Tua Tagovailoa will return to the Miami Dolphins’ lineup Sunday more than a month after a concussion suffered against the Buffalo Bills had many questioning if he should ever play again.
But less than two years after Tagovailoa told reporters that he considered retirement after suffering multiple concussions in 2022, the Dolphins quarterback dismissed the idea of walking away from football at a press conference earlier this week.
According to Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, medical experts made no effort to urge Tagovailoa to make that decision.
“Tua met with a litany, a laundry list, a long list of medical experts, and zero of them recommended that he shouldn’t play football,” McDaniel told reporters Friday. “So that means 100 percent of them were supporting the continued journey and I think that is as easy of a relay as possible.
“I think there’s a lot of things out there, so I can’t tell you how many people or if many people asked him, but I know that’s what drove his confidence is making his decision in step with medical experts who fully support what he’s doing.”
When Tagovailoa spoke to reporters Monday, the Dolphins quarterback said he had no discussion with his family about leaving the sport and he dismissed the idea of wearing a Guardian Cap to provide an additional layer of protection. But McDaniel wants it to be known that Tagovailoa is as mindful as anyone when it comes to concussions.
” From all the way to the most minimal thing with hydration and how you eat – I know in the locker room, he is my foremost expert on the brain,” McDaniel said of Tagovailoa. “No one in this process has trivialized any of this. … I think he’s really gone above and beyond since 2022 really, and he’s taking it with that same seriousness, just probably leveled up a little bit.”
Tagovailoa led the NFL in passer rating (105.5) during his injury-shortened 2022 season and was the league’s leading passer (4,624 yards) in 2023 after playing in all 17 games for the first time in his career.
