Another week, another NFL lesson:
Tackling a quarterback is a penalty, depending on the quarterback.
Causing a fumble can be a penalty, too, if a quarterback is involved.
Standing up after being sacked can get a quarterback taken out of the game — or standing up too quickly can, or maybe too slowly, or too something. It depends on the concussion spotter.
Call it the Tua Effect. The play that shook you in the watching is still shaking the league, too. When Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa wobbled on the field against Buffalo on Sept. 25, shaking his head and collapsing to the ground, it was a scary scene that made you worry for his health.
When he was taken off the field on a stretcher in Cincinnati four days later with a concussion, everything changed. And everything, in this case, meant more than the Dolphins season.
But, if concussions hurt, so does the truth. And the truth is you can’t fully legislate violence out of a violent game without appreciably changing the game. The NFL has tried to the point of needlessly making the quarterback leave the game in the case of Tua’s replacement, Teddy Bridgewater.
The NFL and NFL player’s union just agreed the night before Sunday’s game on the Tua Rule. This was the legislated rider to the Tua Effect and stated if a player looked like walked like he had “gross motor instability,” and quacked like he had “gross motor instability,” he indeed had gross motor instability and had to leave the game.
It was put in play when Bridgewater stood up after being knocked to the ground on the first play where he was called for intentional grounding that resulted in a safety. It’s hard to imagine more wrong coming from a game’s first play.
First, could it be intentional grounding if a quarterback is hit while throwing? Not by the rulebook. Second, when Bridgewater stood up, it didn’t look like a wobble on video review. His first step? No wobble. His following steps? No wobble at all.
The concussion spotter saw a wobble. The NFL definition of wobble obviously differs from the dictionary one of, “move unsteadily from side to side.” Bridgewater was removed from the game, seventh-round rookie Skylar Thompson entered and the game, if not lost, was appreciably altered.
A sizable swath of Dolphins fans, of course, think it’s about them. The NFL is against them. That’s the default position over the last few weeks of odd calls and perceived injustices. The problem, of course, is obviously larger than that when you examine the cascade of injuries that befell them after a 3-0 start.
Fate is against them. Luck. Who’s the Greek god of NFL injuries poking a needle into the Dolphins bobblehead doll whenever something good happens for, lo, these past two decades?
There was no explanation Monday from the NFL about Bridgewater’s removal. Nor was there a simple clarification of what the anonymous spotter saw from the grassy knoll.
But explanations and clarifications won’t wash here. Can’t wash. Truth time: When Tampa Bay’s national monument, Tom Brady, was spun to the ground in a relatively soft landing Sunday and a penalty was called it showed how this obvious need to protect quarterbacks can be at odds with protecting the integrity of a game.
More truth time: When Kansas City defensive tackle Chris Jones stripped the ball from Las Vegas quarterback Derek Carr with one hand and braced his fall on Carr with the other hand, it confirmed something’s wrong with America’s game (and it’s not the obvious thought of why is such a primitive sport America’s game?). Jones was called for a penalty Monday night. Probing question: Huh?
If the league’s powers can alter concussion protocol in midseason, they can solve the mindbender of the Tua Effect, too. It’s not so hard to figure. Jones stood at his locker after Kansas City’s win Monday night and had the simple answer.
“Let them review roughing the passer in the [replay] booth,’’ he said.
About the last thing the NFL needs is more replays. But the very last thing they need are turnovers not being turnovers and quarterbacks being taken out of the game for no apparent reason.
The NFL season moves on and so do questions of who will be the Dolphins quarterback. Next man-out-of-concussion-protocol up?
