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Patriots Bill Belichick Bold Statement on Handling Tua Tagovailoa Concussion Controversy

The New England Patriots' head coach is the latest name to comment on the uncomfortable situation in Miami.

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is hinting that he might've dealt with the Tua Tagovailoa situation differently than the Dolphins did it.

Belichick used his weekly appearance on WEEI to address the NFL's most pressing issue: Tagovailoa, the quarterback for New England's division rivals from Miami, was removed from his Thursday contest in Cincinnati on a stretcher five days after suffering what was reported as a back injury in another game against Buffalo. The Dolphins claimed that he passed the league-mandated concussion protocol but have been criticized for allowing Tagovailoa to play against the Bengals after he was noticeably off-balance during the Buffalo game.

The Patriots' boss was reserved about the broader picture, namely adjusting the current concussion guidelines. He opted to defer to "professional medical people" in that regard, claiming such changes were "not really my field of expertise."

Belichick did hint, however, that if he was in charge of the Tagovailoa situations, things might've ended up different, especially considering his past history.

"If I see a player that I think is not functioning properly, and for some reason, it hasn’t been identified, then absolutely, I have (held them out)," Belichick said. "I would say not recently. Those are things that have happened at other points in my career. But yeah, absolutely."

Belichick and the Patriots staff have been subjected to mixed reports when it comes to handling concussions. In 2007, former linebacker Ted Johnson claimed that Belichick defied the advice of medical trainers and forced him to partake in full contact practices shortly after he sustained a head injury. Another New England veteran, Rich Ohrnberger, praised the Patriots' staff for the way they handled his own ailment in 2011, doing so shortly after Tagovailoa left the field on Thursday.

Perhaps ironically, Belichick wound up dealing with a similar situation during the Patriots' overtime loss in Green Bay on Sunday: starting quarterback Brian Hoyer left the game early on with a head injury and was quickly ruled out. Rookie Bailey Zappe finished out the contest though Hoyer did return home with the team in the aftermath of the 27-24 loss. 

"If a player doesn’t look like he’s functioning properly, we evaluate him with the medical people," Belichick said. "But we also, as a secondary check, even if the medical people were to clear a player, we still go through a coaching clearance to make sure that he’s ready to play football, not just medically cleared. We always have a secondary evaluation on that.”

New England (1-3) returns to action on Sunday afternoon at home against the Detroit Lions (1 p.m. ET, Fox). 

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags