Discussions of the frightening head injury that Tua Tagovailoa suffered during the Dolphins’ Thursday night loss to the Bengals have dominated NFL discourse over the last day. On Friday, Mike McDaniel spoke to the media about the status of his young quarterback, and stressed that his concern his Tagovailoa’s health, first and foremost.
After heading to the hospital following the sack that knocked him out of the game, Tagovailoa—wearing a neck brace—was able to fly back with the team on Thursday night, sitting next to McDaniel on the trip. Even hours after the injury, and while admitting that he still had a headache, McDaniel told the media that Tagovailoa was concerned about missing upcoming games on Miami’s schedule, and pondered when he might be able to return to play.
“Tua, let’s stop this right now,” McDaniel recalls telling his young quarterback, per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo. “Don’t even think about a game. … Let’s worry about you and your head and being a healthy human being. We’ll worry about playing football later.”
