The NFL and the Players Association (NFLPA) announced this Saturday that they will make changes to the league’s concussion protocol to improve the safety of athletes.
“The NFL and the NFLPA agree that changes to the concussion protocol are needed to improve player safety, so we anticipate changes to that process in the coming days,” reads the published joint report.
This action occurs as a result of the investigation that the NFLPA began last Sunday after the concussion suffered by the Miami Dolphins quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa. At the end of the game against the Bills in week three of the season 2022, Tagovailoa was knocked down and slammed into the grass on one play before he finished the second room.
The QB got up, but he felt dizzy, he even fell to the field again. At halftime he was checked, as dictated by the league’s concussion protocol, but surprisingly he returned to the field to finish the game.
As the medical report after that match did not warned of any danger to the passer, he was a starter in last Thursday’s game against the Bengals, in which he was knocked down again and his neck, again, hit the grass.
In this Tagovailoa did not get up, he remained almost 12 minutes on the ground in shock, with his hands paralyzed near the protective mask of his helmet. He was removed on a stretcher and taken to a hospital, from which he was released the same day.
The report by the NFL and the NFLPA also highlighted that there are still no conclusions about medical errors in the procedure that was carried out in the protocol of the game on Sunday to the passer.
“ Joint NFL-NFLPA Concussion Protocol Enforcement Investigation Involving Dolphins Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa Remains Ongoing; we have not drawn any conclusions about medical errors or violations of the protocol”.
Despite the above, this Saturday, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) fired the neurotrauma consultant who treated to Tua Tagovailoa on Sunday, in the game against the Bills. The letter also highlighted the warning that medical personnel should be clearer when defining concepts such as motor instability.
“The Mackey-White Health and Safety Committee of the NFLPA and the Head and Neck Committee have started discussions on the use of the term “gross motor instability”. We anticipate changes in the protocol that will be made in the coming days.”
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