MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Another week, another headline-generating Tua Tagovailoa news conference.
This time, the Miami Dolphins quarterback addressed those in sports media who have used Tyreek Hill’s marvelous year as a way to slight the equally excellent season Tua has put together.
Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa: ‘I Keep Receipts’
The context? Tagovailoa just had the second-most accurate game of his career and posted the seventh-highest passer rating of Week 15 despite Hill missing the game with an ankle injury.
Tagovailoa, asked about whether he had heard that “only-good-because-of-Tyreek” narrative Wednesday, uncorked a long, interesting response that we’ll print here in full:
“I would say it’s always tough when you don’t have one of your best guys out there.
“To me, I’d personally say like none of us really cares who’s out there or who’s not. At the end of the day, whoever’s in there, we all trust that we can get it done with those people. Even when I wasn’t in there last year. That was the mindset that those guys had like, ‘OK, like Tua’s down, we can’t do anything about it.'”
Tua continued, “‘Tyreek is down. We can’t do anything about it. We gotta go out there, we still gotta play.’ Those guys don’t care that Tyreek’s out, like those guys didn’t care that I was out last year. It doesn’t matter.
“We gotta go out there and play, and I think that should tell you a lot about the guys that were out there [against the Jets].
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“I keep saying, everyone wants to make this about me, about Tyreek. Please, keep pushing it to Tyreek. Make it about Tyreek.
“I understand that my platform and who I am in this league as a quarterback makes me — if you want polarizing, whether I’m the best, whether I’m the worst — like I could care less.”
“I don’t listen to it,” Tagovailoa added. “This is my bearer of bad news. [Dolphins senior director of communications] Anne Noland. I hate to say it. I hate to say that that’s my bearer of bad news if anyone has something bad to say about me.
“At the end of the day, like, I really don’t care, but if she does share it with me, I mean, I keep receipts. We all have a way of how we do things but like all the narratives about it.
“Yeah, sure. I am only good with Tyreek. You’re right. That is the only time I’m at my best. You’re right. I’m only good when Jaylen [Waddle] is in.
“I could care less about it. Sure, if Jaylen and those guys are out, I’m only as good as Raheem Mostert allows me to be. If that’s what the narrative needs to be, and we’re able to win games, and we’re able to go where we wanna go as a team. I am the worst football player, if that’s what you want.
“I don’t care. I really don’t.
“So whatever it is, whatever you need on your show, take clips out of what I just said, do what you need to do like that. I’m just here to do my job, and my job is to help our guys win.”
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