THE ONLY OPTION IN TAGOVAILOA’S SAD CAREER: RETIRE AND PROTECT YOUR HEAD

He suffered his fourth diagnosed concussion — there probably are many more — and despite his arm skills in Miami, it’s impossible to think he’d make another comeback against sound medical judgment

     The collision was sickening, between a quarterback suffering his fourth diagnosed concussion and a defender who overcame cardiac arrest. Why do these people play a vicious sport when they could kick the ball as they do throughout the planet? Should we call our mind doctors — we all need them — when the fist made by Tua Tagovailoa is considered typical while a victim endures human hell?

     We only needed to see him strike Damar Hamlin in the chest, which prompted the back of his head to hit the ground. Any support for the NFL’s popularity, as I’ve been documenting, should subside while considering the sad future of the Miami Dolphins star. In conclusion, these people are pulverizing each other every game, even Hamlin, who returned to the Buffalo Bills after all but dying. And when Tagovailoa was kissed on the cheek by his coach, Mike McDaniel, no one would blame him if it was a goodbye on the road to retirement.

     “Tua suffered a traumatic brain injury, no question,” said Dr. Chris Nowinski, who is in the agony business. “His right arm showed the ‘fencing posture’ indicating loss of consciousness and is on the severe end of the concussion spectrum.”

     Wrote Hamlin on X: “My love and prayers with @Tua .. Sending you strength and healing for a speedy recovery. Much love broski.”

     Whatever contract breaks Tagovailoa received from the Dolphins, including a $212 million extension in July, should be in the past tense. He was hooked up with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle in one of the league’s massive passing games. Today, he is back in the concussion bunker, for the final time. Some fans will root for his comeback. Other followers, such as me, want him to enjoy the rest of his life with his family.

     “The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “I was worried about my guy. Not something that you ever want to be part of. I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands. I’m just worried about the human being. And he’ll drive the ship.”

     Said Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen, who won the game 31-10 but was downcast for a colleague. “If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him. He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being,” he said. “He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”

     Who hasn’t rooted for Tagovailoa, particularly since he reminded us of the crude treatment he endured from former coach Brian Flores? As he said on a podcast: “If you woke up every morning, and I told you that you suck at what you did, that you don't belong doing what you do, that you shouldn't be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven't earned this right, and then you have somebody else come in and tell you, ‘Dude, you are the best fit for this. You are accurate, you are the best whatever, you are this, you are that.’ How would that make you feel? You see what I'm saying?

     “And then you hear it and hear it — regardless of what it is, the good or the bad — and you hear it more and more, you start to actually believe that. I don't care who you are. You could be the President of the United States. (If) you have a terrible person that's telling (you) things that you don't want to hear or probably shouldn't be hearing, you're gonna start to believe that about yourself.”

     His concussions forced the league to require players with symptoms to leave the game for good. When he left Thursday night, Hard Rock Stadium was stone cold. The Dolphins had fantasies of making the Super Bowl, but Tagovailoa has every reason to quit. How many concussions has he truly suffered? Ask his high school coach. Ask Nick Saban, his coach at Alabama. Ask Flores. Ask McDaniel.

     Enough.

     “It makes me sick. … It sucks,” Dolphins backup quarterback Skylar Thompson said. “You care about the person more than the player and everyone in our organization would say the same thing. So just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out alright. It was tough to see though.”

     On Amazon Prime, the sentiment to retire was strong from former All-Pros Tony Gonzalez and Richard Sherman. “If I’m (Tua) at this point, I’m seriously considering retiring from football,” Gonzalez said. “Tua’s future? I’m thinking retirement here.”

     We’ve reached the point of instability when the only answer is in his mind. Nothing anyone says matters. “From a medical standpoint, I don’t approach anything above my area of expertise,” McDaniel said. “For me to go ahead and forecast, I don’t think that’s appropriate.”

     It’s one thing to cheer for someone recovering from broken bones or torn knees. The human mind? Retire.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.