Latest concussion should be Tua's last

Miami quarterback should retire before life altered forever

- BRUCE ARTHUR

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sits on the field after a headto-stomach collision with Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin on Thursday.

It happened to Tua, again. Thursday night, in the third quarter of a blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa rushed up the middle into an open field, and could have safely slid for a first down. He didn’t.

Instead, Tagovailoa lowered his head and leaned into Bills cornerback Damar Hamlin. Hamlin, of course, was made famous by an onfield cardiac arrest on “Monday Night Football” that was so terrifying the game was stopped. That was a pretty ordinary hit. So was this.

Tagovailoa’s head collided with Hamlin’s midsection and was wrenched sideways, and Tua went limp and fell and his head bounced off the turf.

He exhibited a classic fencing response, which is a symptom of a severe brain trauma: his right hand reached up and shook for a moment. He left the game.

It wasn’t his first concussion. Or his second. In 2022 Tagovailoa hit his head on the turf in a game against Buffalo on a Sunday, and had clear trouble walking; he cleared concussion protocol and returned to the game, and Miami claimed it was a back injury. Five days later the Dolphins played Cincinnati on a Thursday, and Tagovailoa was concussed. He exhibited the fencing response, this time with both hands, and missed two games. He suffered another concussion on Christmas Day against Green Bay. That ended his season.