Football is, arguably, the most popular sport in the United States, but it is also one of the most physically tolling sports. In the past month, Tua Tagovailoa, quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, has created a lot of buzz about the safety of football. On Sept. 12, week two of the 2024 NFL season, Tagovailoa suffered his third concussion in his so far five-year career. This caused many fans to fear for Tagovailoa’s health, with some even wondering if he will wear a guardian cap, which is a soft, foamy extra layer of protection that can go over players helmets.
“Guardian Caps reduce the force of each blow by somewhere between 10 and 15%,” NFL’s chief medical doctor Allen Sills said.
Others even worried that the concussion would result in him having to retire from football altogether in fear of him hurting himself again in the future and potentially getting chronic traumatic encephalopathy, commonly known as CTE.
Sadly, this is not a rare occurrence. On Sept. 14, North Carolina State University’s starting quarterback, Grayson McCall, suffered a minor concussion against Louisiana Tech two minutes before halftime. His injury caused him to miss the next two games; however, when he returned to the field for the Wolfpack on Oct. 5 against Wake Forest, McCall endured a bad blow in the first quarter in which his helmet flew off his head, resulting in him needing to be carted off the field. The year before, when he was still playing at Coastal Carolina, McCall suffered a concussion that ended his season. With his poor history of concussions, McCall had to make the tough decision to retire from the sport that he loved and his passion in life at just 23-years-old.
To many fans’ surprise, Tagovailoa not only did not want to retire but also refused to wear a guardian cap. When he was asked by the press why he wouldn’t wear a guardian cap, he responded with a very dry response.
“Personal choice.” Tagovailoa said.
All in all, even though it seems like an easy decision for Tagovailoa to simply hang up the cleats, it is a very difficult decision for these young athletes to make.
“Yeah, I think I considered [retiring] for a time. Having sat down with my family, having sat down with my wife and having those kinds of conversations, but, really, it would be hard for me to walk away from this game with how old I am,” Tagovailoa said. “It’s my health, it’s my body, and I feel like this is what’s best for me and my family. I love the game of football. If I didn’t, I would’ve quit a long time ago.”
Even though it seems like an easy decision for us fans at home to justify what players should do regarding their lives and their jobs, in reality it is a very hard decision for players to make to stop following their life’s passions and what they have worked their entire lives towards, even if it is for safety reasons.
