NFLPA investigating handling of Dolphins QB Tagovailoa’s concussion check

[4thandInches]

Horrific look for the league. This isn’t even stupid media heads looking for clout, former and even current players are guns blazing. 

[WheatieMan]

Just woke up and watched the replay. Looks like a massive concussion. NFL better hope those new helmets are the real deal. Otherwise, the new Pro Bowl format is coming for the rest of the games.

Edited September 30, 2022 by WheatieMan

[WheatieMan]

51 minutes ago, 4thandInches said:

Horrific look for the league. This isn’t even stupid media heads looking for clout, former and even current players are guns blazing. 

McDaniel should be suspended for a few games. He's the head coach and decides who plays and sits. Forget about the "doctors" on the sideline that are on the payroll.

[Hunter2_1]

Listening to players now say they regret ever playing because of what they're currently living with - not being able to remember their kids' names, for example, feeling a constant low simmering form of depression and emptiness, bouts of rage and anger - the NFL is MILES away! Miles

I don't want them to change the sport or make it flag football or whatever, it must always remain a tough sport. But they still don't do enough - Tua needed to sit for a mandatory period, for example. Helmet shots are still tolerated, another example. 

[Buc Ball]

16 minutes ago, WheatieMan said:

McDaniel should be suspended for a few games. He's the head coach and decides who plays and sits. Forget about the "doctors" on the sideline that are on the payroll.

Aren’t the doctors who assess concussions independent of the team? 

If McDaniel has followed expert advice and if the concussion protocol has been followed, I’m not sure how he can be blamed. Is he meant to overrule an independent medical professional?

If the Dolphins followed the concussion protocol (a big if at this stage), then this situation shows the protocol is fundamentally flawed and needs fixed. 

[TecmoSuperJoe]

37 minutes ago, Hunter2_1 said:

Listening to players now say they regret ever playing because of what they're currently living with - not being able to remember their kids' names, for example, feeling a constant low simmering form of depression and emptiness, bouts of rage and anger - the NFL is MILES away! Miles

I don't want them to change the sport or make it flag football or whatever, it must always remain a tough sport. But they still don't do enough - Tua needed to sit for a mandatory period, for example. Helmet shots are still tolerated, another example. 

Reminds me of Ricky Watters being interviewed on local KNBR radio about...10 years ago now I think. Pretty casual conversation, but I just remember them asking if he would do his career all over again with everything that being a highly regarded pro football player had given him in life, and after thinking about it for a second, he said something along the lines of "Nah...I'd probably find another way..." He had referenced all the injuries, and surgeries that he had had. 

Also I remember Tim McDonald not wanting his son to play because he himself had had like 10 operations over his career. Crazy. 

Edited September 30, 2022 by TecmoSuperJoe

[WheatieMan]

55 minutes ago, Buc Ball said:

Aren’t the doctors who assess concussions independent of the team? 

If McDaniel has followed expert advice and if the concussion protocol has been followed, I’m not sure how he can be blamed. Is he meant to overrule an independent medical professional?

If the Dolphins followed the concussion protocol (a big if at this stage), then this situation shows the protocol is fundamentally flawed and needs fixed. 

Independent doctor on the NFL payroll that had to "A" okay in the heat of a pivotal divisional matchup. 

This is why the sport is dying at the youth level. Hell, as has already been stated just now, players don't even what their own kids playing. 

I don't see any path forward. I ran into a kinesiologist at a bar over Labor Day and he said most of the damage is happening at the junior and high school levels, citing research from UCLA. It plants the seeds there.

Flag football is coming. 7 on 7 perhaps.

 

 

Edited September 30, 2022 by WheatieMan

[ChazStandard]

1 hour ago, WheatieMan said:

McDaniel should be suspended for a few games. He's the head coach and decides who plays and sits. Forget about the "doctors" on the sideline that are on the payroll.

Really? We're going to start dolling out suspensions for coaches if their players get injured and play anyway? The doctors said he could play, Tua wanted to play. It's not on the coach at all.

It also grinds my gears to see so much talk about safety and protection for millionaires playing a game, when they're wearing (and endorsing) name-brand clothes  made in sweatshops and we're watching on  devices with lithium and cobalt batteries mined by literal children in Afghanistan and the Congo.

I don't know exactly what the odds of a starting NFL quarterback getting a concussion that ruins his life are, but I guarantee you it's less likely than a coal miner getting blacklung. Fisherman, fireman, police officers, oil drillers, nuclear power plant workers, sewage workers. The list of physical jobs more dangerous and less well paid than football is endless.

Playing sport is riskier than most desk jobs, in a physical sense, but they are more than well compensated for that. Athletes are some of the luckiest people to ever exist, they don't need our protection, and treating them as if they are special and don't deserve to take risks to earn a living is very strange.

