Family cherishes Tua time, sort of
He sat there, alone, ignoring the silence, ignoring the departed crowd, ignoring the occasional maintenanceworkerwhowalked by cleaning up. The daywas done. The gamewaswon.
Both teamswere inside for 10, 15 minutes, whenTuaTagovailoawalked back out on the field. Back to where his day ended at the 15-yard line— back to exactly where, as symbolismwould have it, his careerwas put on hold a season ago.
And the Miami Dolphins rookie quarterback didwhat any good son does after a good day.
He called his parents. They weren’t on hand like they usually are for his games. So he brought them here. He sat on that 15-yard line, leaned back on an elbowand talked to themon FaceTime.
“I usually talk tomy parents aftermy game,” Tagovailoa said after the Dolphins’ 24-0 win against theNewYork Jets. “My parents usually never miss my game. Iwent out there and talked to them. That’s what that momentwas about.”
Afew minutes earlier, he entered a Dolphins game for the first time, and it didn’tmuch matter if itwas garbage time of an easy win against an awful team.
Owner SteveRoss stood there on the sidelinewith team presidentTomGarfinkel and the last quarterback to matter in this franchise, DanMarino. They had the front rowseat to their future. It hardlymattered to them if the plays didn’t matter in the day. Marino, once upon a time, first entered an equally meaningless
game, down, 27-0, to the Oakland Raiders. He threwtwo touchdowns to ignite the magic.
Tuadidn’ t have the time or chanceforthat. Hewasn’tputina lopsided win against San Francisco a week ago and only entered this one with two minutes and 27 secondsleft.
His first play fromthe Dolphins’ 7was a hand-off up the middle. The second play, a little roll out to his left, showed a glimpse that he canmove just fine on the hip thatwas surgically repaired a year ago.
He knows the talk.
“I feel healthy,” he said flatly.
He’s also enough of a personality to half-joke how, “everyone can see I can roll out and throw to someonewho’s 2 yards down the field.” Thatwas running back Patrick Laird, whocaught the ball.
“But you’ve got to deal with pressure and such a lot going on in a little play like that,” he said.
The third downplaywas the one to notice. He threwa nice, crisp NFL tight rope into receiver JakeemGrant, who had planted himself seven yards downfield for a first down. And that basically was it. Starting quarterbackRyan Fitzpatrick joked with reporters about howmuch everyone wanted to seeTua. He’s a good sport in all this. At 37, he knows his time is coming to an end, even if he remains coach Brian Flores’s guy for the time being.
Thiswas aneasyway, adominatingwin, but insomeways an odd ly unimpressive win for the Dolphins. The offense went 0 for 9 onthird-downconversions before getting one. Up, 21-0, in the second quarter, itmanagedonly a field goal againsttwo Fitzpatrick interceptions.
Of course, you’ve reached some measure of goodness whenthere are questions about a 24-0 win. But itwas so methodical the real story, the big one, wasTua finally playing a game after all this time.
They socially-distanced thousands gave a standing ovation as he entered the game and the players on the sideline began cheering, too.
“Thatwas cool,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think hewas happy to get out there. Itwas nice to get a couple of throws in there.”
The plays themselves said little. The fact hewas out there is up for interpretation. Is more ahead? Or was this just getting a young players’ feetwet on an easy day?
Maybe itwas just a rookie getting back on the field again. And then returning to the scene of such misery. He sat on the 15-yard line as night fell on the empty stadium and talked with his parents. The most important thing that came out of conversation withmy parents is theywere just happy to seeme out there and playing again,” he said.
The debutwas made. The future awaits.