League Should Retire Tagovailoa

Harry

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I’m all for letting people risk whatever they choose. If he wants to bungee jump, that’s fine. It’s just not fair to would be tacklers that one of them may end Tagovailoa‘s career or even impair him for life. There’s no treatment for CTE. That fate for some hard working player may leave them with excessive guilt for life. They’d be like a boxer who kills someone in the ring. That player may never be the same. Boxing Commissions now refuse to sanction fights.
 

Brian in Mesa

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Tua Tagovailoa is back in the fold for the Miami Dolphins. The club is designating him to return to practice this week and, if all goes according to plan, will start in Week 8 when the team takes on the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. If/when he does, however, the quarterback won't be donning a Guardian Cap. When speaking to reporters on Monday, Tagovailoa, who has been sidelined with his latest concussion, was asked if he'd sport the soft shell over his helmet.

"Nope," he said. "Personal choice."

Tagovailoa was also asked how much risk he believes he's taking by playing again.

"Well, how much risk do we take when we get up in the morning to go drive to work?" Tagovailoa answered. "Get into a car crash, I don't know. Everything I think takes risk. So to answer that question, every time we all suit up, we're all taking a risk that we could potentially get hurt, whether it's a concussion, a broken bone, anything. You get up off of the bed the wrong way, you potentially could risk you spraining your ankle. There's just risk in any and everything, and I'm willing to play the odds. That's it."
 

RON_IN_OC

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Tua Tagovailoa is back in the fold for the Miami Dolphins. The club is designating him to return to practice this week and, if all goes according to plan, will start in Week 8 when the team takes on the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. If/when he does, however, the quarterback won't be donning a Guardian Cap. When speaking to reporters on Monday, Tagovailoa, who has been sidelined with his latest concussion, was asked if he'd sport the soft shell over his helmet.

"Nope," he said. "Personal choice."

Tagovailoa was also asked how much risk he believes he's taking by playing again.

"Well, how much risk do we take when we get up in the morning to go drive to work?" Tagovailoa answered. "Get into a car crash, I don't know. Everything I think takes risk. So to answer that question, every time we all suit up, we're all taking a risk that we could potentially get hurt, whether it's a concussion, a broken bone, anything. You get up off of the bed the wrong way, you potentially could risk you spraining your ankle. There's just risk in any and everything, and I'm willing to play the odds. That's it."
The CTE has already set in.
 

Dback Jon

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I think the league should require anyone who had a concussion to wear the guardian cap for the remainder of that season
 

TRW

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League can't retire him. There would be hell to pay with the Player's Association and, probably, violate the CBA. Only if the independent neurologist definitively said he absolutely could not play could he be indefinitely held out or put on permanent I.R. I heard one of the talking heads Graziano? say he was symptom free just days after the event and hasn't had any recurrence of symptoms since, but who knows?

It's totally his choice along with clearance from the protocols. He loves to play and, I'm sure, those paychecks are nice. As Shane said above ALL of the players know the risks.
 

HairZach

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I’m all for letting people risk whatever they choose. If he wants to bungee jump, that’s fine. It’s just not fair to would be tacklers that one of them may end Tagovailoa‘s career or even impair him for life. There’s no treatment for CTE. That fate for some hard working player may leave them with excessive guilt for life. They’d be like a boxer who kills someone in the ring. That player may never be the same. Boxing Commissions now refuse to sanction fights.
Despite Tua's concussions looking particularly nasty, concussions that aren't as visible, concussions where the player doesn't get knocked out, and just jogs to the LOS as normal, are just as damaging to the brain. Linemen get micro concussions on nearly every single snap. Just by Tua's position he probably has one of the healthier brains in the league.

It is almost certain that every single lineman, receiver, linebacker and runningback has received more brain damage than Tua. If you advocate for Tua to be forced to retire then you should advocate for the entire league to be shut down and for football to be banned. Everyone in the league has CTE to varying degrees.
 

Devilmaycare

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Tua Tagovailoa is back in the fold for the Miami Dolphins. The club is designating him to return to practice this week and, if all goes according to plan, will start in Week 8 when the team takes on the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. If/when he does, however, the quarterback won't be donning a Guardian Cap. When speaking to reporters on Monday, Tagovailoa, who has been sidelined with his latest concussion, was asked if he'd sport the soft shell over his helmet.

"Nope," he said. "Personal choice."

Tagovailoa was also asked how much risk he believes he's taking by playing again.

"Well, how much risk do we take when we get up in the morning to go drive to work?" Tagovailoa answered. "Get into a car crash, I don't know. Everything I think takes risk. So to answer that question, every time we all suit up, we're all taking a risk that we could potentially get hurt, whether it's a concussion, a broken bone, anything. You get up off of the bed the wrong way, you potentially could risk you spraining your ankle. There's just risk in any and everything, and I'm willing to play the odds. That's it."

To be fair, the risk of him getting a concussion with the Card's pass rush is pretty low. Week 9 he should put on the Guardian Cap though.
 

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