Tua Tagovailoa's NFL future is the subject of widespread debate after he suffered his third concussion in 24 months and fourth overall Thursday night.
Tagovailoa collapsed to the turf in pain and showed signs of a traumatic brain injury, according to multiple experts, after being hit by Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin. Tagovailoa's history of brain injuries includes two in the span of one month in the 2022 season.
Tagovailoa later admitted he consulted with his family about whether he should keep playing football after that. But he came back for more.
His latest injury has resulted in calls to leave the game from pro sports peers, former NFL players, media pundits and concerned fans and observers.
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Tagovailoa will undergo the NFL's concussion protocols in the coming days. It is possible the team's trainers and doctors will eventually clear Tagovailoa to return to the field. If this happens, he would need to make the decision whether to keep playing. There is also a possibility doctors won't clear him to return.
If Tagovailoa is not able to pass concussion protocols for a third time in his NFL career, he could be forced to retire. If he retires, the Dolphins would have to pay out a huge chunk of his $212.4 million contract.
The contract, signed in July by Dolphins general manager Chris Grier, includes $167 million in guarantees. Tagovailoa has already made $43 million of that salary, and if he's medically forced into retirement, he has a right to collect the remaining $124 million.
However, if he's cleared to return and chooses to retire anyway, he would forfeit that guaranteed money. He and the team would have to come to a settlement in that case.
The contract was signed well after his three previous concussions and even after he admitted he considered retirement the prior offseason. But Grier said during a team press conference Feb. 28 he wasn't concerned with the quarterback's concussion history.
While discussing Tagovailoa's contract extension months before it was signed, Grier was asked if the quarterback's past concussions played into how the team evaluated its offer.
DOLPHINS' TUA TAGOVAILOA FACES CALLS TO RETIRE FROM NFL AFTER LATEST CONCUSSION: 'IT'S NOT WORTH IT'
"No," Grier answered. "I think, for us, every player deals with certain things. Even as you’ve seen this year, you look at all the quarterback injuries around the league, and there are other quarterbacks and really good players that have had multiple season-ending injuries as well."
Grier cited offseason jiujitsu training as the remedy for the quarterback's concussion concerns.
"The one thing Tua did was he attacked the offseason wanting to prove that he could stay healthy. Spending the time learning to fall, with the jiujitsu and stuff, it paid off for him," he said.
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said he and the team were also "comfortable" with jiujitsu being the solution to preventing their quarterback's concussions.
"It's something that we had various ideas, some of which I won't repeat because they weren't as good as that one. We were willing to go to any length," McDaniel said during a team press conference that also took place Feb. 28.
"However, with him getting invested in it and really talking to him and hearing how the trainer is invested in him and how he was really into it and getting good residuals from it, we feel very comfortable in terms of this being best preparing him for things that he hasn't otherwise been able to prepare for. It's something, like a follow-through throwing motion, it's something that we're trying to train, and he's 100% all in, attacking it with vigor and exuberance."
Tagovailoa trained with jiujitsu expert Ricardo Liborio starting in the 2023 offseason. The purpose was to train him to control his body to control his movements during falls to the ground to prevent his head from hitting the turf too hard.
Jiujitsu is a martial art that focuses on self-defense tactics against opponents. However, the form originates in Brazil and began as a variation of Japanese judoka. It does not account for being tackled by a group of NFL players.
In Tagovailoa's case, the jiujitsu training was a non-factor during a solo tackle by the 200-pound Hamlin. Tagovailoa's injury came when he was lunging forward to pick up yards, and his head collided with Hamlin's body.
Tagovailoa's arms froze in what neurologists refer to as the "fencing response," a sign of head trauma.
Now, Tagovailoa has 10 days to clear the league's concussion protocol.
If Tagovailoa does not clear protocol in the next 10 days, the team could be forced to place him on injured reserve, which would keep him out for at least four games. It could prompt the front office to start preparing for a future without its star quarterback and potentially without that $124 million.
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