Tua emphatically announces his return to Football

WQAM-AM / AM 560 Sports WQAM

Tua Tagovailoa says he doesn't want to be the face of concussions, he will resume practice tomorrow. Tua continues on to feel like he's treated  differently than other athletes like boxers and hockey players.

Transcript

00:00Also weird, the Tua press conference yesterday.

00:04Tua, why do you call that weird, huh?

00:07Cuz he was very aggressive, very confrontational or defiant, I would say.

00:13I would say this.

00:14Talk about.

00:17Tua spoke as if though he's sick and

00:21tired of people telling him how he should go about living his life.

00:27That's right.

00:28And he has every right to do that.

00:31You're like, he should shut the hell up, is basically what he was saying.

00:38Like, none of you are doctors, I'm working with doctors, right?

00:46They have cleared me.

00:48Yep. I know I have to be a little safer in how I go about things.

00:54But from that standpoint, it's none of your damn business.

00:57That's right.

00:58Basically, the way he went at it, and he has every right to.

01:01He has every right to.

01:02He has every right to.

01:03I think it's also a snowball of the team sucking.

01:09He's felt symptom free for five weeks and the team isn't good and

01:13he hasn't really been able to do anything about it.

01:15Though he's- He may have been annoyed that he was put on injury reserve.

01:19Like, you understand, if you have a concussion,

01:23even if you get a concussion during a game on a way trip,

01:26they will keep you overnight, but not things based on how they were.

01:33You see what I mean?

01:34That can be annoying from a player's perspective.

01:38Here's a little bit of two.

01:40You got this, Marcos?

01:41Is this all set to go?

01:42He was asked about the message he has for those concerned about him,

01:46and he says he loves this game to the death of him.

01:51There are a lot of people out there legitimately worried about your health and

01:54making sure that you're okay.

01:55What would you say to those that are worried that you might get hurt again and

01:59this is something that's gonna continue?

02:01I appreciate your concern.

02:02I really do.

02:04I love this game and I love it to the death of me.

02:07That's it.

02:09There you go.

02:10To a- Can I just say this?

02:18Who sees?

02:20Do you see how guys play out there?

02:23Do you see how guys hit each other?

02:25Do you see what guys go through?

02:27Look what Nick Chubb's just gone through.

02:29Right?

02:30Granted, it's a different injury, but there's a lot of that.

02:34Well, at one hand, yes, he has for sure been treated differently and

02:37covered differently than everybody else, but on the other side of it,

02:41his have definitely been very visually upsetting to people.

02:45Yeah, I think the bigger thing is that you have to understand that

02:56it's not necessarily the hit that is getting him in trouble.

03:02See, quarterbacks, unlike other people, I would say unlike me,

03:10I got so used to getting hit, I learned how to put my body in a better position

03:15to get hit.

03:17Remember before the season, I was talking to you about this.

03:19Yes.

03:20You got to get hit a couple of times so you know how to protect yourself.

03:23When is it time to be an aggressor or when is it time to protect yourself?

03:27You got to go through it a little bit to get back into that flow.

03:30Quarterbacks don't necessarily know how to do that because they may get hit

03:36three or four times a game the same way I did.

03:39Most of their hits are sacks, right?

03:43And so if you're getting sacked, a lot of times, you don't have time to protect

03:47yourself because it's a weird thing.

03:50But I think that's what is such a throw off about what happened with this one

03:54in particular, because it didn't look like that violent of a hit and it wasn't

03:58this, ooh, he was trying to make something happen and it didn't work out.

04:05And something that looked pretty innocuous ended up looking very scary.

04:09Sudden jarring or anything like that.

04:12It was more of a, like a, he kind of, you know, got his neck jammed and like

04:18to sit here and watch on TV and try to identify what's happening or what's

04:27going on when we're not medical professionals is not only wrong and we

04:36shouldn't be, but it's also unfair to the player because now everybody gets

04:41in a tizzy over what's going on with tour.

04:45And now we, we get into the mode of making it look good instead of

04:52identifying what's actually going on.

04:55Well, yeah, that's going to be something he has to talk about the organization

04:57with, because that, you know, they got so much heat the last time, because

05:02they felt like they put them in a vulnerable spot and there's no way that

05:05the next time this happens, he's not going to be maybe even shelved longer

05:09change, no matter how pissed he is.

05:10But they were feeling the heat from people who really shouldn't

05:14have a say-so in what's going on.

05:16Yeah.

05:17But they had the doctors, you know?

05:19Right.

05:19But, but no, you had this conversation from the beginning, regardless of how

05:24healthy or hurt tour was, they going to make it look good.

05:28The coach seems to disagree though.

05:29The coach is out there saying the doctors told him time was needed.

05:32Okay.

05:33You know?

05:34And like that could all, you know, like, I just, I just think that we, again,

05:43you put it in the hands of the medical staff and everybody shut up and hope for

05:47the best, and we don't do that.

05:49Here is the try to tell people what, what, you know, Oh, he should do this or that

05:54or that, and then the next thing, you know, it's a national story.

05:57Next thing, you know, and like, yeah, man, like it's hard enough.

06:01Here's a, to a Sandy feels like he is treated different than other athletes.

06:05I just think it's based off of whatever that individual feels that if you feel

06:12like you can go, you can go, this is only, I just think this is only becoming a

06:17thing just because of what, what ended up happening two years ago for, for

06:22myself within a sport.

06:24I hate that it's happened, but we don't look at boxers the same way.

06:27We don't look at hockey players the same way, but I just think because of what

06:31happened and the magnitude that, that had, um, that it's becoming more of

06:35an issue, uh, here in the league.

06:38Uh, I don't necessarily agree with that, that boxers aren't and fighters

06:43aren't put under the 45, a 38 year old fighter or a 40 year old fighter.

06:48He's a 26 year old quarterback in the prime of his career.

06:51He feels great.

06:53Um, but he also has a lot more security than a lot of fighters do.

06:56A lot of fighters fight because they got to fight.

07:01You don't know.

07:02You don't know that he, see the crazy thing about this is, is here we go again.

07:07You don't know that he doesn't feel that way that I don't feel like

07:11you're looking at his situation.

07:13No, but he just said it.

07:16No, but I'm saying like, he may feel that the same way they feel when they

07:22go, it's not about the money for him, but the need to kind of a lot of

07:27fighters, it is for the money though.

07:29Right, right.

07:29But, but the reasons that you pick and choose, like, just because the reasons

07:33are, we choose money for the, for the fighters doesn't mean that the reason

07:38why Tua feels he has to come back and play isn't just as important.

07:42And for us to just say, you got the money, don't worry about it.

07:45He may not be thinking like that.

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