Nick Saban said he was “shocked” to see his former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa publicly accuse his Miami Dolphins teammates of not showing up to a team meeting last week.
However, Saban added that he was “proud” of Tagovailoa for admitting his mistake.
“One of the things I always try to tell our players is you never criticize another player, and in my entire coaching career, you've never seen me criticize any of our players,” Saban said Friday on “The Pat McAfee Show.” “I think everyone has to take responsibility for the things they can control, and if you start worrying about the things you can't control, that's going to start to affect the things you can control.”
Tagovailoa played for the Crimson Tide under Saban from 2017 to 2019. In 2017, he served primarily as a backup to freshman Jalen Hurts, but replaced Hurts in the second half of the national championship game. In overtime against Georgia, Tagovailoa threw a game-winning 41-yard touchdown pass to help Saban win his sixth of seven national championships.
“When he throws some guys under the bus, maybe they're not playing the way they should be playing… but you don't say that about your teammates,” Saban said. “But I'm really proud of the way he came back and took responsibility for the mistakes he made.”
After Miami lost to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday to fall to 1-5, Tagovailoa appeared frustrated when speaking to reporters about some of the issues plaguing the Dolphins. When asked how to prevent a “woe is me” mentality on the team, Tagovailoa said it starts with leadership and then uncovering some of the deeper issues in the team's culture.
“We had some guys who were late to the player-only meetings and some who didn’t come to the player-only meetings,” Tagovailoa said. “There's a lot that goes into this. Do we have to mandate this? Don't we have to mandate this? We have to clean up a lot of things of that nature, and it starts with little things like that.”
Tagovailoa's comments drew disappointment from former NFL players, executives, former teammates and Miami coach Mike McDaniel. On Monday, McDaniel said he believed Tagovailoa meant no harm but acknowledged that the postgame press conference was “not the forum to express that displeasure.”
On Wednesday, Tagovailoa apologized for his mistake and said he wanted to own up to it.
“I've talked to people on the team about it, I've talked to leadership about it. They know my heart. They know my intentions are right,” he said. “But regardless of the intent — and the intent may be correct — when something is misinterpreted, or how the media wants to portray it, it leaves silence and a lot of questions for members of our team.”
Tagovailoa went on to say that he felt he failed to protect the team and let his emotions get the better of him in that moment.
“As a leader on this team, that's something I can learn from,” he said. “What happens internally should be protected and none of that should get out. So, I want to publicly apologize for that, want to move on and now want to focus on the Cleveland Browns.”
Tagovailoa has completed 69.8 percent of his passes for 1,213 yards, 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions in six games.