Tua Tagovailoa's Dad Explains How Miami Dolphins QB Is Dealing w/ Health Issues

WQAM-AM / AM 560 Sports WQAM

Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa's father, Galu Tagovailoa speaks on Tua saying he would die for the game of football and the decisions he needs to make with his family. Is there any going back after all these concussions?

Transcript

00:00All right, so we haven't talked about the Dolphins in a while,

00:03especially the Dolphins quarterback, because they're not playing football.

00:05They're not playing football right now.

00:06But we have some thoughts here.

00:10This is from Galu Tungavailoa.

00:12I believe that's how you pronounce it.

00:14It's to his father.

00:15Was the fella G.A.L.U.

00:19Galu Galu Galu Tungavailoa.

00:22He he was on ESPN Halalulu.

00:25Yeah, and it sounds weird, right?

00:30Then they got out there.

00:32ESPN got sports talk out there, dude.

00:35No, I'm not questioning the way of the sports talk.

00:37What to say? ESPN, Honolulu.

00:40That's how they get you.

00:41Let me tell you, that's how they get players, right?

00:43They get somebody to put that ESPN flag. Oh, yeah.

00:46And then they say we're from ESPN.

00:48I pulled that move.

00:49But if you say you're just local, right, you get no love.

00:53If you say I'm ESPN, oh, that means I'm going to be on sports.

00:56Exactly. You're really not.

00:57But that's how they get you. I pulled that move.

01:00I can't say that I haven't put the little ESPN flag.

01:02Oh, yeah. Or even just an email requests, you know, like ESPN.

01:08Oh, OK, that sounds cool.

01:10Anyway, Mr. Tungavailoa,

01:14he said that he was talking to Tua about his year.

01:19And Vlad, give me the part where he says that Tua.

01:23He kind of doubled.

01:24I remember when Tua said, I'd die for this game.

01:27Yeah, he talked more about that, about how Tua said that,

01:30you know, I'll die on the field for this game.

01:32I think it's tough for any parent to kind of, you know, go to something like this.

01:37You know, but at the same time, the NFL was different.

01:40The way they do things, how they run things.

01:42It's a whole different beast.

01:44It's a whole different animal.

01:46But at the same time, you know, this is something that Tua is now married.

01:50He has his own family.

01:52And these are some of the tough decisions that he's going to have to deal

01:56with in life, you know, to decide whether the game is,

02:00you know, he's going to continue or the game is something that he loves.

02:05You know, and one of the things that I talked to him when he was going through

02:09his concussion was, hey, what do you think?

02:12And it's like that.

02:14I love this game and I'll die on the field for this game.

02:18So that answers everything for me.

02:20You know what I'm saying?

02:22But at the same time, as a father, you're like, man,

02:25you got to take care of your health.

02:26That's the most important thing.

02:28You have a family.

02:29I have two beautiful grandkids.

02:32So and that's something that, you know, I got to talk to him about

02:37up to the think about.

02:38All right.

02:39There's a little bit of a guy who tongue of my law on ESPN Honolulu there.

02:45That is that is one of the biting things that all this stuff,

02:48whenever he does play, though, is like.

02:51But he taught I know it's got to be frustrating for him to not be

02:55able to continue to play at certain points in the season,

02:58especially when there was that long break from the concussion,

03:00which really did look ugly against the Bills, but supposedly, I guess,

03:03wasn't as major as the other ones, Leroy.

03:06And he doesn't want to be the the face of concussions

03:09and the poser child for all the concussions and all this type of stuff.

03:12But man, it has got to be one of these things

03:15that has to be looming in the back of that fathers.

03:18And I'm sure parents had every single time he steps out there now

03:21because they've seen it happen to him multiple times.

03:23Yes. And no,

03:26I would say this.

03:28You understand the nature of the game, right?

03:35I would say it's one thing to say it.

03:42But the circumstances will now allow that to happen.

03:47So you're saying that.

03:50Giving the appearance that you're committed to this,

03:54but the injury aspect of it.

03:58It probably won't allow it to happen.

04:02You understand what I think, that's the reality of it.

04:04That's not we're not talking about long term,

04:07but we're just talking about when you say I would die for this.

04:14Right. It's more of a.

04:16Figure of speech, it's emphatic saying that.

04:18Right. Probably won't happen. Correct.

04:21So take it for what it is.

04:23But but but it's looked as scary with him on the field.

04:27That is. But that's here.

04:29More so than a lot of other people. Are we looking at that?

04:34Because of what everybody's telling us.

04:37Are we looking at here's why I.

04:43Here's how I've always felt the way I feel about it.

04:48When you have people outside of the medical profession

04:51or outside of football talking about injuries,

04:55you never get the reality of what's going on. OK.

