After Tua Tagovailoa suffered multiple concussions during the 2022 season, the Miami Dolphins quarterback told reporters that he considered retiring before eventually deciding to return. But when he returned from the injured reserve in 2024 after missing four games due to a concussion, he said the opposite.
“This is what I love to do. This is what makes me happy, and I’m gonna do it. That’s it,” Tagovailoa told reporters in October.
According to Tua Tagovailoa’s father, his 26-year-old son was even more adamant when they talked about the issue in the fall.
“As a father, as a parent, it’s tough,” Galu Tagovailoa told ESPN Honolulu in an interview Thursday. “Tua’s now married, he has his own family. These are the tough decisions that he’s going to have to deal with in life. To decide whether he’s going to continue. The game is something that he loves.
“One of the things that I talked to him about when he was dealing with his concussion was ‘Hey, what do you think?’ And he was like ‘Dad, I love this game, and I’ll die on the field for this game.’ So that answers everything for me. But at the same time, as a father, you’re like ‘Man, you gotta take care of your health. That’s the most important thing.’ I have two beautiful grandkids. And that’s something that I’ve gotta talk to him about and for him to think about.”
According to Galu Tagovailoa, his son’s wife Annah has also encouraged Tua to think hard about his future beyond football.
“She’s all about his health,” Galu said. “She tells him ‘I want to live long with you. We’ve got to make sure we do the right thing.’ But Tua grew up in a way where everything is so competitive. He just doesn’t want to leave the game. He loves it.”
Tagovailoa missed the last two games of the 2024 season due to a hip injury, finishing the year with 19 touchdowns, seven interceptions, and a franchise-record 72.9 completion percentage. After the Dolphins finished with an 8-9 record and missed the playoffs, general manager Chris Grier told reporters that they stressed to Tagovailoa that “taking chances and risk is unacceptable.”