Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is set to return to the field for the first time since his latest traumatic head injury earlier this season. But before he does, the Dolphins organization has made it clear what they are expecting of him on the field.
Tagovailoa’s latest head injury came when he decided not to slide in an effort to pick up more yards, running head-first into the lowered shoulder of Bills safety Damar Hamlin.
The head injuries are obviously a worrying trend when it comes to Tagovailoa’s longevity both on and off the field. And many prominent people within the Dolphins organization are now making it clear that Tagovailoa needs to work on sliding to protect his body.
“I think he has a better understanding of his responsibility to the entire organization at this point,” McDaniel said, via the Palm Beach Post. “My answer would be, ‘You don’t need that one’ this time around.”
Star wide receiver Tyreek Hill similarly encouraged Tagovailoa not to be a hero, calling upon the fans to start cheering for him when he slides.
“When we were playing against the Colts, you see the fans start clapping for Anthony Richardson when he slid,” Hill said this week. “I said our fans need to clap for Tua, make him slide.”
Dolphins running back Raheem Mostert echoed these sentiments, urging Tua to “protect himself a bit better”.
“We’ve been talking to him ever since his injury. I’ve been telling him, ‘Hey, you need to work on sliding,’” Mostert said. “And we all joke around and laugh, but on a serious note, he knows that he has to protect himself a little bit better and moving forward, only he can control those things. . . . We can say those things to him until we’re blue in the face, but one thing that I would say that’s always my saying is, ‘Hey, you can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink, right?’ We’re going to bring Tua to that water, but we can’t make him drink. He has an understanding of that and moving forward, he’s going to do his best.”
Hopefully, Tagovailoa will take the advice of his coaches and teammates when he returns to the field. But as Raheem Mostert alluded to, only he can make that decision to do so.
