Tua Tagovailoa’s reaction to a dangerous tackle will keep Dolphins fans awake at night

It was a held breath for everyone Miami Dolphins fan on Monday Night Football when quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw an interception to Rams linebacker Christian Rozeboom and then got involved on the ensuing return. Tagovailoa cornered Rozeboom as he ran down the sideline and then made a diving tackle on him, almost taking a knee to the side of the head.

With Tua’s extensive history of gruesome head injuries, it was a play where the quarterback put himself in direct danger, perhaps unnecessarily. Considering he also suffered another brutal head injury this season and this was only his second game back from that concussion, this was the last type of game any Dolphins fan wanted to see from him.

It was bad enough seeing that game played at SoFi Stadium. However, Tagovailoa’s response and response to the play in question when asked about it after the game is the real cause for concern when looking at his long-term health with the Dolphins.

When asked about the hit, Tua tried to play it off humorously (we can hope) by saying that after the play he asked Rozeboom why he didn’t just go out of bounds on the return. And while the Dolphins quarterback acknowledged it was poor form on the tackle, the entire context of his response feels like he’s missing the point.

It is positive that he feels good after the match and without any doubt has not suffered any injury. That said, there are several alarming issues with the way he responded to it after the match.

This is professional football. Whether it’s a joke or not, essentially telling an opponent to accommodate you by getting out of bounds instead of trying to gain extra yardage – especially in a game where the Rams were trailing at the time – is just plain stupid. Sure, it’s good that Tua didn’t “intend” to use his head to make the tackle, but he did it anyway.

Many fans have said that Tagovailoa just needs to be protected from himself at this point. It is quotes like these that provoke such a response. If he had just come out and said it was a bad tackle that he was going to try to clean up, that would be one thing. But to frame any semblance of responsibility around the question of why the defender didn’t go out of bounds? That diminishes the responsibility in the situation, plus it’s also framed like Tagovailoa, except he says he could be in danger again if another player doesn’t “just get out of bounds.”

Maybe I’m overreacting to this. But when Tagovailoa went down with a concussion that, unfortunately not for the first time, left him frozen while on the field, there were subsequent questions about whether he should ever play football again. These were not exaggerated reactions at the time; they were viable medical issues given his history of head injuries. So to see him react to another’s near suffering so nonchalantly and without any real remorse for being in such danger is concerning, to say the least.

We all want Tua to stay healthy. But then again, he has to help himself. And on Monday night, he didn’t really make any inclination to do that first, or to secondly make us think he’ll do that in the future.