The Baltimore Ravens faced off against the Miami Dolphins in Week 2 of the 2022 season, losing 42-38 in a game where Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw for 469 and six touchdowns in a 21-point comeback effort. While Tagovailoa then led the Dolphins to a Week 3 win over the Buffalo Bills, there was controversy over how the team handled the quarterback after he seemingly suffered a concussion. The team cleared him and allowed him to return to the game, and in Week 4 Tagovailoa suffered a concussion on a scary looking play.
Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh was asked about the situation with Tagovailoa on Friday following practice. He expressed his shock with what happened, and also shared his appreciation for the Ravens’ organization, including the doctors, owner Steve Bisciotti and general manager Eric DeCosta.
“Right, thanks for asking that. I just, like probably most people, I couldn’t believe what I saw last night; I couldn’t believe what I saw last Sunday. It was just something that was astonishing to see. I’ve been coaching for 40 years now in college and the NFL – almost 40, not quite – and I’ve never seen anything like it before. It just was really something that I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. So, I really appreciate our doctors, I appreciate our owner, I appreciate our general manager from the standpoint that there’s two things that you have to keep in mind; one of them is the player’s … A lot of times, players want to play. They want to go out there, and they want to play, and sometimes you just have to tell them, ‘No.’ You have to say, ‘No.’ No has to be the answer, and I appreciate that. We had Devin Duvernay a couple weeks ago with his situation, and he didn’t really have much in terms of symptoms and stuff like that, but he was out. He was out for the game, and he was out for most of the week. He never had a symptom, and he didn’t practice the whole week until Friday, I think, when he was finally cleared. I think that’s the approach you take. Sometimes, guys might be there physically where they’re sound, but they’re not confident yet. They’re not quite there yet, and we’ve had this year. So, we’ve had both those situations this year. You don’t put them out there until they’re ready, until they’re ready in their minds. The game is too hard, the game is too tough for a player not to go out there who’s confident in his own ability to protect himself and play well. So, I just appreciate our docs, I think they would probably call themselves conservative, but that’s what they should be. The other part of it, that last night, was not something you want to see.”
The entire situation has drawn massive criticism in terms of the way that Miami handled their star quarterback. Harbaugh clearly values how the Baltimore organization goes about things in relation to concussions, and made it be known how unbelievable he believes the events of the last few days for the Dolphins have been.