The Dolphins failed Tua Tagovailoa. Will any change come of it?

There was a football game Thursday night between the Cincinnati Bengals and Miami Dolphins. The Bengals won. Tyreek Hill had a gazillion receiving yards. There were plenty of highlight-reel moments. But who cares? All the play calling and blocking and stats pale in comparison to the night’s main storyline.

Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa left the game on a stretcher after his head was violently slammed into the ground on a sack by Bengals defensive tackle Josh Tupou in the second quarter. Tagovailoa was immediately taken to a nearby hospital. The whole scene was a nightmare.

The Dolphins immediately classified it as a head and neck injury. But the appropriate word is concussion, or more specifically, a traumatic brain injury. In case the force of the hit and the still body wasn’t indication enough, replays showed Tagovailoa fingers sprayed, almost as if he were trying to contort them.

Immediately after this hit, Tua started what looks to be decorticate posturing - bad sign, concern for brain injury. Given his concern for TBI last week, this is not good pic.twitter.com/E9Qyyddxr4

This unnatural reaction, called posturing, is one of the most terrifying watches in sports. It’s also of the most telling signs of a concussion. As sports medicine doctor Brian Sutterer explained, the “his fingers are rigid like that because of this continuous electrical signals being sent to those muscles as a result of that head trauma”.

The emotions and anger stemming from Thursday night’s concussion are compounded by the fact that Tagovailoa should not have even been on the active roster. Just four days ago, Tagovailoa absorbed a similar hit against Buffalo, when his head again slammed into the ground. This time he got up, though not