The Miami Dolphins endured a rocky start to the season, even before the first kickoff as Tyreek Hill got detained by Miami-Dade police. However, Dolphins’ quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw his support behind Hill after the incident, according the Miami Dolphins YouTube page.
“Tyreek told me his story,” Tagovailoa said. “I’m always gonna support my teammate. from what he told me, I only know that side of the story. I don’t know the other side, but I’m always gonna support him. Gonna have his back.”
Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa helped team stay together
Hill said he was pulled over for allegedly speeding while driving to Hard Rock Stadium, roughly three hours before the game kicked off, according to espn.com. Eventually officers placed Hill in handcuffs after a “verbal altercation” occurred, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Darlington. Hill was cited for reckless driving, sources told Darlington.
But Tagovailoa helped the team after a poor first half by lighting an emotional fire in the locker room, according to the palmbeachpost.com.
“We just needed to get our heads out of our ass,” Tagovailoa said.
The lethargic Dolphins fell behind the Jaguars by 14 points in the season opener. In the second, Tua made an impact with Miami rallying for a 20-17 victory at Hard Rock Stadium. Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa’s speech delivered a fire his team needed.
“I was really pumped to hear him constructively lead,” McDaniel said. “It was ‘let’s adhere to our standard.’ A captain and a franchise quarterback has to be that voice.”
As for the incident, Hill said he didn’t know why the situation escalated the way it did.
“Right now, I’m still trying to put it all together … I still don’t know what happened,” he said after the game. “But I do want to use this platform to say, ‘What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?’ Worst-case scenario, you know? … Everybody has bad apples in every situation, but I want to be able to use this platform to figure out a way to flip this and make it a positive on my end and Miami-Dade and do something positive for the community.
“It’s hard. I don’t want to bring race into it, but sometimes it gets kind of iffy when you do. What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill? Lord knows what those guys would have done. I just wanted to make sure I was doing what my uncle always told me to do whenever you’re in a situation like that — put your hands on the steering wheel and just listen.”
“It was just an unfortunate deal that happened today,” Tagovailoa said.
