In most instances a statline of 36/50 for 469 yards and 6 touchdowns would be cause for celebration and near universal praise but we may have found the one time that isn’t the case. On Sunday when Tua Tagovailoa put up these eye popping numbers in an epic comeback against the Baltimore Ravens I thought to myself that surely the “haters” would have nothing to say. Tua claimed a spot in Dolphin’s history alongside hall of famers Bob Griese and Dan Marino with those 6 TDs tying their franchise record. His poise under pressure and clutch play must have caused those who endlessly malign him to reconsider, right? Well if they had I wouldn’t be writing this blog, I’d still be reveling in the single best quarterback play I’ve (as a Dolphins fan too young to have really appreciated Marino) have ever seen.
To the credit of many skeptics they have given the Dolphins starter his due respect in the aftermath of Miami’s electric comeback, but there are others who seem to cling onto the notion that Tua is, was, and always will be nothing more than a bust.
On his show Key Jay and Max former New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers Receiver Keyshawn Johnson said
“Tua did a good job… he did a good job, and you can’t take that away when somebody does a good job, you can’t take that away from them, but I’m not about to sit up and jump up and down and act as though the Miami Dolphins didn’t try to replace him,”
Internet NFL “expert” and professional bad take haver Theo Ash gave all of the credit to Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle and when asked to clarify if any of the credit should go to Tua he responded simply with “No”.
Colin Cowherd fresh off of saying that it was a net good for the 49ers that Trey Lance broke his ankle completely wrote off Tua’s performance on his show The Herd.
To prevent this blog from devolving into me calling out everyone until I get to random twitter trolls I’ll wrap it up here. Tua is the most polarizing Quarterback to ever step on the field in my estimation. If you had no knowledge of who he is you would think he was some kind of criminal or deviant. Perhaps if he were he would get the respect Deshaun Watson does or Ben Roethlisberger did, but I digress. I’ll leave you with a collection of tweets from former players and analysts finally giving Tua his due.
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