[WheatieMan]

Just now, ChazStandard said:

Really? We're going to start dolling out suspensions for coaches if their players get injured and play anyway? The doctors said he could play, Tua wanted to play. It's not on the coach at all.

It also grinds my gears to see so much talk about safety and protection for millionaires playing a game, when they're wearing (and endorsing) name-brand clothes  made in sweatshops and we're watching on  devices with lithium and cobalt batteries mined by literal children in Afghanistan and the Congo.

I don't know exactly what the odds of a starting NFL quarterback getting a concussion that ruins his life are, but I guarantee you it's less likely than a coal miner getting blacklung. Fisherman, fireman, police officers, oil drillers, nuclear power plant workers, sewage workers. The list of physical jobs more dangerous and less well paid than football is endless.

Playing sport is riskier than most desk jobs, in a physical sense, but they are more than well compensated for that. Athletes are some of the luckiest people to ever exist, they don't need our protection, and treating them as if they are special and don't deserve to take risks to earn a living is very strange.

Sorry man, but when you invoked the African kids and coal miners, you jumped off the deep end.

I don't work in the field to present endless data on CTE or early dementia susceptibility, but I'm sure those studies are happening and it's only a matter of time.

As far as the millionaires, no money is worth losing your wife, kids, family and friends over. 

I'm not sure what more the NFL can do besides throw more money at the problem, when the problem is the game itself. There is no doubt in mind we are going to 7 on 7 to create more spacing for flag football within 15 years at virtually all levels except FCS/FBS and NFL. I'd imagine the tackle game will be fundamentally altered as well.

[kramxel]

Guy was clearly concussed last week, they do all the stupid things like clearing him on the field, and then allowing him to fly.... and this week it's even worse.

Tua was clearly not OK to play. Gets a seizure mid game, and then they fly him again.... there's no words!

Such a shambolic sequence of events, for Miami, but also for the league. So stupid!

 

[TheKillerNacho]

6 hours ago, checkcola said:

Shouldn't this investigation have been rapped up before Tua was allowed on the field tonight? 

NFLPA doesnt make that call

[Kip Smithers]

The doctors are independent, no? So if he was cleared to go back in the game vs Buffalo by them then I don’t really see what can be done here. So is there no way at all that on Sunday, it could not have been a concussion?
 

The incident  in the game was so violent that I think you’d have to be extremely extremely lucky to escape a concussion or head trauma there. 

i get the outrage given what context but I don’t know what really can be done here to the Dolphins. Maybe the doctor who cleared him could be investigated? 

[Hunter2_1]

3 hours ago, WheatieMan said:

 

I'm not sure what more the NFL can do besides throw more money at the problem, when the problem is the game itself. There is no doubt in mind we are going to 7 on 7 to create more spacing for flag football within 15 years at virtually all levels except FCS/FBS and NFL. I'd imagine the tackle game will be fundamentally altered as well.

I don't see it being that early. There is still room to improve before we go flag football.

Again, I use rugby as an example, because it's similar and it's years ahead in the safety protocols. We have the same arguments in that sport too - 'don't soften the sport vs we gotta protect the players' etc.

It is now outlawed to tackle above shoulderline, absolutely no room for exceptions. You cannot tackle upright now (this is where a lot of head on head occurs) ejection if you do. The video ref now alerts the on-field ref when there's head contact, ref goes and ejects the player. Mandatory time off if fail a head injury assessment (Tua would have been dragged off vs the Bills and will be off for 2 more games for example).

So yes, it has changed it a bit - but the tackles still fly in, it's still a really tough sport. NFL has some avenues yet.

[Nabbs4u]

People need to stop combining the two incidents.  Tua could of just as easily made it through the Bengals game unscathed and this is all mute.

His injury last night has nothing to do with the ONLY question that truly matters.

Did Tua pass the Concussion protocol both on the field by the independent doctor last week and the 4 days leading up to the TNF game?

If the answer is yes, for whatever the reasoning. He fake it, answered everything correctly,  tricked the doctors, despite clearly being concussed. There is nothing wrong with him playing. Maybe the NFL should review thier own protocols?

Him getting sandblasted again, taken off on a stretcher is just bad frigging luck!!!

 

Edited September 30, 2022 by Nabbs4u

[ramssuperbowl99]

4 minutes ago, Kip Smithers said:

The doctors are independent, no?

There's an independent head injury specialist.

But the team doctors, training staff, player, and coaches who are going to be involved or try to weasel their way into the decision making. It would be very easy to outnumber and overwhelm that person and pressure them, especially if it's not an easy decision.

So, technically yes, but practically, there's a pretty big asterisk there.