The Tua Tagovailoa situation, explained

On Saturday, the NFL Players Association fired an unaffiliated neurologist who helped evaluate Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa before he was allowed to return to a September 25 game, despite sustaining a head injury.

Hours later, the NFL and NFLPA announced new modifications to the league’s concussion protocol that’ll rule out players who exhibit “gross motor instability” – as Tua did two Sundays ago – regardless of the cause.

🏈 Let’s back up… During the September 25 contest, Tua left the game and entered concussion protocol after visibly stumbling following a hit that caused his head to slam into the ground. (Video)

• He was later allowed back in the game after reportedly passing all concussion tests, and ending up leading the Dolphins to an upset win over Buffalo, the odds-on Super Bowl favorite.
• Tua also started in Miami’s Thursday night game, during which he suffered a second hit to the head that led to him being removed on a stretcher and taken to a hospital. (Video. Fair warning: not for the faint of heart.)
• He was discharged later that night and is reportedly still experiencing headaches, with no timetable for returning to the field.

🧠 Zoom out: The NFL reports concussions are trending downward, from 275 in 2015 to 187 in 2021 – though legal experts have questioned whether they’re fully documented, the NY Times reports.

+Some good news: Concussions this year among players mandated to wear the bubble-wrap helmet-coverings, aka the Guardian Cap (as seen in Hard Knocks), dropped by more than 50% compared to the previous three-year average.