Following a season that controversially saw Tua Tagovailoa return to the field after suffering multiple concussions, Stephen A. Smith took a strong stance in calling the handling of the Miami Dolphins quarterback “criminal.”
On Wednesday, Tagovailoa spoke to the media and admitted he contemplated retirement with his family after battling through a concussion-laden season. Tagovailoa ultimately decided to continue his NFL career, saying, “It would be hard for me to walk away from this game.”
Thursday morning on ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith responded to Tagovailoa’s press conference. He noted that the 25-year-old NFL quarterback is putting his life on the line by continuing his football career, considering his concussion history.
“It was mishandled. It was exposed,” Smith said of the way Tagovailoa’s concussions were managed during the season. “And I take no pleasure in saying this…but it’s important to point out, and there’s no easy way to have this kind of conversation. It’s an easy argument to make that his life is on the line when he steps out on the field. And we’re not talking about just because you’re playing in the NFL.”
Tagovailoa suffered multiple concussions during the 2022 NFL season and was stretchered off the field after violently hitting his head on the turf during a Thursday night game in Week 4. The concussion came just five days after he appeared to suffer a head injury during Week 3 against the Buffalo Bills when Tagovailoa took a late hit and stumbled off the field after his head smacked the ground.
Despite appearing to suffer a gruesome head injury, Tagovailoa was allowed back into that Week 3 game after he passed concussion protocol and was initially diagnosed with a back injury. Tagovailoa entered concussion protocol for a third time after the Dolphins Week 16 loss against the Green Bay Packers and did not return for the rest of the season or playoffs.
“He had a concussion in Week 3 against the Buffalo Bills and they didn’t treat it as such,” Smith said of Tagovailoa being diagnosed with a back injury. “What happened with him was criminal. He should have never, ever been allowed to stay on the field, even though he survived that game that Miami won (against Buffalo), and he certainly shouldn’t have been allowed on the field that Thursday night against Cincinnati, when another hit, where his head hit the turf and it looked like rigor mortis had kicked in and his fingers were contorted, and his body froze. It was a scary, scary sight to see.”
According to Smith, Tagovailoa’s concussion-laden season would have been put under a bigger microscope by the media had Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin not suffered a life-threatening injury in Week 17.
“Thank God Damar Hamlin is OK, but the only reason we didn’t spend the rest of the year talking about that ad nauseam is because of what happened with Damar Hamlin,” Smith said of Tagovailoa suffering multiple concussions. “Because Damar Hamlin distracted a lot of our attention away from what had happened with Tua.”
After Tagovailoa stumbled off the field in Week 3 only to come back into the game and get stretchered off the field in Week 4, the NFL adjusted league rules so that a player who demonstrates “gross motor instability” can no longer return to the game, even if they pass concussion protocol.