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Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa fired back at Ryan Clark Wednesday after the ESPN analyst criticized his physique, saying the QB looks “thick”. Well, on Thursday, head coach Mike McDaniel came to the defense of Tagovailoa, who has worked hard at getting in shape this offseason after an injury-filled 2022.
Via Yahoo Sports:
“You want to talk about someone who’s committed to doing what he’s doing for the right reasons?” McDaniel said. “You want to talk about every metric that (head strength and conditioning coach) Dave Puloka and his strength staff tracks, which is pretty much everything to the degree of blinks? Every metric of strength that is measured, he’s shattered his previous highs. In some instances, he’s almost twice as strong with things. And that’s been a daily commitment that he hasn’t wavered from.”
“Basically you’re happy for guys as a coach when you can see in the present that down the road they’re going to have no regrets,” McDaniel said of Tua Tagovailoa. “You know that, without any shade of gray, you’ve put your best foot forward. And he really has. His teammates would agree: We are getting the absolute best version of Tua that’s existed.
“I couldn’t be happier with the work he’s put in and what I’ve factually viewed from my own eyes.”
For what it's worth, Clark also apologized for his remarks Monday, which seriously disrespected Tua. The signal-caller was so heated Wednesday that he even hinted at wanting to fight the former NFL defensive back:
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“I come from a Samoan family where respect is everything,” Tua Tagovailoa said. “But it does get to a point where — hey, little easy on that, buddy. Because I think we’re pretty tough-minded people, and if we need to get scrappy, we can get scrappy, too.
“I’d appreciate if you kept my name out your mouth.”
Tua took the criticism personally and as you can see, McDaniel knows what his QB has been doing this offseason: Grinding.
The outside noise is just that: Outside noise.
