The NFL will have no role in Tua Tagovailoa’s potential return

While NFL officials announced a record drop in concussions before the start of the season on Friday, they pledged that the league would not impose a finding on its most high-profile concussion patient.

Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who has been on injured reserve since Sept. 17 after suffering the third documented concussion of his professional career, “is seeing… “experts” across the country. .

But other than implementing the concussion protocol that he runs alongside the NFL Players Association, Sills said the league will have no role in determining when — or if — Tagovailoa will return to the field.

“Patient autonomy and medical decision making is really important,” Sills said. “And I think that’s what we have to recognize with our concussion protocol as well. Ultimately, when patients make decisions about looking into their careers, that should reflect the independence that comes from discussions with medical experts who are giving them the best medical advice.”

Sills, the neurosurgeon, added that there is no “detailed formula” that can predict the future risks of concussions for Tagovailoa or anyone else.

“It’s not like we can calculate how many concussions you’ve had and how long you’ve had them and your age and some unusual constant or Avogadro’s number that always seems to be in freshmen chemistry somehow and come up with a risk,” Sells said, speaking generally. And not about Tagovailoa in particular. “It doesn’t work that way. So ultimately what we have to do is look at the overall patient experience, the number of concussions, the interval between those concussions, some about the duration of symptoms after each concussion, and then, a lot of patient voice about where Being there in their journey, their career, their age, things like that.

“From that, we as medical professionals try to make our best guess. But that’s really what it is, it’s a guess at someone’s future concussion risk.”

Meanwhile, NFL players suffered 44 concussions during the preseason, including practices and games. That represents a 25% decrease from the same time frame in 2023 and the lowest total since the league began collecting such data in 2015. For context, 91 preseason concussions were reported in 2017.

Sills and Jeff Miller, the NFL’s executive vice president who oversees player health and safety, attributed the decline to a number of factors, including new rules and ongoing adjustments to training schedules.

But Sills said the introduction and eventual mandate of Guardian Caps helmet supplements, which must be worn by every player at every practice except midfielders and specialists, was an “unequivocal success.”

The NFL first introduced Guardian Caps to reduce the force transmitted between players when there is contact involving at least one helmet. But gradual mandates for use over the past two summers led to fewer concussions both times. In 2024, players are given a list of six high-performance helmets they can use that will exempt them from wearing Guardian Caps. Nearly 200 players have tried these helmets, according to the league.

“I think both factors contribute to the lower infection rates that we’ve seen,” Sells said.

Players have the option to wear Guardian Caps during matches, and approximately 5-10 players have worn them weekly. But Sells said there is not enough data on their performance in those situations to consider a gaming mandate.

In other NFL health and safety news:

• The overall hit rate on kickoffs during preseason games has decreased by 32% since 2023, a step toward the league’s goal of redesigning the kickoff this season. However, there were more concussions than expected. Their totals are “low single digits,” Miller said.

• There were no kickoff concussions through the first three weeks of the regular season, according to the league.