Buffalo Bills players and staff react to Tua Tagovailoa injury news

On Thursday night, the Buffalo Bills took to Hard Rock Stadium and completely dominated their southern AFC East rivals, the Miami Dolphins. While there was plenty of celebration from the plethora of Bills Mafia who came out to support their team, there was a sense of gloom in the air once the clock struck midnight.

During the third quarter, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was struggling with the football for a first down when he dropped his shoulder and made contact with Bills safety Damar Hamlin. When his head struck Hamlin’s body, Tagovailoa immediately fell to the ground and his arms went into an unnatural position called a fencing response, which is usually a sign of a traumatic brain injury, or concussion.

Within six minutes, Tagovailoa was ruled out of the game with a confirmed concussion — and analysts, fans and others began speculating about his future in the NFL. At the tender age of just 26, Tagovailoa has now suffered four concussions in his football career — three in the NFL and one while in college at Alabama.

After the game, Bills players and staff took to social media and interviews to support Tua Tagovailoa and send him well wishes. Below are some of the statements.

QB Josh Allen

“If you know Tua outside of football, like I do, you can’t help but feel for him. He’s a great footballer, but he’s an even better person. He’s one of the best people on the planet. I have a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, and I hope everything works out. But yeah, it’s tough man. This football game that we’re playing, it has its highs and lows, and that’s definitely one of the lows,”

LT Dion Dawkins

“It was the saddest thing. I promise you, it was the saddest thing. We were all running around looking at him and we were going, ‘Slide bro, slide bro, slide bro, slide’ and this game is so fast. It’s a game of inches. You know, if he had just slid a little bit — it’s so sad. My prayers, my heart goes out to Tua, his family, his parents and I hope he recovers well because this is a violent game and it shows. I know everyone in this locker room is praying for him. Even though we’re enemies, we’re family. We’re all football players and we’re in this brotherhood together and we all take our hats off to Tua and we’re all going to get down on one knee and pray for Tua and his family. But it’s a sad deal.”

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