NBC Sports NFL analyst Cris Collinsworth issued an awkward correction during Week 13's Dolphins-Chargers game after he made a seemingly minor and innocuous error in reference to the head and neck injuries suffered earlier this season by Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
Late in the third quarter, Collinsworth heaped praise on Tagovailoa for fighting through two tacklers to pick up a first down on a scramble.
"He finished this run," Collinsworth said. "Watch this one, for a guy who's been knocked out twice this season with concussions -- he's going to get to that spot, try and split these defenders, put his head down, and pick up a first down. That's a guy who's playing to put his team in a position to win a Super Bowl."
But later, after a commercial break, Collinsworth and play-by-play man Mike Tirico soberly clarified that Tua had not officially been diagnosed with concussions in both instances.
"Earlier I said that Tua had been knocked out in two different games -- he was knocked out of two different games," Collinsworth said. "Officially he was not knocked out for the first one. He was for the second one, in Cincinnati, four days later."
"Yeah, that was the Buffalo game, where he got hit at halftime and people were concerned with what happened," Tirico said. "They said he was examined for the back. There was the investigation with the NFL and the medical situation, and the protocols that have changed going forward from that. That is the way it was officially diagnosed the first time, and then knocked out in the Cincinnati game you just referenced."
Tua's injury saga reignited debate in the football world over the handling of concussions.
In Week 3, against the the Bills, the former Alabama star appeared to be out on his feet after his head bounced off the turf at Hard Rock Stadium following a late hit by Buffalo linebacker Matt Milano. However, he passed concussion protocol and returned to the game, later being diagnosed with a back injury.
Outrage over the handling of the apparent concussion prompted an NFL investigation, which found no wrongdoing on the part of the Dolphins medical staff. Still, protocol rules were changed soon after, such that a player displaying "gross motor instability" would automatically be ruled out for the rest of a game.
Tua did in fact suffer a concussion, however, only four days after the Bills game, when in Week 4 he was stretchered off the field after his head once again snapped back against the artificial surface on a sack by the Bengals' Josh Tupou at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram