Tua Tagovailoa has revealed that he did consider retiring this year after suffering two concussions during the 2022/23 season.
The Miami Dolphins quarterback was having a great campaign on a personal front before having to end his season prematurely but still did enough to get his team into the playoffs.
There was some speculation regarding the possibility of retirement given the seriousness of the injuries but the QB has decided that he’s not done yet.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, he was asked whether he thought about leaving football on the back of the concussions and disclosed that such was the case. Tua shared that he held discussions with his family while trying to decide what he should do, and it appears his son played a major role.
“Yeah, I think I considered it, you know, for a time, having sat down with my family, having sat down with my wife, and having those kinds of conversations,” the 25-year-old said.
“Really, it would be hard for me to walk away from this game with how old I am, with my son. I always dreamed of growing — playing as long as I could to where my son knew exactly what he was watching his dad do. Yeah, I mean it’s my health, it’s my body. I feel like this is what’s best for me and my family. I love the game of football. If I didn’t I would have quite a long time [ago].”
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Tua claimed to be told by medical professionals that he doesn’t run the risk of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) as he isn’t hitting his head all the time like linebackers and linemen.
The QB also went into a bit of detail regarding the jiu-jitsu training he undertook in order to learn how to fall better and disperse energy using various techniques.
“Obviously learned how to fall,” he added. “Learned some grappling techniques. Learned some other things too that I don’t think I should disclose. But for the most part, learned how to fall. You think it’s easy. Just don’t fall and hit your head. But a lot more to it.
“It’s actually a lot cooler than you think when you hear of learning how to fall.
“I’ve been falling a lot this offseason. So I think just like anything else, you continue to train it, you continue to work it that it becomes second nature.”
Of course, the Dolphins quarterback won’t be able to use what he’s learned until the actual games start coming as QBs don’t really come across contact in training.
