JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The dilemma about America's football obsession came front and center again last night with one tackle and one star player. The Miami Dolphins' starting quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, suffered yet another blow to the head in a game against the Buffalo Bills. It is the third official concussion diagnosis of his NFL career. And there are calls for him to retire for his own safety, like from the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, Antonio Pierce.
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ANTONIO PIERCE: I'll be honest. I'd just tell him to retire. It's not worth it. I just think at some point, you know, he's going to live longer than he's going to play football. Take care of your family.
SUMMERS: We're joined now by NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan. Hey, Becky.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: So, Becky, for folks who were not watching this game last night, just walk us through exactly what happened.
SULLIVAN: Yeah. This was in the third quarter of the Thursday Night Football game, as you said, between the Dolphins and the Bills. And honestly, it was like a routine play. Tagovailoa had the ball. He was running for a first down. And as the defender approaches, he, like, leaned head first into the tackle. And his head made contact with the defender's chest. It turned sharply to the left, and he was knocked to the ground. And as he was laying flat on his back, you could see his right hand balled into a fist, kind of raised up above his chest in what some folks interpreted as, you know, one of these telltale signs of brain injury called the fencing posture. Tagovailoa was able to walk off the field. He talked to medical staff in the locker room. But Dolphins confirmed afterward, of course, it was a concussion.
SUMMERS: Right. And, I mean, you and I are football fans, so we know that this is not the first time. He is not a stranger to concussions.
SULLIVAN: Yeah, exactly. And it has led to some painful scenes to watch, you know, just not for myself but for millions of viewers. Especially, really, in the 2022 season was when this issue was at it's most acute for him. Early in that season, he was knocked down during a game and was very wobbly afterward. And despite, you know, the appearance that he had gotten a concussion, he was cleared to return to the game, which he did. And then a few days later, in his next game, he was knocked down again, this time much more dramatically, taken out on a stretcher, diagnosed with a concussion. The whole thing raised questions about the NFL's concussion protocol, which they changed afterward. And then later in the season, Tagovailoa got another concussion. This time, he was done for the year. And, in fact, he said just a few weeks ago in a podcast interview with Dan Le Batard that his family had asked him to consider retiring after that.
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TUA TAGOVAILOA: It was just brought up, like, here and there. Like, you know, I don't think you should continue to play and whatnot, but we'll always support what you want to do.
SULLIVAN: He stuck with it. He decided - so that offseason, he, you know, learned how to roll while falling instead of having his head hit the ground. And last season, that did seem to work. He had the best season of his career. He didn't miss any games. And he was rewarded with a $212 million contract extension this past July. But now, of course, that money - much of that money is on the line with this decision about whether or not to retire, which now so many people are urging him to do.
SUMMERS: I mean, Becky, the fact that that's a conversation, that that's something that's being raised openly - I don't know.
SULLIVAN: Yeah.
SUMMERS: It just feels like a big shift in how we talk about the sport, right?
SULLIVAN: Totally, totally. It really reflects the fact that I think not just the football community but just Americans have come to understand that these hits to the head are dangerous, and it's not just football, but athletes playing hockey, soccer, lacrosse, even cheerleading face these risks, too. Of course, concussions and repeated hits to the head - these are just key risk factors for developing long-term brain conditions, like chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is also known as CTE. Your risk goes up the more concussions you get. And so, you know, the NFL is constantly rolling out new helmets that are meant to address this along with new rules about how to tackle more safely.
But, of course, it just continues to raise concerns about the hundreds of thousands of young players in schools and in colleges. You know, just a few weeks ago, a high school quarterback in Alabama died after taking a hit to the head during a tackle. So, you know, football - it's just a dangerous sport. And the more these studies show us about the risks of long-term brain damage, the more it just must be taken into account in these decisions that all these players face about whether to continue to play.
SUMMERS: NPR's Becky Sullivan. Becky, thanks.
SULLIVAN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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