Tua Tagovailoa ‘thankful’ Dolphins intentionally kept him out of concussion protocol

Tua Tagovailoa needed to be protected from himself.

The Dolphins quarterback, who missed the final three games of the regular season after suffering a concussion against the Packers on Christmas, didn’t clear protocol until February. It was an unusually long period of time, but the 24-year-old revealed that it was also by design.

“For concussion protocol, I think the team did me the biggest service throughout that,” Tagovailoa told USA Today Sports on Friday. “They never allowed me to go through protocol normally until the season was done. So that’s why it might have seemed like it took forever, but they were just protecting me from myself.”

Tagovailoa didn’t begin the process of going through the protocol until after Miami’s 34-31 loss to the Bills in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

The third-year quarterback was diagnosed with two separate concussions this season, first against the Bengals on Sept. 29 then against Green Bay less than three months later. He also smacked his head on the turf against the Bills just four days prior to the Bengals game and was wobbly when he got up.

Following that game against Cincinnati, the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant who performed the concussion evaluation during the Bills game was fired by the NFL Players Association for having made “several mistakes” in his injury assessment.

The incident also helped spark changes to the NFL’s concussion protocols.

“Me and my family are very thankful to the Dolphins,” Tagovailoa told USA Today Sports about not being allowed to go through the protocol until after Miami’s season ended. “But it really entailed a lot of exertion, so like running, ocular and vestibular movements, so like balance, proprioception — things like that. Having went to see a doctor in Pittsburgh, got clear from him and then had to do written test, memorization.”

Tagovailoa also said he will practice judo this offseason as a way to better understand his body and how to fall in a controlled way.

“I think I’ve had all the information that I need to move forward with the decision that I made with me and my wife and my family, and understanding that you’re playing this sport, and understanding and knowing the precautions that these things can happen,” he said. “It’s football, it’s a physical sport.”