Dolphins’ Tagovailoa knocked out of Bengals game with head trauma

With six minutes to go in the second quarter of the Miami Dolphins’ 15-27 defeat to the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday, Miami had the ball on the Bengals’ 40 yard line on 2nd and 7. Cincinnati’s defensive tackle Josh Tupou caught up with Tua Tagovailoa and slammed him to the ground for a ten yard loss, and then the whole stadium held their breath.

Contorting his fingers in an involuntary reaction which is a common occurrence in head trauma, Tua was strapped to a gurney and taken out of the stadium to be tested.

In the course of the tackle, Tua’s head impacted the ground and the scene was brutal to behold. The involuntary contortion of his fingers was shocking, particularly when revealed by pundit Al Michaels that medical expert Mike Ryan, in the booth, had revealed to him that the initial reaction was a sign of head injury.

This incident comes on the heels of a concussion that Tagovailoa suffered only five days ago, leading to severe criticism being levelled at the league and its concussion treatment protocol.

As Tagovailoa was taken out of Paycor Stadium, every voice was chanting his name in a show of bipartisan support for the Miami quarterback. Teddy Bridgewater took over the running of the offense.

Tua was reportedly taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Centre, located 5.5 miles from the stadium, which possesses a level-one trauma center. Initial reports are that he has full movement of all his extremities, and is expected to be released from the hospital to fly back to Miami with the rest of the team, so we are all hopeful that all will be well.

As more information becomes available, AS USA will keep you informed.