Tua Tagovailoa Apologizes for Scorched-Earth Comments Following Dolphins Loss

Tua Tagovailoa is walking back his criticism of teammates and the organization following the Miami Dolphins’ last-second loss to the Los Angeles Chargers that dropped them to 1-5.

After the game Sunday, Miami’s quarterback aired dirty laundry, saying that teammates weren’t showing up for player-only meetings.

“Well, I think it starts with the leadership and helping articulate that for the guys,” Tagovailoa said. “And then what we’re expecting out of the guys, right? We’re expecting this, are we getting that, are we not getting that? We have guys showing up to player-only meetings late, guys not showing up to player-only meetings. Like, there’s a lot that goes into that. Do we have to make this mandatory, do we not have to make this mandatory? So it’s a lot of things of that nature that we’ve gotta get cleaned up, and it starts with the little things like that.”

Tua Tagovailoa tells reporters that Dolphins players have been late and/or skipping players-only meetings in recent weeks.

Eye-opening example of problems with 1-5 Miami Dolphins. Tua begins answer: “it starts with the leadership.” (H/T @MiamiDolphins). pic.twitter.com/qVbFLVLxAT

— Cameron Wolfe (@CameronWolfe) October 12, 2025

Dolphins QB Reverses Course

However, after facing backlash for his comments, Tagovailoa apologized Wednesday.

“I made a mistake and I’m owning up to that right now,” the quarterback said. “I’ve talked to the guys on the team about it and I’ve talked to the leaders about it. They know my heart; they know that the intent was right but no matter the intent, the intent can be right, but when things get misconstrued or however the media wants to portray it, that leaves a void of silence and a lot of questions for the guys on our team.”

Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa apologizes for his comments after Sunday’s game:

“I made a mistake … We talk a lot about ‘we gotta get this going,’ come in excited for work and forget about the noise — and I feel like I just added on to that for our guys.” pic.twitter.com/lmQsZY0vFU

— Marcel Louis-Jacques (@Marcel_LJ) October 15, 2025

Tagovailoa said the buck stops with him as the leader and he failed to protect his teammates in his Sunday rant.

“For myself, I got to look at myself as the leader protecting the team. I don’t feel like I did that to the best of my abilities,” Tagovailoa explained. “I felt like I let the emotions of the game get to me after the game and that’s something I can learn from as a leader on this team. And what happens in-house should be protected and none of that should’ve gotten out. I want to publicly apologize about that, want to move forward and now want to focus on the Cleveland Browns.”

Miami’s season was already spiraling prior to their latest loss as head coach Mike McDaniel’s job appears in jeopardy. The Dolphins also lost wide receiver Tyreek Hill for the...