Like bruising touchdowns and high-flying catches, serious injuries and specifically head injuries are staples of the football experience and football broadcast.
So when Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa hit the turf Thursday night, suffering what appeared to be his second head injury in five days, it provided the first evidence of how Amazon, which is paying more than $1 billion to the NFL to broadcast Thursday night games. , would manage what has become a difficult balance for the league’s media partners.
The broadcast was tasked with quickly deciding how to show replays of the injury and how to contextualize it. Tagovailoa had been injured during the previous week’s game against the Bills, staggering and falling to the ground after a hard hit. He left that game but returned after the Dolphins reported he cleared the NFL’s concussion protocols. The NFL Players Association launched a review of how this was handled and is ongoing.
After Tagovailoa was injured Thursday, the game returned from a commercial break and showed a slow-motion replay of his fingers involuntarily bending after hitting the floor. “We’ll show you in a moment how his fingers were stretching at the end of that play,” play-by-play man Al Michaels said.
Many broadcasts are forced to determine how newsworthy injury replays are, and some decide they are not. When Alex Smith suffered a horrific leg injury several seasons ago, CBS only showed one replay. “It’s a philosophy thing,” CBS vice president of production Howard Bryant said at the time. “It’s a horrible injury, we described it in depth and documented it, and as a group we felt enough was enough.”
Amazon (whose founder, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post) showed another repeat of Tagovailoa’s injury in the fourth quarter. The multiple replays drew the ire of some fans on social media.
Tua Tagovailoa’s head injury spurs scrutiny of NFL concussion protocol
At halftime, the game study team returned to the subject of Tagovailoa, but made little reference to the injury and Tagovailoa’s condition the previous week. Host Charissa Thompson only referred to it obliquely, saying, “Given everything we saw last week and now this week, it’s a very hard sight to watch.”
But whether Tagovailoa should have played in the first place was not discussed, not even by former cornerback and Amazon crewman Richard Sherman, who once published an essay in the Players’ Tribune called “Why I hate Thursday Night Football.” who cited concerns about player safety and the short turnaround for Sunday games.
Not everyone was convinced the show should have debated the Dolphins’ decision. Recently retired offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth responded to criticism from an NFL writer on Twitter.
“You just criticized former players,” he wrote. “Who played the game. To spend time talking about his football brother moving and becoming aware. It’s a bad look to worry about anything other than Tua and his family at this current time. Politics is for [tomorrow]!”
Chris Nowinski, co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, started a program to educate broadcasters on how to talk about concussions with Bob Costas, who has said he was cut from NBC’s Super Bowl coverage because of his comments on concussions. “The problem is, we all thought Bob Costas was untouchable,” Nowinski said. “When he said a bad word about football, he got kicked out of the NFL broadcasts by NBC. And I think that scared everybody. . . . I watch the games and feel the fear [announcers’] you see. If they say one bad thing about concussions or bring it up in the wrong place, they’ll lose their jobs.”
During Thursday’s pregame show, the Amazon crew had a longer discussion about Tagovailoa’s injury the previous week. The network also provided a more in-depth report of the injury after the game, including a detailed explanation of the league’s concussion protocols from reporter Michael Smith.
Michael Weinstein, a longtime sports executive and producer, including NFL games, said striking the balance in live coverage of critical injuries is one of the most difficult things a sports broadcaster has to do. “You’re trying to tell a story of what happened, but you’re also making a snap decision,” he said.
Weinstein thought the context of Tagovailoa’s previous injury was important and should be highlighted, but said it was difficult for broadcasters to speculate on whether or not a player should play.
“How are you saying he shouldn’t play if the Dolphins and the doctor give him the green light,” he asked. “It is difficult for Al o [color analyst Kirk] Herbstreit or anyone on the show for that matter.”
Weinstein added that the way injuries are portrayed and discussed on television are matters for the NFL. When he used to meet with the league before the season about the broadcast of games, executives always emphasized the work the NFL was doing to protect players, especially as awareness of concussions has grown. “The NFL is aware that there is a concern about this at all levels,” Weinstein said.
Mark Maske contributed to this report.