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Bengals' Joe Burrow Talks Concussions, Says He's 'Been Hit and Forgot the Rest of the Game'

Quarterback Joe Burrow #9 of the Cincinnati Bengals
Quarterback Joe Burrow #9 of the Cincinnati Bengals

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow revealed he's suffered head injuries on the field that left him forgetting how the rest of the game went.

On Wednesday's episode of The Colin Cowherd Podcast, 25-year-old Burrow, who was on the field when Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a frightening head injury, said that "everybody that plays this game" has "had a concussion."

Burrow continued, "I've had some [hits] where I don't remember the second half or I don't remember the entire game or I know I got a little dizzy at one point. But nothing long-lasting."

The quarterback was unable at first to describe what sustaining a concussion feels like: "It's hard to say," he said. "You start to ring a little bit. I've never had any lasting effects from a concussion. I've been hit and forgot the rest of the game before. That has happened a couple of times."

RELATED: Joe Burrow Launches Nonprofit to Address Childhood Mental Health: 'The Least I Can Do to Give Back'

But Burrow told Cowherd, "I've never had one where I have headaches for a week or where I have symptoms where I have headaches for like a week."

Joe Burrow
Joe Burrow

Kevin C. Cox/Getty

"You can make all the rules you want to make the game as safe as you possibly can but there's an inherent risk and danger with the game of football," he continued. "You have 300-lb. men running 20 miles an hour trying to take your head off while you're standing still, trying to ignore it and find receivers that are open and then sometimes you have to go run to try and get a first down. ... It's part of the game, I think. Part of what we signed up for."

Burrow added: "You're going to have head injuries. You're going to tear your ACL. You're going to break your arm. That's the game that we play. That's the life that we live. And we get paid handsomely for it. I think going into every game, we know what we're getting ourselves into."

Tagovailoa suffered multiple head injuries on the field last week, and is now in the league's concussion protocol with no timetable for his return, Dolphins' coach Mike McDaniel said.

RELATED: Doctor Who Evaluated Dolphins' Tua Tagovailoa Has Been Fired

The Dolphins quarterback had left a game on Sept. 25 after hitting the back of his head on the ground and noticeably stumbling on the field. He was cleared to return to the game after passing his evaluation and the team stated that he had a back injury, rather than a head injury.

Five days later, Tagovailoa started in the Dolphins' Thursday night game against the Cincinnati Bengals and was sacked in the second quarter, again hitting his head into the ground. The QB was spotted holding up his hands with his fingers frozen in place, which Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist and director of Boston University's CTE Center, tells PEOPLE is "a clear sign of a brain injury with brainstem dysfunction."

Tua Tagovailoa
Tua Tagovailoa

David Santiago/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty

The NFL and its player's union issued a statement Saturday that said Tagovailoa's return to last Sunday's game is still being reviewed, but a source at the NFL Player's Association confirmed to PEOPLE that the unaffiliated doctor who had evaluated Tagovailoa that day has been fired.

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"The NFL and the NFLPA agree that The NFLPA's Mackey-White Health & Safety Committee and the NFL's Head Neck and Spine Committee have already begun conversations around the use of the term 'Gross Motor Instability' and we anticipate changes to the protocol being made in the coming days based on what has been learned thus far in the review process," the organizations said in a statement.