Kelly: Tua Tagovailoa learns valuable lesson about leadership | Opinion
Not all career-defining moments in the NFL happen on a football field.
The one that changed Tua Tagovailoa the most this season is the incident that put the Miami Dolphins quarterback in the national media’s crosshairs. And not for what he did, but something he said.
Tagovailoa had been viewed as a choirboy, the goodie-goodie, a teacher’s pet his entire playing career, and in one news conference he became a villain for putting family business on front street.
Tagovailoa’s team had just lost 29-27 to the Los Angeles Chargers, giving up a lead in the final 46 seconds of the contest. After Tagovailoa had thrown a touchdown pass to tight end Darren Waller that put the Dolphins ahead, Miami’s defense allowed Justin Herbert to get his team downfield in less than a minute, putting the Chargers in position to kick a game-winning field goal.
A frustrated Tagovailoa was asked what the leaders could do to ensure that these fourth-quarter collapses — the Chargers were Miami’s fourth of the season. Tagovailoa outed his teammates for not showing up to voluntary film study sessions, and player meetings on time, if at all.
He was suggesting that not everyone had bought into doing the non-mandatory work the Dolphins needed to do to turn the season around.
Tagovailoa wasn’t wrong about what he said.
As a leader he wanted more buy-in from his teammates, and requested it publicly.
His intent was good, but Tagovailoa realized his approach was wrong when the world cascaded down on him.
The Dolphins’ six-year starter, a four-year team captain, had just made a private issue a public one, and every major news outlet was chastising him for it.
A large number of those disappointed in Tagovailoa were former NFL players because they know the code of the locker room, which is to keep those kinds of issues in house.
So on Wednesday, when asked about his biggest misstep of the 2025 season, Tagovailoa didn’t bring up any of his three-turnover performances this season, which have him leading the NFL in interceptions (13).
He brought up the moment when he created a distraction for the Dolphins by running his mouth.
“Our rule No. 1 for the team is to protect the team, and then I go out and say what I say in the media. Regardless of what my intent was, none of that should’ve been shared,” said Tagovailoa, who is completing 68.7% of his passes this season, throwing for 1,952 yards and 17 touchdowns. “I think that helped with my leadership.
“Although I wished I could have not have said any of that, or could have taken that back, it’s out there. I said it, I owned up to it with the leaders [on] the team, and then with the team as well,” Tagovailoa continued. “I would say that that was just the biggest one when it came to regrets this year because of the relationships I’ve created.”
From Tagovailoa’s standpoint, the relationships he forms on each football team are far more important than the wins and losses, and in that moment — which took place exactly a month ago — he violated the trust of his team and coaches.
“I’ve grown from it,” said Tagovailoa, who had struggled adjusting to his leadership role with the Dolphins early in his career.
Who remembers the player vote for team captains in 2021 when Tagovailoa announced to his teammates that he didn’t need to be a captain?
That decision probably had a lot to do with his strained relationship with then-head coach Brian Flores, but it also created some questions about whether he was an alpha male, a team leader.
Even this season social media mocked Tagovailoa for how he rallied his offense before taking the field for warmups.
“I think the big thing is just knowing what works for him and how he can affect [us], being best for himself and his teammates,” offensive coordinator Frank Smith said. “Sometimes you think you need to do certain things and leadership is all about being comfortable with yourself, communicating the expectations you have with the people around you. I think that’s something that this year he’s really kind of finding his niche of how he needs to communicate.”
Tagovailoa is often too honest in news conferences, but there’s a fine line that needs to be drawn when the entire world is watching and listening, and his misstep after the Chargers loss taught him that.
“It was a learning moment for him, definitely something that he didn’t want to portray, especially to his teammates,” said receiver Jaylen Waddle, who has known Tagovailoa for nearly a decade, going back to their days together at the University of Alabama. “He’s got a lot of desire to be the best leader, the best captain on this team.
“He may have not portrayed that to y’all,” Waddle said. “I think it really did hurt him.”
According to Waddle, despite this season’s struggles he has noticed a change in Tagovailoa, and that shift starts with being himself and not trying to be what others view as a leader.
Tagovailoa is growing. Like his game, he’s evolving, and change isn’t always comfortable.
But it is necessary.
