After Tua Tagovailoa went down with yet another concussion during a game against the Buffalo Bills earlier this season, there were many calls for him to consider retiring and walking away from the game entirely for the sake of his health.
However, Tua Tagovailoa made it very clear during a recent interview that he never even considered that as a possibility.
“If they would have told me that I couldn’t play, I would have definitely taken that into consideration, but there were no talks like that,” Tagovailoa told Jeff Darlington of ESPN.
“It never stuck in my mind that I was ever thinking of retiring,” he continued.
Tagovailoa made it very clear that his firm and final decision on the matter was to continue playing.
And it sounds like he is not happy that his name keeps getting attached to discourse about concussions.
“What I don’t want to be known for is the poster boy for concussions. That’s for sure,” Tagovailoa told Darlington.
Whether Tagovailoa likes it or not, he has quite a public history of head injuries throughout his NFL career.
Tagovailoa was diagnosed with two concussions during the 2022 season and took a third hit to the head that led the NFL to alter its concussion protocol after he was allowed to remain in the game. He then suffered yet another concussion this season.
However, Tagovailoa was able to play the entire 2023 season without missing a game.
He said that his goal for the rest of this season is to “stay healthy.”
