Last night was a bad night for the AFC East in general. The Bills, who have won the AFC East four years in a row, not only look like the prohibitive favorites to win it again, they look like they can win the whole dang thing. In an almost perfect game against the Dolphins last night on TNF, the Bills sent a strong message to everyone that they are not in a “rebuilding stage” as many have claimed, but rather a “re-calibrating”. Their defense held down by Ed Oliver has come a long way from a season ago showing they can get in the backfield and scramble the quarterback, something the Bills missed a year ago. Von Miller broke a sackless-drought last night with not one but two takedowns of the quarterback, Ed Oliver wreaked havoc on the interior of the Miami offensive line for 3.5 quarters, and Rasul Douglas continued to prove he is the best cornerback Buffalo has had in the 2000’s. Everything about the Bills performance last night was flawless.
The other aspect of why the AFC East took a hit last night, was the hit Tua Tagovailoa took late in the losing effort. A hit that brought back flashes from his seizure-like response to a hit against Cincinatti in 2022. Tua hit the turf and basically froze up on the field with his hands curled up and stuck as he his teammates feared the worst. However, the worst part about that play was only one week prior, Tua hit the back of his head against the turf against the Bills and wasn’t able to stand up straight and stumbling across the field losing his footing. It was clear to anyone and everyone in that play against Buffalo in 2022, Tagovailoa had some sort of head injury and should not return to play. But Tagovailoa was inexplicably under center seven days later against the Bengals when he suffered the head injury mentioned above. There was serious discourse then about Tua and his future in football. Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez said after the 2022 injury, “If I’m (Tua) at this point, I’m seriously considering retiring from football. Tua’s future? I’m thinking retirement here.”
Tua would miss the rest of the 2022-23 season with the head injury and as time passed it was clear Tua was going to return to the playing field, even against some doctor’s advice. As with most injuries in the NFL, this one was promptly swept under the rug as the NFL cares as much about player safety as they do “rival” leagues, they don’t.
Thankfully, Tua was able to walk off under his own power last night, even with a slight sway in his step as his eyes were foggy and faded. But this opens up an entirely new issue with the NFL and his future. Is the game really that important that suffering these serious brain injuries is worth the payout? I am sure many would take the money right now if it meant a tradeoff of some concussions, we are talking about tens of millions of dollars after all. But I guarantee those same people would give it all back 25 years from now when they can’t remember their children’s name or what town they live in.
Over the past decade CTE has taken center stage in terms of player safety. It was unclear the long-term effects all of these hits would have on players. Slowly but surely, more and more former players were experiencing serious memory loss and trauma among other things at a devastatingly young age. The NFL tried to cover this up, as they often do, by saying things to the tune of, “player safety has never been more advanced than it is today” and “the helmet technology has come so far from those days, our players are much better protected. Let me tell you what has also come a long way since then, the speed and size of the game. Players are noticeably faster and hit consistently harder in today’s NFL. And proper tackling technique is a far cry from what we grew up learning in pop warner practice. Guys now in the NFL use their body as a torpedo and their helmet as the warhead, trying to inflict as much pain as possible. While the helmets may be getting better, but the hits are getting harder and more vicious.
Circling back to Tua. He is doing himself zero favors if he tries to come back and play. The odds of this happening again are almost automatic if he does decide to return. The damage he has almost certainly already done, while not visible now, will be visible in a few years and we will look back and say, “how could they have ever let him back on that field?” Tua’s family needs to get around him and remind him that there is a life after football, and if he wants to experience some of that, he should walk away from the game.
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