Analysts on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown, Fox’s Fox NFL Sunday, and CBS’ NFL Today brought some fresh insight and personal perspectives Sunday into the growing conversation about Tua Tagovailoa’s future.
The Miami Dolphins quarterback left Thursday night’s loss to the Buffalo Bills with a concussion , a serious issue given he’s suffered several others in recent years. That’s led to extensive debate among fans and media about whether or not he should retire, and public opinion has generally hit on three points: A) Tagovailoa should retire; B) He shouldn’t retire; C) It’s his decision .
NFL Countdown ‘s Tedy Bruschi and Alex Smith brought unique perspectives to the discussion, as both players suffered serious medical problems and faced difficult decisions in whether or not to return to the NFL.
Bruschi, a former New England Patriots star, suffered a stroke in early 2005, yet returned to play later that year.
“It’s such a family decision,” Bruschi said. “My wife went through so much because she thought I was done. … Then I tell her, ‘My vision’s back, I want to play again. … I did not get 100% support.”
“There was conflict at first. … What can your wife live with? What can your children live with?”
Former NFL quarterback Smith, who suffered a devastating leg injury in 2018, yet returned to play in 2020, asked Bruschi about the four years he played following his stroke.
“What do those four years mean to you, as opposed to if you had walked away?” Smith asked. “Is it meaningful for you?”
“It was, because there’s a whole community of stroke survivors that looked to me after that, and I was proud of that,” Bruschi said. “So many have come up to me and said … they’ve had strokes they had to get over, and it gave them hope.”
“I only asked that, because there were a lot of people that said the same thing about me coming back. That it was crazy,” Smith said. “People that had no business interjecting on it. My life is incredibly different because I did it. Incredibly different. I’m a better father and husband, because of it.”
On Fox NFL Sunday , Michael Strahan said he’s witnessed friends who retired from the game because of concussion concerns.
“I’ve had friends who had to retire because of concussions and I have yet to have one who didn’t have regrets … they have regretted the fact their careers didn’t end the way they expected them to end,” Strahan said.
Tagovailoa’s situation also stirred a lengthy discussion on CBS’ NFL Today . Bill Cowher noted that football should be secondary to health when it comes to the quarterback’s decision.
“It’s not what you are as a football player,” he said. “That’s not gonna be your legend or your legacy. It’s you as a father and you as a husband.”
And there’s no shame in making that decision to walk away, host James Brown pointed out.
“I talked to a number of players who’ve gone through that, and they were telling me in talking to the public, ‘Please let them know we weren’t wimps.’ That’s the attitude,” Brown said. “I’ve got to believe, hearing from guys like you, who are from the fraternity, hopefully, it will make it easier for him to make the right decision.”
[NFL on ESPN; NFL on CBS; NFL on Fox]
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