Saban spoke about the incident on the Pat McAfee Show on Friday and said he was “proud” of Tagovailoa for owning up to his mistakes, but said he was disappointed he made those comments in the first place. Tagovailoa apologized for talking about his teammates three days after the postgame comments.
“I was very surprised that Tua did what he did when he threw some guys under the bus,” Saban said. “And maybe they’re not playing like they should be playing… but you don’t say that about your teammate. But I was really proud of the way he bounced back and kind of took responsibility for making a mistake.”
On Wednesday, Tagovailoa apologized in an open statement to the media, saying he had “made a mistake” and that he had spoken to the team.
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“What happens internally should be protected. None of that should have come to light. So I want to publicly apologize for that. I want to move on,” Tagovailoa said.
However, Saban isn’t quite ready to do that. On Friday, the head coach highlighted his history as Tagovailoa’s former coach with the Crimson Tide and his own team policy when speaking on the topic. Saban, a seven-time college football national champion, coached Alabama from 2007 to 2023 and also spent time coaching in the NFL.
“One of the things I always try to tell our players is to never criticize another player,” Saban said. “In my entire coaching career, you’ve never seen me criticize one of our players. I think everyone needs to take responsibility for what they can control. And if you start worrying about things you can’t control, that will start to affect the things you can control.”
It is notable that most of Saban’s players have been college students, rather than professionals. But the point is true anyway, as Tagovailoa’s comments brought to light some of Miami’s biggest problems as the Dolphins struggle with another slow start to the season.
Tagovailoa’s decision came Sunday, after the Dolphins fell to 1-5 following a two-point loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. The quarterback talked about the “little things,” implying that some of his teammates (although unidentified) were not taking aspects of the team seriously.
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“I think it starts with leadership to help articulate that for the guys and then what we expect from them,” Tagovailoa said. “We have guys who are late to player-only meetings, and guys who don’t show up to player-only meetings. There’s a lot of things that go into that.”
Tagovailoa’s teammates and Miami head coach Mike McDaniel did not appreciate their quarterback airing things publicly. McDaniel told reporters Monday that Tagovailoa should not have spoken about the issue in front of the media: “That’s not the forum to displace that,” he said.
This is not the first time this year that Miami’s interpersonal problems have come to light. Tyreek Hill (whose numerous off-field issues were slightly slowed by a gruesome season-ending knee injury last month) has had to reconnect with the team after publicly expressing his frustrations at the end of last season.
Team culture was reportedly a priority for the Dolphins this season after last year’s struggles, especially with tardiness. But so far, it looks like Miami is dealing with many of the same issues, even if some think Tagovailoa should have kept it private.