Tua Tagovailoa

Tuanigamanuolepola Donny "Tua" Tagovailoa ( ; born March 2, 1998) is an American football quarterback for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Alabama, where he was the Offensive MVP of the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship during his freshman season and won the Maxwell and Walter Camp Awards as a sophomore. After his junior season was cut short by a hip injury, Tagovailoa was selected fifth overall by the Dolphins in the 2020 NFL Draft. He spent his rookie season alternating as a backup and starter before becoming the team's primary starter in 2021. Early life and high school career Tagovailoa was born in ʻEwa Beach, Hawaii, to Galu and Diane Tagovailoa, as the oldest of four children in a Samoan family. He was said to have grown up with an intense interest in football, with his parents noting that he would sleep with a football under his arm every night as a small child. During Pop Warner games when he was eight years old, when his peers could typically throw a football little more than 10 yards, he routinely threw passes of more than 30 yards. As a child, his main inspiration was his grandfather Seu Tagovailoa. He was highly respected in the local Samoan community and was regularly addressed as "Chief Tagovailoa". Seu believed that Tagovailoa would eventually grow into a football star and he requested that he visit him after every game to report his progress. Tagovailoa briefly considered quitting the sport after Seu's death in 2014 until he and his father agreed that he could best honor him by continuing to play.