He was stretchered off the field and immediately taken to the hospital. He suffered a concussion in the first half after taking a hard sack, and displayed the fencing response after the scary hit. Less than a week after the injury, Tagovailoa started against the Cincinnati Bengals in a Thursday night game. Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president overseeing health and safety, said in a virtual news conference Saturday that he believes this is the first time a UNC has been fired, and that the NFL did not support the decision to fire him. 1, the union fired the Unaffiliated Neurotrauma Consultant who handled Tagovailoa’s situation during the game. To that end, the parties remain committed to continuing to evaluate our Protocol to ensure it reflects the intended conservative approach to evaluating player-patients for potential head injuries.” “The Protocol exists to establish a high standard of concussion care for each player,” the league and union’s statement said, “whereby every medical professional engages in a meaningful and rigorous examination of the player-patent. The other symptoms are confusion, amnesia and loss of consciousness.

In their statement Saturday, the NFL and players’ union said there was not an examination of the QB’s back during the check for a concussion, but medical personnel “instead relied on the earlier examination conducted by other members of the medical staff.” The conclusion then was that the back injury was the cause of Tagovailoa’s instability.Īs a result of the joint investigation, the league and union agreed to change the league’s concussion protocol to include the term “ataxia.” In the statement, ataxia is defined as “abnormality of balance/stability, motor coordination or dysfunctional speech caused by a neurological issue.”Ītaxia replaced the term “gross motor instability” and has been added to the list of symptoms that would prohibit a player from returning to the game.

The review also said the medical staff determined that the gross motor instability was not due to a concussion. The investigation found that Tagovailoa told the medical staff he aggravated his back injury when he was hit by Milano and that his back injury caused him to stumble. After the game, Tagovailoa and Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said the player had suffered a back injury earlier in the contest on a quarterback sneak.

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