On Thursday Night Football, the Miami Dolphins played the Buffalo Bills. For the last five years, it has been an extremely one sided “rivalry.” Buffalo is 7-1 against Miami since they drafted QB Tua Tagovailoa in 2020. The Dolphins were predictably routed, dominated, crushed, molly whopped, whatever phrase you want to use, 31-10. That wasn’t even remotely the worst part of the night for Miami. Late in the third quarter, Tua ran for a first down. Instead of sliding, he put his shoulder down into Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin, and consequently slammed his head into the turf. He then went into a fencing position, and was immediately removed from the game with a concussion. His third recorded concussion in three years that resulted in him going into the fencing position.
Injury History & Contract
The Miami Dolphins are extremely familiar with Tua’s past head injuries, yet they still elected to hand him a major contract extension to the tune of 212.4 million dollars over four years, with $167 million fully guaranteed; even if he is forced to retire citing medical issues. He has already been paid $43M of the $167M, that money goes to him regardless of what happens.
If he is cleared medically to return to the field and he elects to retire then the Dolphins will not be on the hook for the remaining 124M. Its important that we cover those details, because the Dolphins brass decided to give a player, who had a history of injury coming into the league for both ankle and hip surgery, who now has a scary history of traumatic head injuries, a contract extension that has that many guaranteed dollars in it.
Dolphins Mismanagement
It is complete mismanagement on the part of the Dolphins that they would tie their franchises future to a player with this type of injury history, and this amount of documented head trauma. Football is an extremely violent and physical sport, injury is unavoidable and often random, it can happen to any player at any time. This, unfortunately, was extremely predictable. Based on Tua’s injury history, dating back to his time at Alabama, it would have been more unlikely if he remained healthy, rather than suffer another major injury. There are also questions about his ability to perform against quality defenses, his ability to make plays outside of structure, or if he elevates his playmakers or if he’s a product of them.
There were so many red flags waving about extending Tua Tagovailoa, both with production and his serious injury history. The Dolphins elected to proceed, and now it’s backfired in the worst way, leaving a player with possibly life-changing injury, having to decide if he can continue playing; and a team wondering if they can justify letting him ever touch a football field again, for fear of something truly horrible happening to him. All the while being on the hook for $167 million dollars guaranteed, should Tua decide to rightfully retire to preserve his health, citing head trauma.
This was an extremely avoidable disaster. If the Dolphins were capable of making a hard decision, doing what was right for the franchise. Unfortunately, they weren’t, and now one of the worst, and most predictable outcomes has come to fruition. No wonder this team hasn’t won a playoff game in 20 years.
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