Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow commented on the prevalence of concussions in the NFL, as well as Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa.
Burrow reached out to Tagovailoa to wish him the best after the Dolphins quarterback was knocked out of a Thursday Night Football game in Cincinnati.
Tagovailoa suffered a concussion which has since been marred in controversy. While it has yet to be proven if Tua suffered a head injury the previous week, it was the second straight game Tagovailoa took a serious hit to the helmet-or-neck area. FanSided’s Aryanna Prasad described the concern around Tua’s possible second concussion in just a few days time:
“The primary cause for concern is that if Tagovailoa suffered an undiagnosed concussion on Sept. 25, then suffered another on Sept. 29, there is the possibility that he could have experienced Second Impact Syndrome (SIS). Suffering subsequent concussions in a matter of days can cause severe neurotrauma, which can even be fatal in some cases.”
Joe Burrow speaks out on Tua Tagovailoa, head injuries
Burrow had a more practical approach in his commentary, which is that head injuries are merely part of the game of football itself. He mentioned his own experience with head trauma as an example:
“Stuff like that happens all the time,” Burrow said in his press conference. “I’ve never had a headache the next day from a concussion. But I’ve had games, high school, college, NFL, that maybe I don’t remember the rest of the game but I don’t have any side effects other than that. So I don’t know if you would call that a concussion or not. But definitely some kind of head injury for sure.”
That alone should concern football fans — to not remember key moments from the game, or a second half as a whole, should not be normalized. It speaks to how much we have yet to learn about head injuries and trauma, and exactly how far the NFL has to go in their efforts to properly treat concussions.
