Sunday night I saw The Killers play in Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, which as many of you know is the former home of the US Open. This was a bucket list show for me, as I’m coming around to the age where I can finally start going to concerts I’ve skipped over the years, assuming I can stay awake late enough. They were as good as hoped for, which is a high bar. And not for nothing, they’ve been touring for around 20 years since their hit album Hot Fuss came out. Without going into the weeds, frontman Brandon Flowers is a generational showman and hasn’t lost a step in his 40s.
Conversely, I decided I’m not going to see a band next month that I haven’t seen in a couple of decades, even though I like them. And that’s because I heard the lead singer just can’t hit the high notes any more likely due to an accident, and the shows just aren’t what they used to be. So I’m probably better off remembering them as they were instead of facing a new reality. Of course, rock stars often can and do go on far past their peak with varying levels of success. And that fresh by date often isn’t a linear tie to age, even if that’s a variable – take Springsteen, who just played for hours in Asbury Park.
Despite many parallels, professional athletes and musicians aren’t the same, even if they both face their own mortality. And like singers, athletes are often brought to a critical fork through some kind of trauma, making it impossible to do the work. Perhaps the most obvious example of that right now is Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Tua suffered a concussion in last week’s game against Buffalo when he had a helmet collision with Damar Hamlin – yes, the same Damar Hamlin that nearly died on the field a couple of years ago. That is his third NFL concussion – and fourth when you count his college years. One of his past hits caused the NFL to change it’s concussion protocols. He’s like the Tommy John of quarterback helmet hits, which is not a good thing. Which brings Tua Tagovailoa to something of a crossroad.
Some context. First, Tua has gone on injured reserve and will miss at least the next four games. Which takes any immediacy out of the equation. Second, Tau recently signed a four-year, $212 million dollar contract. $43 million is fully guaranteed – basically a signing bonus. He gets that no matter what happens. He also gets a million salary for playing this year. The bulk of the rest of the salary over the next three years – well, that’s the $124 million question. There’s a scenario where doctors say he can’t play anymore and he likely gets to keep it. There’s also a very likely scenario where doctors clear him, and you only get paid if you keep on playing. So beyond whether or not Tua Tagovailoa wants to play football, there’s generational wealth that confounds that binomial decision.
Which brings us up to it. Right now, everyone’s offering their opinions on whether Tua should or shouldn’t hang up his spikes in the name of CTE and knowing his kids names when he’s 40. The general prevailing opinion is that he should retire but he won’t. And that conjecture is based on the public’s pedestrian understanding of neurology and our equally sophomoric understanding of human psychology and economics. In other words, we all tend to believe that Tua is risking his future by playing but couldn’t possibly say no to the game and all that money. That might be true and does consort to a popular narrative. But it’s just a theory.
The more knowable reality, and this is just my opinion, is that we’re in uncharted territory. Yes, for the better part of football history, players played through concussions to provide for their future. And because they can’t imagine life without football. But that was before the days of $50 million signing bonuses and predictive science that tells Tua exactly what his life might look like with two more blows to the head. Which means that as much as we all think we know, we really don’t. And perhaps the quarterback of today is more likely to take the money and run instead of risking it all on more.
Because not everyone is Tom Brady. Not everyone can play forever. And not everyone sounds as good at The Killers.
Keith Strudler is the Dean of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler
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