When Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel stated Monday he welcomed an NFL and NFL Players Association investigation, he was proper on one rely.
“We don’t have anything to cover,’ he stated.
From the second quarterback Tua Tagovailoa hit his helmet on the sector Sept. 25 towards Buffalo, shook his head, collapsed to the bottom and wanted assist getting off the sector, the Dolphins adopted concussion protocol and what medical doctors recommended, based on two league sources.
So why the furor? Why are veteran NFL individuals irate, sound out on nationwide tv or speaking privately. “What the hell is going on down there?” one former coach stated in calling me.
Part was what got here after his on-field collapse: Tua didn’t simply return to that recreation however was concerned in a scarier scene final Thursday in Cincinnati, when he hit his head once more and was taken off the sector on a stretcher. Part of the furor, too, was how his staggering off the sector was dealt with — or, as many thought, needs to be dealt with in a different way.
“This is an uncomfortable but a healthy conversation,’’ a league source said. “It’s made everyone think about how to improve this.”
Tua went into the locker room complaining of again ache, despite the fact that he hadn’t exhibited any outward indicators his again was damage on the play in query or in staggering off the sector. But a few performs earlier, his again had been awkwardly bent.
Was the issue simply his again? Did it should be a binary concern of both his head or his again — may it have been each? Might Tagovailoa, like Tampa Bay tight finish Cameron Brate complaining of a shoulder drawback after being concussed Sunday night time, have discovered an finish run to keep away from the NFL’s concussion protocol?
“The system is damaged,’ Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy stated on NBC Sunday night time in regard to the problems round Brate and Tagovailoa.
The system was adopted in Tagovailoa’s case, too, because the investigation is predicted to seek out, the 2 league sources stated.
“There are a whole lot of questions, but it surely’s vital to know everybody did their job,’ one league supply stated.
New England coach Bill Belichick is famous for saying, “Do your job.” He says it needs to be amended to, “Do your job well.” That’s a tougher query, everybody agreed.
An unbiased neurologist, referred to as in NFL’s concussion protocol the unaffiliated neurotrauma guide, examined Tagovailoa for a concussion within the Dolphins locker room at halftime of the Buffalo recreation and concluded he may return to play. The scene of Tua shaking his head and collapsing on the sector didn’t matter, the unbiased neurologist stated, based on a supply. Only the testing did.
That led to the unbiased physician being fired by the NFLPA, which pays half his wage, based on the protocol. The NFL, which pays the opposite half, additionally didn’t announce his firing.
The league and gamers union did supply a joint assertion on amending the protocol so any participant displaying, “Gross Motor Instability,” like Tagovailoa can be held out of a recreation. The concept is it’s simpler to identify a participant shaking his head and wobbling off the sector than to make sure of a concussion check throughout a recreation.
Tagovailoa performed effectively that recreation towards Buffalo, too, although medical officers shrug at that relevance. There’s anecdotal proof of concussed gamers performing positive and performing effectively. One well-known instance: Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman doesn’t bear in mind the second half of the 1992 NFC Championship Game. He later realized he nonetheless had the impacts of a concussion within the Super Bowl that the Cowboys received.
Tagovailoa was examined final week and particular care was taken earlier than Thursday’s recreation at Cincinnati. He handed the checks earlier than a good scarier scene performed out in that first half that put all of the earlier selections below a microscope. He was spun to the bottom by defensive deal with Josh Tupou and hit his head exhausting on the bottom, his arms and arms frozen in a “fencing posture,” of individuals struggling head trauma.
He was taken off the sector on a stretcher. His two video games with head trauma had been linked, rightly or wrongly, with the medical reality that one concussion makes an individual extra vulnerable to a second one.
The dialog grew to full nationwide quantity. Baltimore coach John Harbaugh referred to as it “astonishing,” Tagovailoa returned to play both recreation. Former NFL coach Rex Ryan stated Sunday on ESPN that McDaniel ought to have stored Tagovailoa off the sector towards Buffalo. He referred to as the complete scenario an, “epic fail, and a fail on the coach, too.”
McDaniel doesn’t deserve that. Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson had the extra measured method on Fox Sports for the way a coach handles accidents throughout a recreation.
“The procedure is — and this is what I followed — if a player’s injured and taken off the field, you don’t have any more contact with that player,’ he said. “Then your medical team will come up to you and say, ‘Hey, the player’s good to go, you can put him back in,’ or, ‘Hey, we’re going to hold him out of the game.’ … McDaniel has to trust his people, and that’s what he did.”
Bottom-line: Everyone who watched Tagovaila stumble off the sector towards Buffalo had severe questions on how this was dealt with. It was dealt with by the NFL’s e book, although, as a veteran NFL coach stated, “Sometimes you need common sense to go with the book.”
Tagovailoa has been dominated out Sunday towards the New York Jets. Dungy sounds proper concerning the system being damaged. An NFL medical official sounds proper, saying, “The brain is a mysterious thing.”
A league supply sounds proper, summing up this loud week in saying, “Don’t forget it’s a violent game.”
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com