Miami Dolphins: There's Plenty Of Blame To Go Around

Now that the whole sports world has seen Tua Tagovailoa’s brutal injury on Thursday Night Football, everyone has chimed in with who’s to blame. “Someone should get fired over this” has been shouted from the rooftop. While everyone involved would like someone to point the finger at as a scapegoat, there are plenty of people who need to take accountability for the Miami Dolphins QB:

Independent Doctor:

This so-called “unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant” shares most of the blame. Even after they were let go in light of this situation, someone should still pursue legal action here. It was the sole responsibility of an independent doctor to prevent this kind of thing. As a professional, clearing Tua Tagovailoa to return to the game to have a similar injury just a few days later, calls into question your ability to do your job, even if it’s not for professional sports. You were hired to take an unbiased approach to protect a player’s best interest and didn’t do that.

Miami Dolphins:

This organization has been in crisis mode since Stephen Ross took over. The team has had one circus right after another and this will be another black eye for the organization. How Ross has not been voted out by the rest of the NFL is hard to believe, but here we are. As far as the organization’s role, how are we comfortable saying this was just a “back injury”? Anyone who watched the game, or even reviewed the tape, saw Tua Tagovailoa stumble after his head bounced off the field.

Now there’s a slight chance he could’ve just stood up too quickly after getting his bell rung and the doctor cleared him to return. Given the information they were provided, there’s a chance they can shift the blame. However, this is the Miami Dolphins and there’s a microscope over everything they’ve done wrong lately. For someone to not cross their t’s and dot their i’s shows just how poorly this organization is run.

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Mike McDaniel:

As a first-time head, coach this will be a learning opportunity. McDaniel gets a little bit of slack here so long as he takes the advice of the independent doctor. If Tua is cleared to go back and play by the doctor, as wrong as it is, you made the decision based on the medical professional to let him go back in. However, as a coach, the decision to play Tua Thursday must be a learning moment.

With 3 conference wins, and 2 in the division, the TNF game wasn’t exactly a “must-win” moment. If Miami loses that game, they lose nothing in the overall standings. They still have the tie-breaker with the Buffalo Bills for the division. They still would have enough of a headstart to control their destiny. Sit Tua Tagovailoa on a short rest week, he’d have missed one “meaningless” game. There would’ve been two weeks total rest time for the young QB to heal up. Now that the whole NFL has seen the injury, there will be a lot more to work through to get him back on the field that might not clear the next week off.

Tua Tagovailoa himself:

Tua has come out with a little bit of swagger for the Miami Dolphins this year. It’s safe to say as a young QB who faced plenty of criticisms to start his career, he’d want to go out and get back to winning with his team. Unfortunately, there’s a right and wrong way to do it and Tua picked the wrong one. Again, the decisions being made were based on the information they were given by a doctor so he’ll take as little heat as possible. As a player though, just how honest was he in regards to his health and providing said doctor with all the information? Did he fudge the truth so he could get back out there and play last week in a tough game?

As fans, we all want players in there who give the team the best chance to win. However, when it comes to a potentially life-threatening injury you have to know when to take the losses. This may have been a freak accident for the Miami Dolphins’ QB but there were also multiple check points that could have prevented it as well.