MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is not quite ready for his closeup.
Tagovailoa told reporters here Wednesday that the creators of the Netflix show “Quarterback” — which in 2022 followed Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota for an entire season — approached him about being a subject, but he passed.
Why Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa Passed on ‘Quarterback’
Tagovailoa, speaking after the Dolphins’ first training camp practice of 2023 Wednesday, explained his reasoning:
“There have been talks about going on it, but I feel like right now it just isn’t the right time. But even, too, because I’m a very personal guy, I felt like the series was a lot more personal. It was a lot more about their personal lives than it was more so what they did on the football field; and for me, that’s not something that I like to do, especially show my kid on national television or people seeing what I do.
“It would just be too hard to turn off. After a loss, a loss is tough as it is. I don’t know how that would go trying to talk about a loss in my car.”
Tagovailoa has been fiercely protective of his family’s privacy, and agreeing to be a subject on the show would make it impossible to keep them out of the spotlight.
(“Quarterback” did wisely leave Mahomes’ divisive brother Jackson largely on the cutting room floor, but Patrick’s wife Brittany — who gave birth during Season 1 — had a starring role.)
Tagovailoa isn’t the only Class of 2020 quarterback who has kept his distance.
Bengals QB Joe Burrow told reporters Wednesday that he also said thank but no thanks when approached.
“If you guys know anything about me, you know media is not exactly my favorite thing to do,” Burrow told the media Wednesday after the first practice of training camp.
“The process of doing that show is very intense. There’s a lot of time that you have to put into that, time that I’m not ready to give right now. Everybody knows that I’m a very private person, especially in my personal life, so that’s a window into a personal life that I’m not quite ready to share yet.”