Patriots’ Bill Belichick says players go through ‘coaching clearance’ even if they are medically cleared

The injuries Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained in Weeks 3 and 4 of the current NFL season, which most recently included a concussion, have sparked a conversation throughout the league about the handling of those injuries and even prompted change to the NFL’s current concussion protocol. 

On Monday, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick revealed that, outside any medical decisions made, he has intervened before if he believed a player wasn’t fit to play. 

“I’ve definitely done that before,” Belichick said during his weekly appearance on “The Greg Hill Show.” 

DOLPHINS’ TUA TAGOVAILOA WILL NOT PLAY WEEK 5 VS JETS, NO ‘DEFINITIVE TIMELINE’ FOR RETURN, MIKE MCDANIEL SAYS

“Oh, yeah. 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 done that — I would say not recently. Those are things that have happened at other points in my career. But yeah, absolutely.”

Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel has faced a line of questioning over the team’s decision to play Tagovailoa in Week 4 after he displayed concussion-like symptoms after hitting his head on the ground during Miami’s game against the Buffalo Bills — a game to which he was also cleared to return. 

Just five days later he would sustain a concussion against the Cincinnati Bengals. McDaniel has defended the handling of Tagovailoa’s injuries and said Monday that the team has been and continues to be “transparent” as the NFLPA investigates their following of procedure. 

“If a player doesn’t look like he’s functioning properly, we evaluate him with the medical people,” Belichick said of his own experience. “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.”

Patriots backup quarterback Brian Hoyer exited Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers early on with a head injury. Belichick said Monday he doesn’t play a role in deciding the status of any injured player, regardless of the injury. 

He declined to talk specifics on the current concussion protocol.

“That’s not really my field of expertise. Those are medical decisions. There are league people at the game that are involved in that, so I think that’s something you should really talk to them about,” said Belichick. “I don’t personally have anything to do with that, and I’m not qualified to talk about different injuries and different classifications and what should or shouldn’t happen. That would be for the professional medical people.”

The Dolphins announced Monday that Tagovailoa will be out for Sunday’s game against the New York Jets.