On Sept. 12, the NFL world witnessed a horrible but familiar scene when Tua Tagovailoa, the Miami Dolphins quarterback, laid on the field after suffering another concussion.

This marks his third diagnosed concussion since entering the league in 2020. With all the rule changes on how to protect players and the NFL implementing more and more player safety regulations, Tagovailoa has found himself on the wrong end of all of these precautions.

His name headlined sports news throughout Thursday night of Sept. 12 into the next morning. Players, coaches, sports broadcasters and other athletes spoke on the tragic event that occurred.

Respected former players like Andrew Witworth, Tony Gonzalez, and Dez Bryant chimed in on the matter expressing their concern and advising him that maybe it’s time for him to call it a career.

Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a ton of people or news coming out in favor of Tagovailoa continuing his career. I’m sure he has the support of his family, teammates and coaches, but there haven’t been many statements encouraging his stated decision to continue playing.

The ironic piece to this story is the other player involved in the hit that caused his latest concussion was Damar Hamlin. Hamlin notably suffered cardiac arrest after he was hit in the chest in a game against the Cincinnati Bengals in 2022. That hit shook the consciousness of the league because it was an incident they’d never seen before.

I could only imagine the thoughts and emotions Hamlin experienced once he realized the severity of Tagovailoa’s injury. Hamlin tweeted this early Friday morning following the Bills’ 31-10 victory: “My love and prayers with Tua fasho, sending you strength and healing for a speedy recovery.”

There have been so many different factors that have gone into this situation, but from an organizational standpoint, the Dolphins are in bind. Tagovailoa just signed a lofty contract extension two months ago that has made him the richest player to ever wear a Dolphins uniform. It’s a four-year deal worth $212.4 million. The Dolphins were hesitant to extend his contract due to his injury history but decided to pull the plug and make one of the highest paid players in the league.

So, now the question is, what happens to the deal if he does decide to retire?

The deal ties him to the Dolphins through 2028 but the structure of the contract technically only marries the Dolphins to him through 2025. If he retires this season, he’ll receive an additional $54 million of the contract that’s fully guaranteed through 2025.

The contract does include $167.2 million guaranteed, but the “guarantees” are conditional because if Tagovailoa is never medically cleared, he can walk away with that entire package. So, the Dolphins would owe Tua $167.2 million of the entire four-year extension. But if he is cleared from the NFL’s concussion protocol and decides to retire, he’d be voluntarily walking away. He has already received $93.17 million guaranteed at signing. But if he’s gonna walk away voluntarily, then the 2025 guarantees will void.

Retirement voids guarantees but the Dolphins could honor the guarantee if they chose to. Tagovailoa’s $42 million signing bonus is also at risk because when you retire, the remaining portion of the bonus can be redeemed. If he were to voluntarily retire he’d be walking away from about $120 million.

Honestly, I don’t think people should be giving Tua their opinion on what he should and shouldn’t do. Whether these people are his parents, wife, sibling, teammate, or coach I don’t think it’s best for people to influence him into doing what they believe is right. I believe those closest to him should simply just support him. I don’t think it’s the best course of action for them to influence his decision.

It should be the neurologists’ and his decision because anything that you may say or do to influence him, you may regret later on. The bottom line is for people to simply care about Tua Tagovailoa the individual and not necessarily about his future or what they feel is right.