The federation and the union oversee the protocols side by side, and either side can choose to terminate the participation of any independent physicians – called unaffiliated trauma counselors, or UNCs – involved in the players’ concussion assessment process. The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday about the NFL’s decision.
Tagovailoa is within NFL concussion protocols after sustaining a head injury during a Thursday night game in Cincinnati. He hit the back of his head on the grass in the first half sack. It was Tagoviloa Taken from the field on a stretcher He took them by ambulance to the hospital. He was diagnosed with a concussion, according to Dolphins. Tagovailoa was released that night from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and accompanied the team on their trip to Miami. He underwent further tests on Friday.
He played Thursday’s game four days after being authorized by the team doctor and UNC, as required by protocols, to return for Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills in Miami Gardens, Florida. The UN leadership involved in the decision has not been publicly identified.
The joint investigation is still ongoing and the doctors involved have been interviewed, according to a person familiar with the case. The NFLPA believes errors of judgment were made, according to that person.
“Until we have an objective and approved method for diagnosing brain injury, we must do everything we can, including modifying protocols, to reduce the potential for human error,” said former Cleveland Browns center J.C. Tretter, NFLPA president. In Friday’s statement. “A failure in medical judgment is a failure of protocols when it comes to the well-being of our players.”
Tagovailoa left Sunday’s game in the first half after being sent off to the ground in a match by Beles midfielder Matt Milan. Tagovailoa got to his feet after the play but stumbled. He walked out of the field with members of the medical staff. But Tagoviloa was sent off and returned to start the second half. He and Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel then said that Tagovailoa was hit in the back, not his head.
The protocols outline a step-by-step process for evaluating a player suspected of having suffered a head injury. The player can return to the game if cleared by both the team doctor and UNC after several tests. The protocols state that a player may not return to the game if he exhibits “significant kinetic instability” which is “determined by [the] The team physician, in consultation with UNC, to be a neurological cause.”
In his statement Friday, Terter said: “What everyone saw both Sunday and [Thursday] The night was a ‘don’t go’ symptom within our concussion protocol. … We need to know how and why decisions were made last Sunday to allow a player with ‘no-start’ symptoms to return to the field.”
The NFLPA exercised its right last Sunday to begin a joint review with the NFL on whether concussion protocols were being followed properly. On Wednesday, the association said a review was underway but had “all indications” that protocols had been followed correctly.
Allen Sales, the NFL’s chief medical officer, said during a TV interview Friday that Tagovailoa underwent a lengthy examination called the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT) in the locker room last Sunday. After returning to that game, Sales told the NFL-owned network that he was being evaluated daily for a concussion before Thursday’s game.
It’s something we review together,” Sales said Friday. “What I can say is to reiterate that in real time, these assessments, when the player is assessed, they are examined and interviewed by both the team doctor and the independent neurologist. Those two are given, and together they must both agree in real time that The player has been released in order for them to return to the game.”
It seems likely that, even if the joint investigation finds that protocols have not been violated, the Federation and the Syndicate will close the loophole allowing a player who exhibits gross kinetic instability to return to the game if the doctors conclude it is not neurologically related.
“We want to be as transparent and open about this as possible,” Sales said Friday. “We definitely want to learn, get better, get better. … And so if we find that we fall short or we find that there are things that we need to change, we will definitely be on the front line about doing that.”
George Atallah, the executive assistant director for foreign affairs at the NFLPA, said: in the current situation Friday: “The whole point of our advocacy for more than a decade on the issue of concussion is to transform our game culture from a game that was previously focused on the quickest way back to the field, to a game that focused on player interest above all else.”
“When the first set of protocols was implemented in 2011, it was designed with this goal in mind and every year since we have improved those protocols to the point that today’s concussion protocols are more comprehensive and safer for gamers than ever before.[.] But it’s only effective if the people who apply it and make the decisions put patient/player care over the checkboxes to make room for someone to get back to work as quickly as possible.”
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