down at his cellphone and noticed 50 messages.
Many got here with the video of Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa being spun exhausting to the bottom by Cincinnati Bengals defensive sort out Chris Tupou and smacking the again of his helmet exhausting on the bottom for the second time in 5 days.
“I immediately felt sick,” Nowkinski mentioned.
He felt indignant, too. He sat down and typed on Twitter:
“This is a disaster. Pray for Tua. Fire the medical staffs and coaches. I predicted this and I hate that I am right. Two concussions in 5 days can kill someone. This can end careers. How are we so stupid in 2022.”
Now it was early Friday morning and Tagovailoa being launched from the hospital and flying again to South Florida with the Dolphins hadn’t lessened Nowinski’s anger.
“People die from this every year,” he mentioned. “Someone needs to be fired.”
Nowinski isn’t taking part in a physician on Twitter like many had been after Tua’s damage. He’s a neuroscientist who’s co-founder and CEO of the concussion basis related to Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center. For years, the middle has studied former NFL gamers and CTE, a neurological illness related to repeated head trauma.
No, Nowinski didn’t look at Tagovailoa, just like the NFL physician within the designed concussion protocol who allowed the quarterback to return to play in opposition to Buffalo final Sunday or the Dolphins docs who cleared him for play Thursday. The NFL gamers’ union introduced after Sunday’s sport it could be investigating that course of that cleared Tua.
That investigation hasn’t begun but, however Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel mentioned all precautions had been taken, repeated it was Tua’s again and never his head that was injured final Sunday and mentioned he would, “never put a player in a position for them to be in harm’s way. That is not what I’m about at all.”
Nowinski, watching final Sunday’s sport from his Boynton Beach house, acknowledged, “five separate signs of a concussion, any of which should’ve mandated removal from the game.” He listed the 5:
1. Tagovailoa grabbed his helmet, suggesting his head was a problem.
2. He wobbled as he stood up.
3. He shook his head in a, “clear-the-cobwebs move that in my experience happens only when you have visual disturbance,” Nowinski mentioned.
4. He fell whereas strolling.
5. He would have fallen once more if teammates hadn’t helped him.
“The NFL’s supposed keep you out with no chance to return when you display such gross motor disturbance,” Nowinski mentioned. “The story that, ‘I tweaked my back,’ is preposterous. He doesn’t even attain for his again in any respect. No good physician ought to take the participant’s phrase. The mechanism is in place to guard the participant.
“I honestly thought the team would’ve sobered up on Monday and admitted a mistake was made in missing the concussion or at least erred on the side of caution that he wouldn’t play [Thursday].”
Four hours earlier than Thursday’s kickoff, Nowinski tweeted: “If Tua takes the field tonight, it’s a massive step back for #concussion care in the NFL. If he has a second concussion that destroys his season or career, everyone involved will be sued and should be lose their jobs, coaches included. We all saw it, even they must know this isn’t right.”
Thursday’s hit on Tua was Nowinski’s concern come true.
“I can’t believe how violent that hit was,” he mentioned. “The tension in the hands, called ‘posturing,’ or ‘fencing posture,’ meaning the injury to his brain could have included injury to his brain stem that made it a more serious injury.”
Earlier this 12 months, three extra Dolphins off the 1972 Perfect Season had been recognized posthumously of getting CTE, a neurological illness usually from repeated trauma to the pinnacle related to taking part in soccer. Jake Scott, Jim Kiick and Nick Buoniconti joined 4 different teammates with the illness that may solely be recognized by analyzing the mind after demise.
Serious points from concussions usually don’t wait till later in life. Nowinski was a WWE professional wrestler who retired after struggling two concussions and getting medical recommendation. He talked of simply observing Rowan Stringer Day, named for a Canadian high-school rugby participant who died after improper remedy of her concussions. Boston University’s CTE Center has opened a brand new research, an internet survey for anybody over 40 who performed soccer or soccer at any degree known as the Head Impact & Trauma Surveillance Study.
Now it was simply earlier than 6 a.m. Friday and Nowinski was about to board a flight out of New York after his fundraiser. He had one hour of sleep after finding out and discussing Tagovailoa’s state of affairs. He was requested what he needed to see play out right here. He talked about an investigation and training for all.
“Proper decisions need to be made,” he mentioned, “because it’s been unbelievably stupid to this point.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com