How Tua Addressed His Controversial 'Leadership' Comments

Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa explained why he regretted what he said after the team's latest loss

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (1) looks on from the bench against the Los Angeles Chargers during the fourth quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Tua Tagovailoa did his mea culpa Wednesday.

A few hours after Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said the team had "bigger fish to fry" than going over Tagovailoa's controversial comments about leadership and players being late to player-led meetings, the quarterback began his weekly media session by addressing the elephant in the public room.

Beyond an opening statement in which he said he made a mistake by failing to protect the team, Tagovailoa answered a series of follow-up questions, for which he deserves credit because a lot of players in similar situations in the past have shut the door and instructed the media to move on to other topics.

Tua could have done that, and he would have done his job in making the public apology, but he still was willing to discuss the issue — to a certain degree.

TUA'S COMMENTS ABOUT HIS COMMENTS

Here was Tua's opening statement: "As a leader of this team, the Miami Dolphins, you know, the comments that that had been said, I would say, I've I've made a mistake, and I'm owning up to that right now. I've talked to guys on the team about it, talked to the leaders about it, and they know my heart. They know that the intent was right. But no matter the intent, you know the intent can be right, but when things get misconstrued or however the media wants to portray it, that leaves a void of of silence and a lot of questions for the guys on our team. Now being 1-5, we talk a lot about all right? We got to get this going. We got to get this going, come in excited to go to work, forget about the noise, and I feel like I just added on to that, for for our guys. For myself, I got to look at myself as a leader, protecting the team. I don't feel like I I did that to the best of my abilities. I felt like I let the emotions of the game get to me after the game, that's something that I can learn from as a leader on this team, and what happens in house should be protected, and none of that should have gotten out. And so want to publicly apologize about that. Want to move forward and now want to focus on Cleveland Browns."

Tua on what those conversations with his teammates after the fact were like: "Well, I think it's the intent, right? What was the intent? And I think just the emotions, the built-up emotions after the game. No one wants to lose, but just not allowing myself to stay in the moment and just kind of get outside of that. You just have those kind of conversations, what is the intent? And then you kind of move from there. So we've had some conversations with that."

Tua on whether the team has a culture problem: "I wouldn't say so. Having conversation with guys today, seeing the way guys are out there at practice, I wouldn't say so."

Tua on the reaction from his teammates: "Well, I would say guys had questions about it, right? So you got to answer those questions, the why, and then some of the whys were like, man, at that time, I didn't think of it like that. And so as I said, that's something I got to be better with in protecting the team. And just can't do that."

Tua on why he thinks his words came out during the postgame press conference Sunday: "Yes, frustrated. And as I said, like, just can't happen, you know, like that. That's one of the things that can't happen, or you can't have happen, especially the way things are going for our team, being 1-5, I can see how, how that can be misconstrued, or whatever, not after it being a loss too."

Tua on the benefits on player-led meetings: "Well, I would say that's something that,, rule number one, protect the team. That's something that I think we should be keeping in house. So I don't, I don't want to speak about that."

Tua on the strain that losing can have on relationships within a team: "Yeah, I would say, first and foremost, you get to see who a person really is as you're going through the hardships, right? You get to see, OK, does this person start pointing fingers? Does this person take it upon themselves every time? How does everyone go about that? I think you kind of get a good gauge about the team that you have as well with that, but I would say there hasn't been any bickering or pointing of fingers lately. There's just guys that putting their head down trying to work and do the best that they can to put us in the best position to win games."