MIAMI — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa gets surrounded by constant conversation over his development as a football player, but personal growth has played just as big of a role in his offseason ahead of the 2023 season, with training camp a mere week away.
As Tagovailoa just recently celebrated a one-year anniversary with his wife, he has worked on being the best husband he can be and father to his young son — all while continuing to build the strength and technique that can potentially take his play to the next level in a fourth NFL season and catapult the Dolphins into Super Bowl contention.
Tagovailoa touched on all the ways he has grown since he last played at a Gatorade-sponsored event in which he surprised players on the Miami Edison High football and girls flag football teams Tuesday afternoon.
Less than 24 hours earlier, Tagovailoa opened up with a rare social media post Monday night to celebrate his first anniversary. As he does with his Dolphins teammates, he didn’t make it about himself. The pictures that went up on Instagram were of his wife, Annah, sitting across from him before a romantic dinner.
The 25-year-old quarterback that’s constantly in the public eye likes to keep his personal life private, but in deciding to highlight the outing, it may have been an outward expression of how marriage and fatherhood have changed his perspective.
“I believe my outlook on how I see things is definitely different,” Tagovailoa said in a conversation with the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “There’s a lot of things that needed work within my marriage that have definitely changed the way I perceive things, definitely changed the way I act on things, changed the way I really do things.
“I’m evolving continuously. I don’t do a lot of the things I used to do prior to my marriage,” he continued. “The way you do things is just different. How you talk, how you think, all of that gets formulated with living with another person that talks and thinks a different way, and it’s trying to manage what’s going to make them happy and vice-versa.
“You guys are both molding each other, trying to figure out what works for the marriage — and then also for the kid.”
Beyond social media, Tagovailoa is also now expressing himself with artwork on his body. He has a full sleeve tattoo along his right arm that he says is now complete. He sported long sleeves Tuesday because he’s not ready to show it to the world yet.
“When camp comes, then I’ll just rock it out there,” he said. “And then everyone’s going to do what they do best: Go crazy about it.”
The tattoo started on the shoulder with a piece that has his son’s name, Ace, on it. A couple months later, Tagovailoa decided to finish off a sleeve, with a tribal band design that could be seen beyond his sleeve, as well as in another recent Instagram post in which he’s promoting a trip to Germany for the team’s November bout with the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I just thought that it would’ve been cool to finish off the piece that I have already,” he said, “but it also shows my heritage, my culture and it looks really nice.”
Much has been made of Tagovailoa’s strength training this summer.
“I would say I just feel stronger, a lot stronger,” he said. “There’s weights that I’ve never lifted or just tried to that I can lift pretty good.”
He listed on example in how he now does dumbbell press with 110-pound weights, something that was previously out of reach.
“I’ve never benched it. I’ve never even attempted anything over 85,” he said.
Tagovailoa has blended the weightlifting with conditioning, and of course, his offseason jiu-jitsu courses, which he will soon have to sideline with football back at the forefront when training camp starts.
“A lot of the falling techniques they use in jiu-jitsu are really something that can translate everywhere, in any contact sport,” Tagovailoa said. “You don’t necessarily think of it because when you think of falling, you’re just like, ‘Dude, any — just fall.’ But there’s proper ways to fall, just like there’s proper ways to do anything.”
Through Tagovailoa’s surprise visit with local high school athletes, along with his partnership with Gatorade’s Equity in Sports and Good Sports organizations, the Edison athletic department received approximately $65,000 retail value of new sporting equipment and uniforms to benefit the football, girls flag football, volleyball, soccer and basketball programs.
“They (Gatorade’s Equity in Sports) are committed to reducing the barriers for kids to play, and so, I was able to have the opportunity to give back to the kids here,” Tagovailoa said. “I think what they do is very special.”
The young athletes listened to words of advice from Tagovailoa, took pictures and even got to catch passes from the Dolphins quarterback.
“You don’t see this every day,” said Luther Campbell, the longtime Miami-based rapper who now coaches the Edison football team. “The Miami Dolphins do a lot for the community, but to have the man, the starting quarterback out here, is a beautiful thing.”
Added Tagovailoa: “They definitely appreciated it. Some of the kids had questions about guys on our team, about what it’s like to play in the NFL.”
Additionally, Gatorade will be providing a sports coach through its partnership with Up2Us Sports to support the high school’s athletic programs for the upcoming school year.
In a recent partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Up2US Sports will be recruiting, training, and placing 50 Miamians as coaches to support 25 schools in Miami-Dade County that need additional support for their athletic programs.
Edison will be one of the high schools receiving an Up2Us coach for the upcoming school year. Anyone in the Miami area more than 17 years old who is interested in serving as a coach for the program in return for an education award and living stipend can apply online at Up2UsSports.org.
