Tua Calling Out Dolphins Players 'Really Shocked' Nick Saban, Former HC Says in Video

Former University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban commented Friday on Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa recently calling out his teammates before apologizing.

Saban, who coached Tagovailoa at Alabama, appeared on the Pat McAfee Show and gave his thoughts on the situation:

"One of the things I always try to tell our players is you never criticize another player," Saban said. "In my entire coaching career, you never saw me criticize one of our players. ... I was really shocked that Tua did what he did when he threw some guys under the bus."

After the Dolphins lost 29-27 to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 6 to fall to 1-5 on the season, Tua questioned the team's leadership and told reporters that some players either showed up late or didn't show up at all to players-only meetings:

"I think it starts with the leadership in helping articulate that for the guys and then what we're expecting out of the guys. We're expecting this—are we getting that? Are we not getting that? We have guys showing up to players-only meetings late, guys not showing up to players-only meetings. There's a lot that goes into that. Do we have to make this mandatory? Do we not have to make this mandatory?

"It's a lot of things of that nature that we've got to get cleaned up, and it starts with little things like that."

A few days later, Tua made a public apology for airing the team's dirty laundry and suggested that he needs to be a better leader moving forward:

"I've made a mistake and I'm owning up to that right now. I've talked to guys on the team about it, talked to the leaders about it, and they know my heart. They know that the intent was right. But no matter the intent ... 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 now being 1-5. We talk a lot about, 'All right, we got to get this going, come in excited to go to work, forget about the noise.' And I feel like I just added onto that for our guys.

"I've 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. I felt like I let the emotions of the game get to me after the game. And that's something that I can learn from as a leader on this team and what happens in-house should be protected and none of that should have gotten out."

Although Saban did not agree with Tagovailoa's initial comments, he praised the 27-year-old signal-caller for attempting to make up for it after the fact, saying, "I really was proud of the way he came back and sort of took accountability for making a mistake."

Since selecting Tagovailoa fifth overall in the 2020 NFL draft, the Dolphins have made the playoffs twice and failed to win a postseason game.

They are trending toward missing the playoffs for a second consecutive year, and if things don't get better, it could cost head coach Mike McDaniel his job.

However, since the Dolphins signed Tua to a four-year, $212.4 million contract extension last year, it is difficult to envision the organization moving on from him until 2027 at the earliest.

Given that Tagovailoa is going to be around and looked to as a leader moving forward, it is fair to say he made the right decision in apologizing to his teammates.