Unaffiliated specialist who helped clear Tua Tagovailoa in Bills game reportedly fired
The NFL Players Association terminated the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant who participated in the decision to allow Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to return to play the second half of last Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills, according to multiple reports Saturday.
That decision is at the center of a controversy after Tagovailoa suffered a concussion Thursday night against the Cincinnati Bengals.
More: Concussion expert warned Tua Tagovailoa shouldn't play, now says brain damage is possible
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MikeMcDaniel: Tagovailoa had no concussion until Thursday, but games are secondary now
The NFLPA and NFL are investigating whether allowing Tagovailoa to finish the Bills game, then permitting him to play against the Bengals, put him at undue risk for what could prove to be concussions in two consecutive games. ESPN reported that the specialist was fired for making multiple errors, but the league and union issued a joint statement Saturday night saying no conclusions have been reached yet.
Tagovailoa is out indefinitely while he recovers.
Concussion protocol requires that players suspected of suffering a concussion can return to a game only after getting cleared by the team physician, in consultation with the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said after the Bengals game and again while meeting with reporters Friday afternoon that protocol was followed.
“What I was kind of referring to in terms of not changing anything that I’d do was because the whole process for what happened on the Bills game was he was evaluated for a head injury immediately,” McDaniel said Friday. “That’s what we brought him into the tent for or brought him inside for. He was evaluated and then cleared by several layers of medical professionals, who — I don’t pretend to be one — but those people, the collection of them, cleared him of any head injury whatsoever.”
Tagovailoa was injured when Bengals defensive tackle Josh Tupou slammed him to the turf, banging his head for the second consecutive game. He was taken to a nearby hospital but discharged in time to fly back home with the team.
Boynton Beach’s Chris Nowinski, co-founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, said video alone from the Bills game tells him that Tagovailoa showed “five independent signs of concussion, two of which are almost never seen outside brain injury.”
Nowinski tweeted hours before Thursday’s game that allowing Tagovailoa to play put him at risk. After seeing what occurred Thursday night, Nowinski said two concussions that close together can cause permanent brain damage because cells have no time to recover from the first injury.
The NFLPA also has doubts about what occurred Sunday and requested an investigation. Dr. Allen Sills, the league’s chief medical officer, said the investigation will include interviewing those participating in the decision to clear Tagovailoa last Sunday as well as Tagovailoa himself. Sills said the results will be publicized.
“There are very serious consequences if the protocol was determined not to have been followed,” Sills said on NFL Network.
The NFLPA questioned the Dolphins version of what occurred last Sunday: that Tagovailoa’s issue was back and ankle injuries, not a concussion.
“We insisted on these rules to avoid exactly this scenario,” union head DeMaurice Smith wrote in a text Thursday night. “We will pursue every legal option, including making referrals against the doctors to licensing agencies and the team that is obligated to keep our players safe."
Hal Habib covers the Dolphins for The Post. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Union fires specialist who cleared Tua Tagovailoa, reports say
