MIAMI GARDENS — For the first time in 42 days, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa stepped to the podium at the team's training facility on Monday. He'd held the door open for a communications staffer, as he always does, before taking his familiar position in front of a group of media members.
He'd spent the past five weeks on injured reserve after suffering the third concussion of his NFL career on Sept. 12. Per NFL policy, players on reserve aren't required to speak to the media. Tagovailoa was technically still on reserve, but a team source said he opted to get his weekly news conference out of the way before his practice window opened in Week 8.
Tagovailoa was terse throughout the 13-minute exchange, admitting he had been frustrated by the process of going through concussion protocol for the third time in two years. He said he'd been absent of any concussion symptoms since Sept. 13, but the team placed him on IR so he could rest and allow his brain to heal.
He said he didn't like the decision to do so — especially as Miami went 1-3 without him — but understood the Dolphins' reasoning.
«What I do know is that I think the team did what was best in the interest of me,» he said. «Knowing that I'm a competitor, and given what the doctors have told me that having a substantial amount of time to rest and recover would have been good for me, I think they did what was best in terms of protecting myself from myself.»
On Friday, the Dolphins announced Tagovailoa would return for Sunday's game against the Arizona Cardinals (1 p.m. ET, CBS). His long road back to action was a cautious one. It featured visits with several neurologists to gauge the risks of continuing to play football. Though Tagovailoa says he has been
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