Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa talked to the media for the first time since he suffered a concussion during the Miami Dolphins loss to the Cincinnati Bengals during their Thursday Night Football game back on September 29th.
Tagovailoa suffered the concussion when he hit his head on the ground while trying to extend a play. He was then stretchered off the field and briefly hospitalized prior to being discharged and returning to Florida with his team after the game.
Tagovailoa said he doesn’t remember what happened immediately after hitting his head on the ground and losing consciousness. He added that he does remember being driven to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center via ambulance and the trip back to Miami with his teammates the next morning.
“I wouldn’t say it was scary for me at the time because there was a point where I was unconscious, so I couldn’t really tell what was going on,” Tagovailoa said, according to ESPN’s Marcel Louis-Jacques. “When I did come to and kind of realized what was going on and what was happening, I didn’t think of anything long term or short term. I was just wondering what happened.”
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said that while Tagovailoa’s competitive nature is to extend plays, he said that he had a conversation with him about recognizing when it’s time to concede and throw the ball away.
“Throwing the ball away hasn’t been something that I’ve done in the past really well,” McDaniel said. “Because I’m trying to make plays, and so just learning from that — if it’s not there, it’s OK to throw it away. It’s the longevity of me just being able to be the quarterback for this team and not try to make something out of nothing.
“Plays will come to us, and that’s kind of what our mantra for our offense is.”
Tagovailoa admitted it was hard to be sidelined while the Dolphins went on a 3-game losing streak.
“There’s things you can do in the locker room to keep the guys encouraged, to keep the guys going motivated,” he said. “But it sucks. As a competitor, I want to be out there with the guys. I want to be able to go out there and help our guys win games. And that’s a terrible feeling that I could only watch from the sidelines.”
Tagovailoa is now cleared and expected to be play this Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“I just gotta be myself — I’m not the savior of this team,” Tagovailoa said. “I don’t just come in and we start winning games. It’s a team deal. The defense gets us stops, the offense goes and puts points on the board and the defense can help put points on the board as well as special teams. So for me, I just look at it as coming into this week and just be myself. Don’t try to force anything. Don’t try to make plays that aren’t there — just give our playmakers the ball and let them go to work.”
