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dr Bennet Omalu may have discovered chronic traumatic enchelopathy, but he still has a lot to learn when it comes to how soccer players’ brains are wired.
Omalu, whose efforts to get the NFL to take head trauma seriously was the subject of the film Concussion, told TMZ.com after Sunday’s Bills-Dolphins game that Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa would not have gotten back into the game allowed to. More specifically, Omalu said Tua should have refused to play again.
“Your life should be worth more to you than lots of money,” Omalu said. “Your life is worth more than $10 billion because you can’t replace your life. You have only one life. . . . The responsibility lies with the players. The NFL didn’t point a gun at his head and said, “You gotta go back to play.” He could have said ‘no’.”
He could have done it, but he wouldn’t have done it. Soccer players want to play soccer. Especially if questions remain about the player’s overall skills and durability – and if the player is backed by someone who isn’t shy about suggesting there might be a way to play.
As explained in PFT Live Wednesday, we will defer further comment on the Tua situation until the investigation launched by the NFL Players Association is complete. Obviously, however, Tua seemed shaky not from a back injury but a head injury. Common sense points directly to this conclusion.
So what happened in the locker room to defy common sense? We need to find out. Still, the player should by no means be blamed for doing what the player naturally and fervently wants to do. It is for those tasked with protecting the player to understand that they must also protect the player from themselves.