Doctor Who Examined Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa Is Dismissed

The investigation, which should take no more than three weeks, will seek to determine “if a violation occurred and, if so, the proper disciplinary response.” If the league and union cannot agree on whether the protocol was violated, the complaint will be sent to an arbitrator.

The neurological consultants work on each sideline at every N.F.L. game to assist team doctors if a player is thought to have sustained a head injury. These neurologists typically work at hospitals in the home team’s city. They are approved by the league’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, and the N.F.L. Players Association medical director, Dr. Thom Mayer.

The union’s move to dismiss the neurologist may amount to a symbolic action because team doctors, not the unaffiliated neurologists, make the final determinations as to whether players sustained concussions and whether they can return to the game, according to the N.F.L.’s concussion protocol.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the responsibility for the diagnosis of concussion and the decision to return a player to a game remains exclusively within the professional judgment of the head team physician or the team physician assigned to managing T.B.I.,” the protocol says, using an abbreviation for traumatic brain injuries.

According to the N.F.L.’s collective bargaining agreement, a neurological consultant can “present his/her own questions or conduct additional testing and shall assist in the diagnosis and treatment of concussions.”

In response to questions about the status of the team doctor or doctors who evaluated Tagovailoa last Sunday, a Dolphins spokesperson said that the team was letting the joint investigation proceed.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/01/sports/football/tua-tagovailoa-doctor-fired.html