Chris Nowinski: Tua Tagovailoa ‘suffered traumatic brain injury’

Since his retirement from WWE, Chris Nowinski has made concussion awareness a prominent part of his life. After Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa left Thursday night’s game against the Buffalo Bills with a concussion, Nowinski shared his feelings on the situation.

Shortly after the injury, Nowinski, who has a Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience from Boston University, shared on X (formerly Twitter) that Tagovailoa’s was severe.

“Tua suffered a traumatic brain injury on this play, no question,” Nowinski shared. “His right arm shows the “fencing posture” indicating loss of consciousness & is on the severe end on the #concussion spectrum. He is done for the night and must miss the next game.”

Dr. Jesse Morse shared a post that detailed what the “fencing posture is.”

Nowinski had more to add.

Following the injury, several NFL commentators suggested that Tagovailoa should retire immediately. Nowinski stopped short of doing that, but did address the matter.

“There is no magic number of concussions to require retirement,” he said. “It all depends on how he recovers from this one, but having too many concussions can lead to chronic symptoms and mental health disorders. He’s in a very tough spot.”

He also detailed the struggles that doctors might face if they advised Tagovailoa to retire.

“Here is a difficult truth,” said Nowinski. “Doctors who advise star athletes to retire – in the absence of symptoms lasting >1 year, brain bleeds or gross MRI changes – can get blacklisted. Many docs may advise Tua to retire based on his frequent concussions alone. Tua may not see those doctors.”

[Chris Nowinski on X, Jesse Morse, MD on X]