The Miami Dolphins have come under a considerable amount of fire in the last day after Tua Tagovailoa left Thursday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals with head and neck injuries. Much of this stems from the fact that the team’s signal caller played in the first place — Tagovailoa went down during the Dolphins’ win over the Buffalo Bills this past Sunday and collapsed, but got the green light to return with what was described as a back injury.
Even before Thursday night, the NFLPA announced an investigation into how he was able to go back into that game, which is taking on a new urgency following Thursday night. On Friday, Miami head coach Mike McDaniel met with the media to discuss how things are going for his starting quarterback, which included a defense of the process that led to him returning to the game.
McDaniel said Tua was evaluated for a head injury “immediately” during the Bills game and cleared of “any head injury whatsoever” by “several layers of medical professionals”
— Marcel Louis-Jacques (@Marcel_LJ) September 30, 2022
McDaniel said “there was no indication from numerous medical resources” that there was anything wrong with Tua’s head following Bills game
Said he “wouldn’t be able to live with myself” if he had put him in harm’s way
— Marcel Louis-Jacques (@Marcel_LJ) September 30, 2022
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel defends the team’s evaluation of QB Tua Tagovailoa’s injury last Sunday:
“I get the optics … The one thing that I can exude with 100% conviction is that every person in this building had 100% the correct process.” pic.twitter.com/FWmn8W4ZjK
— The Recount (@therecount) September 30, 2022
“The timing of all of it, how things played out, I get the optics, I get exactly what it looks like, I understand all of this, and I understand people’s concern,” McDaniel said. “But the one thing that I can exude with 100 percent conviction is that every person in this building had 100 percent the correct process, diligence, and that’s why there’s not a player or person that you’d be able to talk to in the building that would think otherwise, because it is clear, contrite, and not something that is negotiable in any way, shape, or form.”
McDaniel also got emotional discussing Tagovailoa getting carted off, saying “I’m just really, really, really glad that I can hear normal Tua in his voice.”
Mike McDaniel gets choked up talking about seeing Tua get carted off the field pic.twitter.com/txZBkde55j
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) September 30, 2022
While McDaniel addressed the media, NFLPA president J.C. Tretter put out a statement explaining the investigation, writing that Tagovailoa exhibited “no-go” symptoms and that “we need to figure out how and why the decisions were made last Sunday to allow a player with a ‘no-go’ symptom back on the field.”
— JC Tretter (@JCTretter) September 30, 2022
Earlier in the day, Dr. Allen Sills, the Chief Medical Officer for the NFL, appeared on television and said Tagovailoa was checked for concussion symptoms every day since the game against Buffalo.