Bill Belichick: 'Absolutely' have ruled players out with concussion symptoms despite being cleared

Bill Belichick has joined the discussion surrounding Tua Tagovailoa's controversial clearance to return in the Miami Dolphins Week 3 game against the Baltimore Ravens and subsequent start in Week 4 against the Cincinnati Bengals. 

It sounds like if it were up to the longtime New England Patriots head coach, the situation in Miami would've been handled a bit differently.

Belichick went as far as to say that he has "absolutely" ruled players out when they've looked incapable of playing, sometimes even after they've been medically cleared to return to the game.

"I've definitely done that before. Oh yeah," he said during an appearance on WEEI's "The Greg Hill Show." "If I see a player that I think is not functioning properly that for some reason has not been identified, then absolutely I would (take them out)."

As the NFL and NFLPA continue their investigation into the Dolphins' decision to allow quarterback Tagovailoa to play against the Bengals, first-year head coach Mike McDaniel addressed the topic on Monday. McDaniel said "We don't have anything to hide from that standpoint. At all."

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

McDaniel has ruled out Tagovailoa for Week 5 against the New York Jets and named Teddy Bridgewater the starter. The coach noted that it's still too early to give a definitive timeline for the lefty signal-caller's return.