“Have Very Poor Decision Making” – Joe Rogan Reacts to Tua Tagovailoa’s Horrific Injury

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is pretty common in contact sports, where players are subject to multiple episodes of concussions and head injuries. Unsurprisingly, American football and combat sports are leading in the occurrence of CTE. It has become a topic of great concern.

UFC commentator Joe Rogan has addressed the problem many times in his show, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’. Recently, he discussed the effect of CTE and concussions on the decision-making abilities of the players, in his podcast.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, previously known as dementia pugilistica ‘punch drunk’ syndrome, doesn’t happen all of a sudden or in a single day. It is a progressive brain condition that occurs due to recurrent trauma to the head. Players who have repeated concussions are more prone to CTE. Contact sports, especially American football and combat sports are responsible for CTE. CTE is typically associated with short-term loss of memory, mood swings, confusion and disorientation, and difficulty in making decisions. As the condition worsens, patients experience slurred speech, significant memory loss, and Parkinsonism. 

Tua Tagovailoa’s horrific injury 

Tua Tagovailoa, the quarterback for Miami Dolphins, had a severe concussion during a match against the Cincinnati Bengals. Scary images where his hands froze, and fingers curled up were circulating around the internet. 

Tagovailoa insisted to play even though he had a prior concussion, a few days ago, in a match against the Buffalo Bills. The quarterback was seen stumbling on the field after the collision. This is a serious issue in contact sports. Joe Rogan shed some light on CTE and contact sports in his recent podcast episode.

Joe Rogan addresses the CTE problem

In the recent episode of ‘The Joe Rogan Experience, Joe Rogan addressed the CTE problem. He said, “There’s a problem that needs to be addressed, whenever it comes to football players, fighters, combat sports athletes, is that people with CTE, oftentimes, have very poor decision making”. Rogan added that everybody’s version and varying severity of the disease make it complex. “One of the side effects of having too many concussions is you become very impulsive, and you start doing risky things, risky behavior. Sometimes, people get addicted to substances and – and – and gambling a lot of wild sh*t, and it comes from your brain being rattled”, Rogan said. 

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Joe Rogan talked about the excitement that football players have on the field during the Super Bowl. They know that there would be around millions of people watching the game, and about fifty to sixty thousand right there in that stadium, screaming at the top of their lungs. Their excitement in knowing that they are playing at the highest level of the game is obvious. “You want a guy like that to back to normal life after he’s been hit in the head 50 times? That guy is gonna start gambling and going to wh**e-houses, or starting coke and punching traffic attendants”, said Rogan. 

Aaron Rodgers speaks about CTE 

Legendary quarterback Aaron Rodgers, on his appearance on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’, talked about CTE, as well. He said that CTE has been linked to a number of suicides committed by former players.

The player believes CTE is a real issue and so does the National Football League. “The NFL is doing a lot to combat it now, thankfully, with the standardization of the helmets that we use, is way different than it used to be. There is a very high standard and testing process that goes into that,” said Rodgers. 

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CTE is in fact a pretty big problem in the world of contact sports. The good news is that people are speaking up. NFL has already started working on minimizing the instances of head injuries by working on protective gear for the players. However, the issue still stands true in many other cases that need to be looked into.