04:59So you have doctors, you have these specialists or whatever.

05:05That are determining what's going on and what's the damage and how.

05:09And they have tests in place.

05:12It didn't help that the Dolphins put him on IR without.

05:18Going through that process, you could have waited a week.

05:22And so, oh, it's going to be four weeks.

05:24We'll put him on IR.

05:26In fact, if I was the NFL, I would allow you.

05:29To put somebody retroactive when it comes to concussions

05:33so that because it's so uncertain.

05:36Yeah. You give it a week before making that determination

05:41so you could go retroactive before.

05:44Right. Because it's an unknown.

05:46Well, this is the thing, though, like it is.

05:48You know, like odds are it's not going to be the last concussion of his career.

05:51Probably like. Yeah.

05:53And that's what I tried to tell you that it probably won't be as less.

05:56But let it have to be a month shut down every single time.

06:00No, but here's this. This is the problem.

06:04When this happened.

06:06We got into it because you said.

06:09They went with optics.

06:11I go with health.

06:14OK, the injury is the injury.

06:16Stop letting what people outside the medical profession think.

06:23Determine how you treat an injury,

06:26because this is the hot topic right now.

06:29But what about the guys that go out and hurt their hip?

06:33And take a shot in their hip, and then they can't walk

06:35when they're done with football. He has that, too, actually.

06:38What about the guys who we see lumbering around

06:42or can barely move because they got a shot in their back?

06:45Well, I think one of the things that's probably a benefit for Tua,

06:47but it's not great, I think, for the typical grind of football

06:51of coaches not caring is he does seem like he has a coach

06:53who genuinely cares about his health and that is overly cautious with it.

06:56Yes. But again, but being overly cautious.

07:01It doesn't do anything for an injury.

07:05Right. If you have a medical professional,

07:09if you go through the process and you're healthy, you should play.

07:13Stop making it about anything other than the injury.

07:19And that's what we did with Tua.

07:21Here's a little bit more of Guy Lutonga-Valoa on ESPN

07:24Halelulu and saying that this is ultimately Tua's choice.

07:27Has that been difficult for you?

07:29You know, you have been working with him and with both of your sons,

07:33really, in such close quarters and in such involved fashion.

07:37Is that difficult for you to separate that and allow him to make

07:42these kinds of of life impactful decisions?

07:47Oh, yeah, it is difficult.

07:49It's hard because you don't.

07:51You don't really.

07:54Have him like how you had it, you know,

07:58had it before, you know, like.

08:02Harry, you know, he has his wife and his family,

08:05and those decisions are based on both of them.

08:08And, you know, things that they got to look at.

08:11And, you know, his wife is such a beautiful lady that,

08:15you know, she's all about his health.

08:17She's all about life, you know, and she tells him, you know, I.

08:22I want to live long with you.

08:23You know what I'm saying?

08:24We got to make sure we do the right. But.

08:27You know, to grow up in a in a way that everything is just so competitive,

08:33he's he's just don't want to leave the game.

08:37The kid loves, you know.

08:40But I believe that the Lord has a plan for him.

08:42And, you know, wherever the Lord takes him, you know, it's.

08:46The decision that he's going to have to make with his family.

08:50There you go.

08:50Then who is father?

08:53I just I just I just think.

08:56I don't like when I use the Lord in this act.

08:58Yeah, very, very family.

09:00I just. I just think that.

09:06You deal with injuries accordingly,

09:10not how they look, not how the optics are, because here.

09:15I think the NFL and football teams get themselves in more trouble

09:19trying to do things that look right instead of things that are right.

09:23But he but is the genie out of the bottle with him already with that?

09:25Like it's it's one thing to do it with any other player in the league.

09:29But as much as he doesn't want to be the face of concussions, he is.

09:33And they do look bad.

09:35And the Dolphins have already reacted the way that they have.

09:39So like if it does happen again, is there any going back like to to

09:43especially with the same people running the organization?

09:46So that's the thing that's that's kind of they said that they set the tone.

09:51I don't I don't know, but that's why that's why.

09:55Look. In all these different

09:59scenarios in sports, we have protocols on how we do things.

10:04Right. Except this one.

10:07Right. Extra protocols.

10:09There's there's a protocol that you set as far as health,

10:12as far as testing, as far as everything.

10:15And when we were going through this, I said, hey, the process is the process.

10:20They don't need to put them on.

10:21I are like, let's let the process play itself out.

10:25But they jump the gun because of how it looks.

10:28Well, that's not the process either.

10:30Yeah, my my thinking is like next year, like

10:33grant to both had a really, really bad concussion this year.

10:35We had all really, really bad.

10:37We didn't finish the season.

10:39My guess, though, is if grant to both and I really hope this doesn't happen,

10:42but you just, you know, use the the the example for what it is.

