As I have stated many times the independent consultants who decide if a player can return to a game after a head injury work for the NFL and aren’t always right.
You didn’t need to be a doctor to see that Tua shouldn’t have been allowed to return to Bills game last Sunday after almost collapsing after hitting his head.
News is coming out from ESPN that the consultant that cleared Tua to return has been fired.
The unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant involved in clearing Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa during Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills has been fired after it was found he made “several mistakes” in his evaluation, a league source told ESPN’s Marcel-Louis Jacques on Saturday.
Tagovailoa had been evaluated for a concussion during the Bills game after he hit the back of his head on the ground and appeared shaky. But the quarterback was cleared to remain in the game and to play Thursday against the Cincinnati Bengals.
He was taken to a hospital Thursday after hitting his head on the turf while being sacked by Bengals nose tackle Josh Tupou in the second quarter. Tagovailoa remained on the turf for roughly 12 minutes before he was carted off the field on a stretcher and eventually taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with a concussion and neck injury.
Tagovailoa was diagnosed with a concussion and is in the protocol with no timetable for a return, according to the Dolphins.
The Dolphins said Tagovailoa passed multiple concussion evaluations — including one at halftime of the Bills game and each day leading up to Thursday’s game, according to NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills.
I also blame the Dolphins for putting Tua back on the field just four days after a serious head injury.
They tried to mask it as a back injury, but everyone knew better.
Flip the page for more on Tua’s current condition.