This is Amazon’s first year broadcasting NFL games, so you’d expect a couple of bumps along the way. But the tech giant’s Thursday Night Football broadcast received a healthy dose of criticism over its coverage of Tua Tagovailoa’s injury.
During the second quarter of the Cincinnati Bengals’ 27-15 win over the Miami Dolphins, Tagovailoa was taken off the field on a stretcher and hospitalized after being sacked by Josh Tupou. It was the second hit in the head Tagovailoa suffered in five days, which Thursday Night Football announcers Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit mentioned briefly after the young quarterback went down.
At halftime, no one on Amazon’s studio team — Charissa Thompson, Tony Gonzalez, Ryan Fitzpatrick, or Richard Sherman— mentioned that Tagovailoa was tested for a concussion after Sunday’s game. There was also no mention of an investigation requested by the NFL Players Association into the decision to allow Tagovailoa to return to Sunday’s game.
