Dr. Bennet Omalu may have discovered chronic traumatic enchelopathy, but he still has a lot to learn about how football players’ brains are wired.
Omalu, whose efforts to get the NFL to take traumatic brain injuries seriously were the subject of the film Concussion, told TMZ.com following Sunday’s Bills-Dolphins game that Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa should not have returned to the game. Specifically, Omalu said Tua should have refused to return to play.
“Your life should be worth more to you than any amount of money,” Omalu said. “Your life is worth over $10 billion, because you can’t replace your life. You only have one life. . . . The duty lies with the players. The NFL didn’t put a gun to its head and say, “You have to get back to playing. He could have said ‘No’.
He could have, but he wouldn’t. Football players want to play football. Especially when questions continue to linger over the player’s overall ability and durability – and when the player is backed by someone who hasn’t been shy about suggesting there might be a way to play.
As explained on Wednesday Live PFT, we will defer any further comment on Tua’s situation until the investigation by the NFL Players Association is complete. Obviously, however, Tua appeared to be wobbly due not to a back injury but a head injury. Common sense leads directly to this conclusion.
So what happened in the locker room to defeat common sense? That’s what we need to find out. Yet in no way should the player be blamed for doing what the player naturally and ardently wants to do. It is up to those responsible for protecting the player to understand that they must also protect the player from themselves.
