TALES ABOUT TUA

Breaking down the start of Tagovailoa’s NFL career from all angles

- ALAIN POUPART

The moment so many Miami Dolphins fans had been awaiting, anticipating for so long finally arrived when the team handed the reins of the offense to the great quarterback hope, Tua Tagovailoa.

It was a moment six months in the making, maybe longer if you subscribe to the theory that the Dolphins had targeted Tagovailoa from the time they started their massive rebuilding project in 2019.

Given the nature of the media landscape in 2020, practically every little thing Tua did before his start, during his first start and after his first start was discussed, dissected, digested and discussed some more.

After a rather disappointing first start (from an individual performance standpoint only), Tagovailoa gave the Dolphins in his second outing all they were hoping to see.

If Tua Mania wasn’t already in full force, it was after that stellar performance in the 34-31 victory against the Arizona Cardinals, complete with a career-launching 93-yard touchdown drive that tied the score in the fourth quarter.

Here are some of the highlights from the start of Tua’s NFL career:

THE GAME BALL

It was a great scene, captured by NFL Films, that caught Tagovailoa handing Flores a game ball as he was walking off the field at Arizona.

As the video showed, Flores initially told Tua the game ball belonged to him before the quarterback insisted on Flores taking it.

The gesture was about gratitude toward the Dolphins for selecting him with the fifth overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft when there were still questions as to whether he could make it back from the injury.