During Sunday afternoon’s game between the Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered an apparent head injury and appeared to be woozy as he headed to the sideline. Despite his apparent dizziness, Tagovailoa passed the concussion protocol and was allowed to return to the game, leading to a joint investigation as to whether or not concussion protocols were correctly followed. In a somewhat surprising turn of events, it looks like they were.
But according to NFL Senior Vice President of Health and Safety Policy Jeff Miller, early indications are that the NFL’s concussion protocols were followed properly during Sunday’s game and that there was no wrongdoing or mistake throughout the process.
“Every indication from our perspective is that it was [followed],” Miller said on Wednesday according to NFL reporter Mark Maske of the Washington Post. “I know the player, the coach and others have spoken to this. And we are engaged in that review now. So we’ll come back with a formal answer to that question, something that we want to engage in.”
Despite the early indications, the league and the NFLPA are continuing a formal joint investigation of the events, which is expected to take one or two weeks.