10:47My guess is grant to both gets another concussion.

10:50No one's really talking about his career or what the long term

10:53ramifications are the next time that he's out there.

10:54If you even if he were to go out there the next week. Correct.

10:57Whereas to everything that happens, if he were to get another concussion,

10:59it's going to be, oh, my God, is it time to retire?

11:02Like the whole cycle is going to start again with the Miami Dolphins.

11:06And with that, but it's their own.

11:08I think it's their own doing because they have if they would have came out

11:12and said, this is what we're going to do, this is how we're going to handle it.

11:16We're going to do the medical professional thing.

11:18We're listen, we want to to be safe.

11:20We're going to stay out of it.

11:22Right.

11:22And let the medical professionals determine when is the best time to return.

11:27I lost it. I lost.

11:29I lost focus.

11:32The sizzle, I was not.

11:35I was just at Pet Supermarket.

11:37I marked three birds as safe from J-Fig.

11:41Point for Twitter.

11:45So, you know, some jackass from this show is going to be walking

11:49through Pet Supermarket and they're going to be a whole bunch of X's on cages.

11:54A whole bunch of X's on cages.

11:57We got it.

11:58We got a problem at Pet Supermarket.

12:01All these people are putting these X's on these bird cages.

12:06You guys are having a wonderful discussion.

12:09Wonderful conversation about two on the screen, two in his dad.

12:14And then out of nowhere, I look to the corner.

12:17Nobody has respect in the chat.

12:19The chat is a bucking bronco.

12:21They said, I lost it.

12:23The show is fluid, right?

12:26The show's fluid. It's fluid.

12:28They'll let you know when they want to move on to the next topic.

12:31Just look at the birds in the pet store.

12:32They're like, they look like they haven't been traumatized by it yet.

12:36Dude, I remember I had a story.

12:38You guys have Amazon parrot.

12:40I kind of like the little talking bird.

12:43But they're

12:46the problem is they're only receptive to one person.

12:49There's no way those birds are going to deal with Trey and Zeus.

12:52Sure they will. No, no.

12:54Do I? They're going to mess with them.

12:56Yeah. The birds will mess with the dog. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

12:59Like they're going to like start like barking.

13:01Yeah. You get like a funny, though.

13:03A great parrot will start barking.

13:05And then it'll be like faking a doorbell.

13:08They'll be. Oh, yeah.

13:11We had I had a when I was in Cleveland, I had a bird

13:14and the bird like cheeseburgers.

13:17Right. So you used to get them just a little cheeseburger from McDonald's

13:20or whatever. Excuse me.

13:21And he would eat the cheeseburger and drop a little bit on the ground.

13:25And the two dogs would run over to eat it.

13:27And he'd slide bite him on the ass and go.

13:33So I'll just I'll just sit on the couch.

13:36I'll sit on the couch for hours.

13:38Give a cheeseburger and watch the show.

13:41Two things. One, what was the bird's name?

13:44Pepper.

13:45You know, the bird pepper.

13:46No, but so here's the other thing.

13:49The bird can fly, right?

13:51But I had two sharpies who are fighting dog, Japanese fighting dogs.

13:56They're mean as hell.

13:58The bird would jump off the cage and walk on the floor and go.

14:05It'll happen.

14:06And the dogs would terrify.

14:08I'm just like, but wait a minute, it's fun.

14:10Don't birds just eat nuts like.

14:12No, why are you feeding a Big Mac?

14:14Yeah, I don't think that's I don't think I don't think you're supposed to do that.

14:16And then he's biting more ass like he's biting more meat.

14:20Guess what? Bird still alive.

14:23The parrots are resilient.

14:24They know they you know, if you buy the chatty patties, if you buy a parrot

14:29and the parrot doesn't outlive you, you get to bring it back, you get a new one.

14:33They live 100 years.

14:34Interesting.

14:35Wait a minute. A bird lives on.

14:37You're talking about some big time snitches.

14:39No, no, no, dude.

14:40If anybody can snitch, it's a parrot.

14:43Yeah. I put what do parrots eat?

14:47Ham cheeseburgers, not one of them.

14:48Meat not in the top 20.

14:50Yeah, I don't know why he's biting ass to 20.

14:52Hey, fruits, nuts, vegetables, broccoli, carrots, papaya burgers.

14:56Sorry. What made you think?

14:57Oh, let me go ahead.

14:58It's a bird. It's a parrot.

15:00Because you have to think somebody was eating something one time

15:04and he went down and took a bite.

15:05Well, he said, Polly, Polly wants a burger.

15:07No, it's a cholesterol parrot.

15:13H1 A1C pair.

15:15That bird needs a quick.

Category

Transcript

Recommended