Tua’s relationships with teammates is strong, deep
The Dolphins this week aren’t merely getting back the NFL’s leader in passer rating.
With Tua Tagovailoa exiting concussion protocol, they’re also getting back a player who has worked diligently to cultivate relationships throughout the locker-room, a player who has taken seriously the intangible responsibilities of being a starting quarterback and captain.
“I’ve never been on a team in the NFL that has a quarterback that spends that much time with his teammates, to be honest with you,” linebacker Duke
Riley told me. “I’ve never been invited to play golf with a quarterback, ever, and he’s invited me.”
During snapshots when the media is allowed a glimpse behind the walls of team headquarters, we see Tagovailoa in his natural environment.
And what was witnessed in the past 10 days, while not unusual, also left an impression: Tagovailoa bouncing from player to player, striking up conversations with several of them. We saw him walk over to joke around with safeties Brandon
Jones and Eric Rowe for several minutes during the stretching portion of a practice.
“He was talking about how he’s going to kick our [butt] in practice today,” Rowe said, smiling. “We were like, ‘OK, all right.’ ”
We saw Tagovailoa walk over to Riley’s locker, sit down and chat for 15 minutes.
There have been other Dolphins quarterbacks in recent years who have been popular with teammates — Ryan Fitzpatrick at the top of the list — but it’s difficult to recall any who made such an effort to engage teammates on both sides of the ball.
And that bond is another reason why there was such concern among teammates when he crumbled to the ground with a concussion against Cincinnati.
“Everybody was worried about him because everyone has a relationship with him,” Riley said.
As tight end Durham Smythe said, “Tua’s personality and energy being back on the field … it really brings everyone’s spirits up.”
And while he’s a private person by nature — he expressed frustration that his summer wedding to his longtime girlfriend was reported — he isn’t anything like that with teammates.
Though relationships with teammates have been important to Tagovailoa since joining the Dolphins, he has seemingly taken it to another level in the past year.
“He’s more vocal,” Rowe said. “Last year and the year prior, he wasn’t really saying too much. This year, he’s speaking a little more, taking command of not just the offense but of the team.
“He reaches out to everyone in the locker room. He doesn’t just talk to people on offense. He talks to players on defense, specialists. He’ll ask me personal life questions.”
Teammates have received repeated invitations to visit him at his home.
“He invites me all the time,” Riley said. “If he lived closer, I’d probably be there almost every day. He’s got a pool table, a pingpong table. He has like a mini putt-putt thing outside to play golf in the yard, a movie theater. He invites me over for karaoke all the time. His family sings a lot. It’s all uplifting.”
But Riley wants to make clear that this is not merely a quarterback who invites players to his home. It’s a person who shows a genuine interest in learning about every teammate.
“He has a relationship with and knows something about everyone on the team, and that makes Tua Tua,” Riley said.
What did he remember about Riley? “He always asks me about my kids, because my little boy’s uncle played for Alabama, Irving
Smith, a tight end for the Vikings [who caught a TD pass against the Dolphins on Sunday]. He’s got a relationship with my son, which is an amazing thing, too. That’s the type of person Tua is.”
Riley said Tagovailoa “calls everybody ‘use,’ which Riley said is a Hawaiian term for brother.
Even during this recent health scare, when Tagovailoa left the Bengals game on a stretcher, entered concussion protocol and visited four independent doctors, he consistently told teammates, “I’m fine, I’m good,” Riley said, noting “he’s always smiling, always happy.”
But when it comes to his play, which has improved considerably this season, he remains self-critical when talking with teammates.
“Even if you tell him you’re doing good, he’ll [say], ‘I’ve got to do better,’ ” Riley said.
So does Tagovailoa’s relationship-cultivating make a difference?
Teammates say it does, and here’s why: “If you’re close as a team, you play better than a team separated internally,” Rowe said. “Creating relationships brings everybody together.”
Riley puts it this way: ”We have his back and he has ours. He’s a guy who’s a better person than football player to me. And obviously he’s an amazing football player. But the type of person he is is unbelievable. He’s a good guy to have be a part of your life, not only as a teammate.”
CHATTER
• Tagovailoa — who met with neurologists in South Florida, Detroit and Pittsburgh — was told that quarterbacks “are less susceptible to getting CTE [a progressive brain condition] later on in their years than someone who’s playing a position where they’re constantly taking hits or blows to the head, which would be O-line, D-line, linebackers. That’s kind of some of the information that I’ve been given from a lot of these doctors that are the best of the best in their field.”
• NBC’s Cris Collinsworth excited to be working only his second Dolphins game in 11 years. “This is a team that is extremely exciting with big-play capability. On defense, good young players. As far as intriguing to watch, you put Buffalo ahead of them, as far as offensive weapons. But the Dolphins are in that next group of two or three teams that you want to turn on the television and watch them play.”
• I asked NBC studio analyst Tony Dungy what the Dolphins’ ceiling is at full health. “I think their ceiling is very high from what I saw early on,” Dungy said. “They’re doing a lot of creative things on offense getting playmakers into the fold. Defensively, they were excellent last year. It depends on getting their quarterback situation healthy again.. Tua or Teddy [Bridgewater] could lead this team a long way.”
• The Heat’s available assets to make a trade won’t increase until Jan. 15, when Dwayne Dedmon and Victor Oladipo can be dealt. Their salaries — $4.7 million for Dedmon, $8.7 million for Oladipo — could help facilitate a deal, perhaps for a player with an expiring contract. Miami obviously would need to include more (including at least one first round pick) to land a quality player. Braves bench coach Walt
• Weiss, the Marlins shortstop during their first season (1993), declined an offer to interview for the Marlins’ managerial job, per The New York Post.
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