It would be immoral for the NFL to let Tua Tagovailoa play football again

The brain of a top-tier QB is being destroyed for our entertainment.

I used to be a football fan. That’s like saying “I used to eat hamburgers” in America. Everybody does it, and if you don’t you’re kind of a weirdo. But I stopped really watching football years ago amidst growing evidence that the game was destroying the brains of the people who played it.

“It’s not realistic to ban football,” I wrote in 2021. “But it might not be ethical to watch it, either.”

I’ve been writing this kind of thing for a long time, now.

And honestly: It’s a bummer. Not just because I’m arguing into a void, but also because I grew up a Kansas City Chiefs fan! My abandonment of the game means I’ve missed out on a glorious run for a team that provided me so much heartache when I was watching.

Such is life.

Anyway, you probably know why I’m writing this today. Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered a concussion — again — Thursday night in a nationally televised game.

It’s at least the third time he’s suffered a major head injury in a game.

He should never step on a football field as a player ever again.

I’m not a doctor. Not a head injury expert of any kind. But I don’t think it’s difficult to arrive at the conclusion that Tagovailoa is particularly prone to head injuries in a game that routinely inflicts head injuries.

I’m just not sure anybody is really looking out for him:

Shortly after Tagovailoa’s Week 16 concussion ended his 2022 season, Dolphins general manager Chris Grier said he disagreed with the idea that Tagovailoa’s concussion history put him at a higher risk of more concussions. “From what our doctors and the consultants we’ve talked to through the NFLPA, that is not a true statement,” Grier told reporters. “So for us, I don’t think he’s any more prone than anyone else. … From everything we’ve been told that is not a concern.”

Some academics disagree, including Julie Stamm, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “There’s something about that previous concussion that can make the brain more vulnerable—especially multiple concussions,” Stamm told USA Today. “The data would suggest that there is an increased risk of concussion, because he had these previous concussions.”

This, of course, is what the game does. It’s what it’s designed to do, honestly. If we didn’t have brutal collisions, football would be a fancy game of tag and I’m not sure we’d build billion-dollar taxpayer-funded stadiums for that kind of thing.

So Tua should stay off the field. And if he can’t make that decision, somebody should do it for him.

And in either case, it’s worth asking — again — if we really want to watch young men destroy their brains and souls for our entertainment.