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Dolphins' Tua Tagovailoa Had Alarming Take on His Head-First Tackle vs. Rams

Kristen Wong

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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The Miami Dolphins’ 23-15 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football could have gone so much worse for quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

Tagovailoa had fans at SoFi Stadium extremely stressed out after he threw himself in the path of Rams linebacker Christian Rozeboom following an interception in the second quarter. With no regard for his own personal safety, Tagovailoa dove headfirst into Rozeboom as Rozeboom sprinted into Dolphins’ territory. Luckily, the Dolphins quarterback didn’t suffer another concussion.

Tagovailoa was asked about that play in Wednesday’s media session, and he explained why he had no regrets—in fact, he would do it again.

“I wouldn’t do anything differently,” Tagovailoa told reporters. “I’ll make the tackle, that’s what I gotta do. It is what it is. It’s hard to score in this league.”

“It didn’t feel as bad as what it probably looked like, may have looked like,” continued Tagovailoa. “When we watched it, our coach had said that he sort of kneed you in the head. Essentially you’re out there playing football, I didn’t necessarily feel that and I wasn’t just going to jump out of the way for him to just run down the sideline and potentially score. So you’ve got to make decisions and I should have never threw the pick in the first place so that’s it.”

Tagovailoa suffered his third documented NFL concussion on Sept. 12 against the Buffalo Bills. The 26-year-old met with neurologists and decided to return to the field less than two months later rather than retire, as many in sports media believed he should do.

Given Tagovailoa’s history of head injuries, each hit he takes will be that much more debilitating, but the young quarterback clearly sees no problem with putting his body on the line for his team’s regular season matchup.

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Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.

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