Miami Dolphins fans greeted Tua Tagovailoa with boos Friday night in his return to the stadium he once called home.<\/p>\n
But the Atlanta Falcons quarterback insisted that while he heard those boos, they didn\u2019t taint his perspective on the place he spent the first six years of his NFL career.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are probably some of the best six years of my life, being able to play for Miami, being able to play in front of the crowd,\u201d Tagovailoa said after Friday night\u2019s preseason finale between the Dolphins and Falcons at Hard Rock Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 So, regardless of the reaction, I love the city. We have a home out here. We still have our house and whatnot, but I mean, it is what it is. I can\u2019t change any of what they did and whatnot. But it was really cool to see a lot of the guys after the game and then talk to some of the guys during the game. It was a cool homecoming, if you will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Top Plays from Falcons @ Dolphins<\/p>\n
The Dolphins released Tagovailoa in March, resulting in a record $99.2 million in dead money on Miami\u2019s cap sheet two years after the franchise signed him to a contract extension that made him one of the highest-paid players in NFL history.<\/p>\n
The Dolphins reached the playoffs twice in the six seasons after they selected Tagovailoa with the No. 5 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. The Alabama product endured multiple head injuries during that time, and the team struggled over his final two seasons, going 15-19 as Tagovailoa started 25 of 34 games.<\/p>\n
Not only did Tagovailoa\u2019s play suffer in 2025, but he also made headlines for saying the wrong things<\/a>, and he was eventually benched<\/a> after the team\u2019s 28-15 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 15.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, it wasn\u2019t fun being in my position,\u201d Tagovailoa said. \u201cBut outside of that, I wasn\u2019t playing up to the standard that I had been playing in years past, so I understand. You have to be real with yourself. That\u2019s what it was, bottom line. Outside of that, with how things went after, with a trade or cutting me or whatnot, I think (coach Jeff) Hafley and (general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan), they were really, really good in that process with me.\u201d<\/p>\n Tagovailoa, who is competing with Michael Penix Jr. for the starting job in Atlanta, fumbled a snap late in the first quarter that was recovered by the Dolphins. Aside from that, he put together a decent performance, completing 7 of 8 passes for 95 yards.<\/p>\n \u201cTua is a pro,\u201d Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski said. \u201cI thought he handled the game really well. There\u2019s a lot of emotion when you come to a place you have been before, and he compartmentalized it. He was all about his business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami Dolphins fans greeted Tua Tagovailoa with boos Friday night in his return to the stadium he once…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[11558,123,1763,125,124,119],"class_list":["post-384343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-miami","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}