Tua Tagovailoa will also miss the Wild Card Round after suffering a concussion. But even if he does recover, fear continues to play a part. Of all things, his best season in sports could seal the NFL exit for the quarterback. A commentary by Martin Jahns

Should Tua Tagovailoa continue to play football? That’s the question on everyone’s mind after the quarterback’s third head injury within a year.

A temporary answer was given by the doctors who refused to release Tagovailoa from the Concussion Protocol on Wednesday: No. “Football activities” are still out of the question for him. Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel then announced that backup Skylar Thompson would start in the Wild Card Game against the Buffalo Bills.

Fatal snap as cautionary tale

Sportingly a weakening compared to Tagovailoa, who has the best passer rating of any NFL quarterback in the regular season despite his shaky O-line. But McDaniel might secretly be glad that doctors have relieved him of a tricky decision. Because even if Tagovailoa had been given the medical green light, using him as early as the wild-card round would have been a morally questionable decision.

Once before, on Game 4 of the season, the Dolphins let Tagovailoa back in against the Cincinnati Bengals four days after taking a hard blow to the head and visibly struggling to stay on his feet. There, he crashed the back of his head to the ground and remained lying with his hands bizarrely cramped. Diagnosis: concussion.

The Dolphins’ negligent handling of the health of their top performer was rightly one of the excitements of the first weeks of the season. A repeat would be an oath of revelation in the way teams treat their own players, especially in light of the traumatising images of the collapsing Damar Hamlin.

McDaniel statements fuel doubts

After the knockout against the New York Jets on 26 December 2022, when Tagovailoa lay motionless on the ground, the quarterback is emblematic of the NFL’s problem with head injuries, which the league cannot shake despite ever new rules. After the incident, former player Marcus Spears even recommended that Tagovailoa “seriously think about quitting”.

The fact that the quarterback has still not been released from the Concussion Protocol 16 days after the concussion should be understood as the next alarm signal – for the NFL, the Dolphins, but first and foremost for Tagovailoa.

McDaniel’s recent statements on the state of his health are also more cause for concern than hope: Instead of thinking about the playoffs, according to the doctors treating Tagovailoa, it is now important to think “only about the here and now”, as McDaniel reports. If and when his quarterback will be able to play again? It is more important that Tagovailoa “gets completely healthy again as a person”, says the coach. That doesn’t sound like a quick comeback.

A quarterback where fear always plays a part

So at just 24, Tagovailoa faces a dilemma: career or health? How many more head injuries can he take? Are there perhaps even now threats of long-term health problems?

And the Dolphins and those in charge of other franchises might also ask themselves whether they want to bet on a quarterback with whom fear always plays a part. US experts are already calling for Tagovailoa not to be used in these playoffs – even if he is released from the Concussion Protocol. With every further head injury Tua suffers, his team will – rightly – have to face a discussion about responsibility in the future.

After his most athletic NFL season, of all things, it looks like Tua Tagovailoa has no future in the NFL.