We’re nearly past the second week of the new pro football season and the NFL is already at a philosophical crossroads.
The league is again confronted with the specter of an incident in which one of its higher profile players suffered a concussion in a nationally televised game.
When Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa collapsed to the turf late in the third quarter of Thursday’s loss to the Buffalo Bills, the reverberations touched off another round of debates over the safety of America’s most popular and violent game.
But not really, for, in the immediate, the discussion is zeroed in on whether Tagovailoa has a future in football, when we really should be talking about what to do about football as a whole going forward.
For Tagovailoa, it marked the third time he has suffered a concussion, all in the past three seasons. In Week 3 of the 2022 season, the fifth-year veteran was struck with a blow that left him battling to maintain his balance.
He was originally diagnosed then with a back ailment and permitted to return and start the next week, though he was sacked in that game, hitting the back of his head on the ground.
Tagovailoa was carted off the field on a stretcher, but not before his hands and arms went into what is known as a fencing position, where they go up seemingly autonomically, a clear indicator of a concussion.
Near the end of the 2022 season, Tagovailoa suffered another concussion, which kept out of Miami’s last two regular season games and a playoff contest.
When he returned last season, Tagovailoa told reporters that he had studied jiu jitsu to learn how to fall to avoid further concussion issues. He not only managed to avoid any apparent brain injuries in 2023 but he led the NFL in passing yards.
As a reward for his success, the Dolphins signed Tagovailoa, a 26-yearold father of two to a four-year $212 million contract in the offseason, much of it guaranteed.
The Dolphins can recoup some of that money through an insurance policy, but no one will be holding telethons or pity parties for a National Football League franchise. Not when each of the 32 teams pulled in more than $400 million last year, according to Pro Football Talk.
You might think that an organization like the NFL might do everything in its power to make sure that its lifeblood, the more than 1,500 players who suit up each week would be as safe as possible.
The league would point to the guardian caps, the soft-shell covering that goes on top of helmets, that is worn by linemen, linebackers, tight ends, running backs and fullbacks during practice since 2022.
But use of these caps is voluntary during games and quarterbacks are not in those groups.
Why? Because despite all the mounting evidence of the long term effects of repeated head trauma that comes with football, the NFL is betting on two things.
One is that each Sunday afternoon and evening and Monday night and Thursday night, millions of us will line up for our weekly serving of televised, sanitized carnage.
And two, there will always someone else to take Tua Tagovailoa’s place.
And that’s how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and Twitter at Sports at Large.
Until next week, for all of us here, I’m Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.